Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland, the oldest pediatric medical center between Los Angeles and Seattle, has provided exceptional medical
care for children in the Bay Area and beyond for 94 years. With 181 licensed beds, Children's Hospital's medical center offers outstanding patient care,
and also supports nationally recognized pediatric teaching and research.
Challenge
Children's Hospital faced a very competitive recruitment landscape for nurses. They lacked budget for an extensive external ad campaign and turned to CKR Interactive for help in promoting their employee referral program. Prior to this, the hospital did not have an internal promotional campaign in place for the ERP. The existing program had a low level of awareness among employees and did not generate a sufficient number of referrals or hires. The hospital also lacked resources to manage the program on an ongoing basis.
Solution
CKR Interactive's Account Service and Creative teams worked together to create a very attractive retro theme for the campaign titled, "Don't Keep It a Secret, Tell a Friend." The ERP was kicked off in the hospital cafeteria with giveaways including popcorn, ice cream bars and marketing material such as flyers. Balloons, posters, table tents, and t-shirts also ensured widespread awareness of the new program. CKR Interactive developed a year-long promotional campaign and calendar for the staffing department. We managed the program on a turnkey basis for the client and took care of the hard work for them. Paycheck stuffers were used throughout the year to keep the ERP in the forefront of everyone's mind.
Results
The ERP generated so many high quality referrals and new hires that the hospital did not need to pay for any other external advertising or marketing for a full ten month period. In that ten month period all new nursing hires came from employee referrals. The program generated a positive return on investment as well as delivered a cost per hire amount far lower than any other previous method the hospital had employed.
