Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Establishing a Process to Increase Diversity in Recruitment Initiatives

Greenville Health System
Greenville, South Carolina
786 Beds

The Problem
The diversity of the leadership team—director level and above—at Greenville Health System lagged in comparison to the diversity of the workforce and the communities it served. In addition, there was no consistent method for hiring members of the leadership team, and no metrics were in place to measure progress on recruitment and retention.

The Solution
The leadership search and selection process was overhauled and a new method of hiring employees at the director level and above was put in place. For each leadership team vacancy, a diverse search and selection committee was established to develop a diverse pool of highly qualified candidates. The committee was also responsible for recommending the top two candidates to the hiring manager. Michael Riordan, Greenville Health System’s CEO, established a personal goal of focusing on having at least one racial or ethnic minority in the final round of onsite interviews for leadership team positions. To ensure that Greenville Health System’s leadership understood the rationale for this focus on diversity, Greenville Health System worked with Furman University, also in Greenville, to send key leaders at Greenville Health System through a five-month educational program designed to train existing local leaders in diversity and its importance to an organization.

The Result
The first year after implementation of the new process, 70 percent of leadership team appointments were from underrepresented groups, and 50 percent were racial and ethnic minorities.

Contact Information
Kinneil Coltman
kcoltman@ghs.org

This case study was originally featured in the HPOE guide: "Eliminating Health Disparities: Implementing the National Call to Action Using Lessons Learned," published February, 2012.