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by Mickey DeAngelo on Aug 21, 2025
In our previous article, we explored why the most successful healthcare organizations treat workforce management as a strategic program instead of a tactical system.
Now, we'll explore the framework that makes this transformation possible.
After working with healthcare organizations across the country, I've identified six foundational pillars that separate successful workforce management programs from those that struggle to create lasting change. What makes these pillars unique is that they don't operate in isolation. Instead, they're interdependent, each strengthening the other to create a comprehensive approach that engages and retains employees.
Why These Six Pillars Matter
Most organizations see workforce management as position planning and contract management. But what if I told you the real opportunity lies in retention, satisfaction, and creating workplaces where staff genuinely want to stay?
What's interesting is how the factors that drive retention (efficient communication, streamlined call-offs, meaningful work-life balance) are already within workforce management's reach. When you align these elements, something powerful happens: you create an environment where employees actively choose to stay, which naturally elevates patient care.
The six pillars I've identified work together to unlock exactly this potential, creating a comprehensive framework that strengthens employee experience while driving organizational results.
The Six Pillars Explained
Pillar 1: Governance Structure
Everything starts with having the right people at the table. That’s why we encourage governance as a first step. Healthcare organizations benefit from having a blend of HR, finance, IT, and operations (including clinical operations) engaged from the start.
This isn't about creating another committee. It's about collaboration between existing teams, with operations helping guide the way. When you have the right mix of perspectives, you can anticipate how changes in one area might impact another.
For example, when updating pay policies, having IT and operations involved helps you consider the technology and processes alongside those changes, preventing complications like pay errors.
Getting the right people involved early prevents challenges down the road.
Pillar 2: Principles
You need a North Star. Write down what your workforce management program is trying to achieve, always tying it to your organizational mission and vision.
Key principles typically include:
- Standardization (most leaders want it, but middle managers resist it)
- Accountability (employee ownership of new norms)
- Employee flexibility (focusing on wellbeing, not just engagement)
- Evidence-based practice (transparent data and easy reporting)
- Ease of use and automation
If you don't know where you're going, you won't know how to get there.
Pillar 3: Change Management
Change management is about helping people adapt to new ways of working and ensuring changes are sustained. It works best when it’s woven into the process from the beginning. Consider bringing a change management specialist into your governance team, or investing in developing these skills within your current team.
Many organizations find new technology holds great promise, but realize its potential depends on examining how existing processes evolve alongside new tools. When we introduce new technology but keep everything else the same, we sometimes find ourselves wondering why we’re not seeing the improvements we hope for.
Pillar 4: Process
It can be valuable to spend time understanding current workflows and how technology fits into those processes. When we skip this step, teams find themselves working around new systems rather than with them, making it difficult to achieve the improvements they’re working for.
Implementing systems without deeply considering existing workflows leads to user frustration, workarounds, and failure to achieve desired improvements.
One of our customers shared a perspective that resonated: “Adapt to adopt.” When a proven technology solution doesn’t align with your current approach, it’s usually worth examining whether your process or policies need adjusting. Most of the time, this works better than expecting the technology to conform to existing workflows.
Pillar 5: Policy
The way hospitals conduct care continues to evolve, and it’s important to evaluate whether your policies are evolving alongside them. Many existing policies were developed years ago and are outdated for today’s needs and what’s ahead.
Take time to ask a couple of key questions about your current policies:
- Do they help us move toward our goals?
- Can they be implemented smoothly in practice?
With ongoing changes in government policies, patient care delivery, and technology, updating your workforce policies is becoming increasingly important to stay aligned with the current and future healthcare landscape.
Pillar 6: Technology
Technology serves as a powerful enabler, but it works best when it’s built on a solid foundation. Once you have your team structure set up and your processes sorted out, then you can think about what technology can best support these efforts.
This is a good time to look at how you're using your current technology. Are there settings you could tweak to make things run smoother? Features you're not using that might help? Sometimes small changes in how you've have things set up can make a big difference in day-to-day operations.
The key to technology optimization tends to be most successful when it’s aligned with clear processes and policies, not when it's used to fix broken ones.
When you're ready to enhance what's already working well, solutions like Andgo can help take your workforce management to the next level.
The Path Forward
These six pillars provide the framework for transforming workforce management from a system into a strategic program. It's about alignment, collaboration, and recognizing that in healthcare, people are both our greatest cost and greatest opportunity.
The workforce isn't the same as it was five years ago, and it won't be the same five years from now. Without a dedicated focus on workforce management as a program, guided by these six pillars, we'll be ill-equipped to meet those changing needs.
In our next post, I'll dive deeper into building buy-in. The question isn't whether your workforce will continue to evolve - it's whether your organization will be ready for it.
Want to learn more about how to implement this framework?
Our podcast series features discussions with healthcare leaders about how they're transforming their workforce management strategy.
