HR hires increase by 29 percent as WVU Medicine continues growth spurt

WVU Medicine Human Resources hiring (WVU Hospitals and University Health Associates) increased by 29 percent over 2014, according to Deveran George, an HR manager for recruitment and retention.

WVU Medicine hired nearly 1,700 new employees in 2015, compared to the 1,312 hired for 2014. HR received and reviewed 46,575 employment applications and oversaw 1,447 internal employee transfers, George said.

“Last year proved to be one of the busiest years on record for our team and for those departments that brought on new employees and worked on retention goals,” George said.

One of the key hiring areas was in nursing. HR hired 355 RNs in 2015, compared to 229 in 2014. Of those hires, 170 were experienced RNs, compared to 2014 when 76 experienced RNs were hired.

Housekeeping was another area of growth. A total of 139 new housekeeping assistants were hired in 2015 and turnover decreased in the Environmental Services Department.

Also, HR is monitoring its hiring process in an effort to accelerate it. The process, known as Time to Accept (time an employment application is submitted to the time an offer has been accepted), has taken an average of 38 days for WVUH hires, beating the national benchmark for academic medical centers of 47 days. The average for all hospitals is 40 days.

Work has not slowed down in early 2016: HR is actively recruiting 123 physicians to join WVU Medicine. That includes 84 new physicians and 37 replacement physicians. Also, there are almost 400 staff vacancies HR is recruiting for due to the growth of the organization, George said.