Saving and Empowering Credential Specialists in Healthcare Recruiting with an All-In-One Management System
Superheroes...Assemble!
christina, the credential specialist
A Quick Snippet (If you’re short on time)
An Intro
In the staffing industry, Compliance Specialists verify credentials and submit these requirements to hospitals to ensure candidate are legitimate and can start work ASAP.
The Challenge
Compliance Specialists found the old feature too clunky and manual. They couldn’t finish their daily tasks efficiently or have visibility of their candidate’s status. They turned to and relied on external tools instead.
The Results
The new Compliance Manager features an all-in-one dashboard to view candidate’s status, credentials and ability to take action from the dashboard.
Clients maximized their efficiency and profitability, with clients reporting their users were able to clear candidates from 79% to 91%!
My Impact
Lead UX designer, brought UX perspective and design process to my product team
Point of Contact for UX related needs and questions with Dev/Engineering team
Subject Matter Expert on Compliance Specialists and Healthcare Recruiting Industry
My Role
Lead UX Designer
Product
B2B, ATS Software
Timeline
May ‘22-Oct ‘23
Tools
Sketch, Invision, Figma, Figjam
Birds Eye View of the Journey 🦅
Discovery with 5 Clients = Insights
1
1st round discovery calls, 5 clients themes:
tool is time consuming
missed communication between teams
external tools used in tandem in the workflow.
Avengers... Assemble...and Dash!
2
The discovery insights, competitive analysis, persona and user flow were shared at a 2 day design dash with the product team.
We collaborated on a problem statement and a Crazy 8 ideation session
“How might we improve the Credentialing Specialist's workflow to help them efficiently operate, manage and clear their candidates's credentials?”
Time to Ideate and Prototype
3
The solutions and critical requirements were:
multitasking on one screen
ability to filter, save, favorite and customize a view
take a single or mass actions
an effective way to leave notes and communicate between teams
Usability Testing with 5 Clients
4
We presented the initial prototype with our 5 clients.
5/5 clients LOVED the percentage bar to track and bring visibility to candidates progress
5/5 clients were EXCITED for the multi-tasking dashboard and ability to leave notes
Swivel-chairing is eliminated between other tools and keeps
communication within the application
Multiple Iterations to Get It Right
5
After presenting some "mashed" concept ideas to clients and stakeholders, the design went through multiple iterations to:
be consistent with the design system
bridge the gap between business needs and user requirements from research
adjust to developer capacities and agile timelines
Another Day Saving Users 💪
6
The project successfully launched in October 2023, with positive feedback, raising our client's efficiency from 79% to 91%.
Another day of saving our Compliance Specialists but there’s always room to improve the UX! Post launch calls revealed there is for need training and move from their old to new workflow.
Can’t imagine her challenges? Check out her daily workflow - an actual “crazy town”
Chapter 2: Meet our main character, Christina the Crying Credential Specialist
“I think my workflow is crazy town...” - A Real User
Works hard to be a great teammate to her recruiters
Detail oriented and quick because nothing can slip through the cracks
25 years old
Her day is spent on the computer, checking off candidates requirements and on the phone, texting candidates to turn them in
Lives in Excel Sheets
A gatherer of candidate’s requirements and a learner of her individual candidates.
Hopes for an upward growth in her career opportunities outside Credential Specialist
Who is she?
Got some time? Let’s Dive Deeper!
Once upon a time, a tool from a healthcare recruiting ATS platform for Credentialing Specialists hit the market. Credentialing Specialists were happy because they’ve been waiting for a savior to aid them in their workflow! But over time, they realized this tool was not it - they were back at square one.
Years later, a product team decided it was time for Credentialing Specialists to be seen for what they truly needed for a greater experience, thus the story of the Avengers starts...
Chapter 1: What's healthcare recruiting and Credentialing Specialists?
In healthcare staffing, finding a candidate their hospital or clinic position isn't the end of the process. Due to the critical nature of healthcare, ensuring the legitimacy of candidates is paramount to avoid risks to patient safety.
Compliance Specialists play a crucial role:
Verifying credentials promptly by reviewing and confirming qualifications, licenses, and certifications
Efficiency is vital as candidates have specific start dates! Delays could impact their employment opportunities.
Uphold standards to safeguard patient care. They must swiftly manage their processes and workflows!
Why is she crying? Christina’s challenges are...
Context switching between external tools and managing data stored in different platforms
4/5 Clients used a different tool
She’s motivated by:
Meeting her quota
Placing the right candidates to prevent wrong healthcare workers from aiding patients
Building strong relationships with candidates and being a valuable team member
Interruptions in workflow due to data dispersed across various stages of the process
Miscommunication between teams and confusion over a candidate’s status
Christina needs help to achieve her goals:
To efficiently and quickly clear her list of candidates for compliance
Ensure every credentials are accurate and up to date
“This is a bandaid for one place for everyone to go” - Client on their External Tools
*This is a Kanban board of the top themes found with explicit and implicit statements from user research calls with 5 Compliance Specialist teams
Current system is time consuming and can’t clear her candidates fast enough
5/5 Clients mentioned this
My team and I gathered and collaborated cross functionally to empathize with the user and to generate solutions for Christina.
