Oracle has introduced new workforce management capabilities within Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM) to help healthcare organizations adapt to changing labor markets, meet volatile customer demand, and better attract and retain workers. The new capabilities, Oracle Workforce Scheduling and Oracle Workforce Labor Optimization, connect business and electronic health record (EHR) data on a single cloud platform to help healthcare organizations navigate advanced scheduling and labor needs.

Healthcare organizations are facing continuous staffing and workplace flexibility challenges that can have profound impacts on patient care. With unpredictable demand, skyrocketing administrative expenses, shifting cost structures, growing skills gaps, and a variety of new obstacles over recent years, many healthcare organizations are struggling to meet complex staffing needs and reduce costs while keeping their hard-working teams supported and focused on delivering high-quality patient care.

“Frontline workers and healthcare organizations deserve intuitive tools that can respond to volatile patient demands while also prioritizing flexibility, addressing burnout, and saving time and resources that would be best spent on improving patient care,” said Chris Leone, executive vice president, applications development, Oracle. “With Oracle Cloud HCM, healthcare organizations can meet employees where they are, with a complete HR and employee experience solution that better supports their needs with increased autonomy and flexibility.”

Part of Oracle Cloud HCM, Oracle Workforce Scheduling and Oracle Workforce Labor Optimization enable healthcare organizations to access the critical business insights needed to meet variable patient demand, deploy the right people at the right time, and drive an engaged and motivated workforce. Oracle Workforce Scheduling and Oracle Workforce Labor Optimization include:

• Employee-driven scheduling tools: Enable employees to play a role in managing their own schedules by specifying shift preferences, creating their own schedules, requesting shift swaps, and claiming shift opportunities that align with operational needs. With simplified scheduling and self-service capabilities accessible on-demand and on any device, healthcare workers can save time and gain more control of their schedule so they can stay focused on delivering high-quality patient care.
• AI-powered healthcare scheduling: Enables healthcare organizations to create dynamic schedules that are based on the clinical needs of patients, adhere to complex union rules, and enable new healthcare delivery models, such as value based care. With AI-driven recommendations powered by real-time business and patient data, HR and operational leaders can prioritize multiple business and employee needs, such as preferred and required hours, location or service line requirements, and other worker preferences all while reducing the cognitive burden on caregivers to allow them to focus on what matters to them most—providing great patient care.
• Holistic HCM, ERP, SCM, and EHR insights: Enable managers to match the best suited workers to the appropriate assignment based on real-time patient and workforce data. With continuously updated data, managers have the tools to improve patient satisfaction, reduce cost and risk, and quickly adapt to staffing changes and fill open shifts with workers who have the necessary competencies, skills, and certifications.

“Oracle is helping healthcare organizations tackle the biggest challenges facing HR and operational leaders today as employee expectations continue to shift,” said Holger Mueller, vice president and principal analyst, Constellation Research, Inc. “The updates to Oracle Cloud HCM give healthcare organizations the intuitive tools they need to effectively manage complex scheduling and labor needs, meet changing patient demand, and improve employee retention.”

“Over the past several years it has been incredibly difficult to retain workers due to the high demands of the healthcare industry. Our employees want the flexibility to create their own schedules that fit their lifestyle, but they also want predictability and stability—it’s a delicate balance to achieve, but one that can make or break our success,” said Eric Atkinson, chief financial officer, Oklahoma State University Medical Center. “With Oracle Workforce Scheduling and Oracle Workforce Labor Optimization, we expect our teams will have the freedom and flexibility to meet both employee and patient needs, allowing our organization to stay focused on improving patient care.”

Oracle Workforce Scheduling and Oracle Workforce Labor Optimization are designed to meet the unique demands of the healthcare industry and can also be leveraged for other industries, such as retail and manufacturing.

Built for the cloud, Oracle Cloud HCM is a complete solution connecting every human resource process from hire to retire across the enterprise with a native employee experience platform. By connecting all employee data on a single platform, HR teams have access to a single source of truth to help inform their people strategy. Built-in AI acts as an advisor to help analyze workforce data and surface recommendations to help improve business operations.

To learn more about Oracle Cloud HCM, please visit: oracle.com/human-capital-management