How a London hospital’s workforce strategy can transform Australian healthcare

Acacium Group businesses combine access to workforce, technology and sector expertise to increase the sustainability of the global healthcare system. As part of this Group, Lyptus’ services are informed by a deep, wide-ranging understanding of the industry, gained through hands-on experience across healthcare, aged care and life sciences. This broader perspective equips us to address challenges with a level of insight and flexibility that can’t be matched.

One example of this global expertise is through our sister business, Bank Partners, who has delivered a fully outsourced managed casual pool to a large London public hospital group since 2013. A decade on, they sought to expand the service to include more staff groups to absorb their wider agency supply chain management as part of the managed casual pool service.

Highlights

• £633,000 saved in agency spend in 2023
• £200,000 in agency spend saved since taking over estates & facilities service
• Consistently delivered c. 100k hours per month to Non-Medical Non-Clinical (NMNC) shifts
• 94% average fill rate in estates & facilities since service launch
• Over 700k patients supported over the last year

The challenge

The hospital group faced increasing patient demand, necessitating enhanced support for the safe and efficient operation of its sites. Key positions, including porters, catering staff, domestic workers, receptionists, and security personnel, were essential. However, attracting skilled and reliable professionals for these roles in Greater London proved challenging, even with established hourly pay rates.

Why Bank Partners, part of Acacium Group

The public hospital group enjoyed a successful decade-long partnership with Acacium Group, continuously renewing and expanding the scope of their managed service. Leveraging the UK’s largest candidate network, they relied on Bank Partners to source qualified workers and efficiently manage agency supply, ensuring their organisational objectives were met.

The solution

In May 2023, Bank Partners partnered with the London based public hospital group to manage flexible worker supply for estates and facilities staff, taking over from an external provider. This included transitioning 1,300 workers and engaging stakeholders to analyse historical agency supply data.

Bank Partners developed tailored policies, recruitment criteria, and compliance processes, including DBS and credit checks. Performance is monitored through metrics like fill rates, response times, and audits of supply chain agencies to ensure service quality. The business now oversees workforce management, adapting to evolving needs with a focus on efficiency and compliance.

Impact

Culture of continuous improvement

Continuously refining processes through the decade-long contract, Bank Partners supported this public hospital group with detailed management information and reporting. KPIs and service metrics were meticulously crafted and fine-tuned, demonstrating excellence through strict performance reviews.

Establishing a strong employer value proposition

An employer brand was systematically developed to highlight their benefits and opportunities across various marketing channels. This initiative achieved high engagement levels, further reinforced by a thorough vetting and screening process to ensure the quality of workers. Bank Partners successfully provided approximately 45,000 hours per month in admin and clerical support and 55,000 hours per month in estates and facilities support.

Operational improvements

Harnessing technology for operational advancements, Bank Partners implemented automated processes and chatbots to handle high recruitment communication volumes and standard recruitment compliance procedures, enhancing efficiency and ensuring candidate compliance.

Increased productivity and cost savings

By prioritising service development and focusing on meeting non-clinical staffing needs from an engaged worker pool, the public hospital group achieved over £633,000 in savings in 2023 alone. Following the takeover of estates and facilities recruitment, over two-thirds of workers joined the staff pool, with an additional 150+ transitioning from agency to pool. Within a year, Bank Partners filled 15,000 hours weekly with bank staff at a 94% fill rate. They now provide end-to-end flexible staffing, including supply chain management and supplier streamlining, by integrating the estates and facilities vendor service into their offering.

“Bank Partners has not only helped us to achieve some industry-leading savings on our temporary workforce spend, but this relationship has opened the doors to wider conversations with Acacium Group brands to help us simplify supply chains and take away pain-points that we couldn’t have resolved otherwise. By partnering with companies across the whole Acacium Group, we have achieved more than the sum of both our parts in a unique relationship that continues to deliver.”

Head of Temporary Staffing

Get in touch

If you’re interested in learning more about how Lyptus can help you deliver similar results in Australia through our casual pool solutions, please get in touch with our team.