Flexestaff News & Events

Recruitment Tools—Shift bidding, seasonal staffing offer flexibility to employees

By Sam Hostettler
Chicago Sun Times
July 20, 2005

Kathy Elkins doesn't have to leave the comfort of her home or ask her supervisor, for additional hours at work. All she needs is a computer.

A part-time registered nurse at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, Elkins uses RES-bid, an innovative new staffing option for Resurrection Health Care nurses who want to work extra shifts for premium pay. The self-scheduling system allows Elkins to choose when and where she wants to work, as well as the hourly rate she wants to be paid.

"During the winter: and spring I was using RES-bid quite often, but during the summer I like to take the time off," said Elkins, a mother and grandmother of four. "It's very easy to use. And when I bid on a shift, I make more money per hour than I make when I work a traditional shift. By using RES-bid, I don't have to wait to talk " to my boss and I can plan my work schedule around my personal life."

How it works
Resurrection Health Care introduced RES-bid in October 2004 to meet staffing needs" decrease costs and improve employee and patient satisfaction, said Janet Stifter, R.N. and vice president of patient care services at Saint Joseph Hospital, which was the first of Resurrection's hospitals 'to employ the system. All qualified registered nurses can review available shifts from Resurrection's Web site and can make a bid on any unfilled shift if they have the required credentials. Shifts are posted with a maximum hourly rate and the lowest bidder "wins" the shift when the auction closes.

"With eBay, you bid up, but with RES-bid, it goes down in 50-cent increments," Stifter said. "A nurse will receive an e-mail saying that someone else is bidding. There is a little icon in the message that nurses can' click that allows them to keep bidding. They don't even have to go back into the system. It's an easy system to use, and nurses need very little assistance. "

By the end of March 2006, almost all Resurrection Health Care facilities will offer online shift bidding, including six hospitals, numerous nursing and rehabilitation centers and home health services. Nurses will have the opportunity to fill vacant shifts throughout the system that might not have been available to them before, Stifter said.

Aids recruitment
"Before we began using the system, we were looking at creative alternatives to share staff, and we felt the best nurse to take care of our patients is a Resurrection nurse," Stifter said. "With RES-bid, a nurse can go to a hospital that has a greater need. It. is nice to know that if West Suburban Medical Center needs obstetric nurses and a Saint Joseph Hospital nurse is looking for additional shifts to work, the Saint Joseph nurse can go online, bid on the shift and in turn meet some of the staffing needs at West Suburban. Not only are we seeing some bidding across the system, we're also seeing nurses who work in one clinical area bidding to work in another area, giving them the chance to learn new things. RES-bid is a way for us to help recruit nurses to our system."

Back to Flexestaff Homepage
Back to Flexestaff News & Events page