For 2 days, I presented on our initial user discovery, the persona, competitive analysis and the user flow.
Product Manager
Architect
Me
Product Owner
VP of Healthcare
Product
Subject Matter Expert & UX Consultants
Chapter 3: Superheroes (Product Team) Unite for a Design Dash
Through our knowledge from the user research and expertise in Healthcare recruiting and Credential Specialists, the group affinity mapped the challenges into 5 main categories:
Takes too Long
Visibility into Status
Reviewing the same work that’s been looked at multiple times
Communication
Organization
Now that our group garnered empathy, what were the themes we pulled?
The Problem Statement We Came Up With Is:
How might we simplify all the data that Christina needs to use to do her job and help her manage multiple candidates and where they are in the process?
Everyone took part in this brainstorm session and after 2 rounds, the ideations were cohesive.
The solutions and requirements we decided for the mockups were:
A multitask, multi-view screen
Visual indicators (progress bar, icons, percentages)
A credentials list with direct action
Crazy 8’s - Time to brainstorm
*Some examples of my Crazy 8 brainstorm solutions
Chapter 4: Narrowing down, from many to 1 (Iterate -> Test -> Iterate -> Test)
Round 1 - Coming Up with as Many Mockups as I Can
Mixing the Old and New
4
Utilizing an already built out list feature for the candidate list. The Compliance Specialist clicks on the ‘bino’ icon, the right will expand with the candidate’s information, which is a new design.
This fits requirements by:
Multi-view
Data is all in one screen
Customization by how users want to view data
Visual indicators of progress bar and status chips
Checklist of all credentials
Workspaces with Widgets
2
Workspace Dashboard with Widgets users can customize to what data they want to see
Fits requirements by:
Customization for user’s preference view -> flexibility
Visual indicators of graphs and counters
Brand New Design
3
Compliance Specialist can click on the candidate to zoom more into. The right of the screen will show their placements and credentials
This fits requirements by:
Multi-view
Data is all in one screen
Customization by how users want to view data
Visual indicators of progress bar and status chips
Checklist of all credentials
Some prototypes I came up with were:
Using an Already Built Design
1
Utilizing a layout that’s currently used in a different feature in the ATS
This fits requirements by:
Multi-view
Data is all in one screen
Customization by how users want to view data
Visual indicators of progress bar
Checklist of all credentials
Round 2 - Showing Stakeholders...Mixing the Old and New is the Winner!
List View
For the sake of scope, timeline and business needs, stakeholders agreed on utilizing and reusing components that exist currently in the ATS.
The list view with these components currently exist throughout the ATS
Slideout View
Once the user clicks on the ‘Binocular’ icon, a slide-out will appear.
This new design was approved by stakeholders, seeing the value of new components if it allowed Compliance Specialists more visibility of their candidates
Round 3 - Getting More Specific In the Nitty Gritty (Cleaning Up and Adding Features)
Cleaned up the List View
This design is valuable because:
Removed the visual icons for simplicity
Added a progress bar, rather than circle for easier visibility and is consistent to current progress bar in the product
Slideout Refresh
This design is valuable because:
Utilizes components in the design system
Less visual colors = easy to scan
View is organized by tabs (Placement Requirements, Notes, Files, etc) = Data is easy to access
Old Design For Notes = Notes All Over the Place
New Design = Never Missing Communication Again!
As you can see, because notes were not in one consolidated place and users were putting notes about individual credentials onto one big note. Compliance Specialists would lose or miss communication from their teams.
Adding a ‘Notes’ tab will allow all notes associated with the candidate to live there for Compliance Specialists to refer back to.
Adding notes for each credential will allow for greater organization and clarity to communication.
OLD DESIGN FOR NOTES
NEW DESIGN FOR NOTES
Round 4 - Full Circle Moment (Testing with our 5 clients again!)
5/5 Clients were excited for the dashboard, the ability to see candidate’s credentials in a list, and the ability to leave notes
Most Clients found the visual cues, like the progress bar, would be helpful
Throughout the rounds of interations, we called our 5 clients to share our progress and receive feedback.
Some of the feedback we received until the very last tests were:
“This prototype dashboard would be exciting for our folks and piece that’s lacking for our folks right now” - Client’s response to new designs
Interruptions and Timeconsuming? - NO MORE!
All in One List View with ability to take action in mass and individually
User can take the action they’d like to take, like changing the status of the candidate or updating the start date from the list, saving Christina time from opening each candidate’s slideout = less clicks
Slideout to dive into each Candidate’s credentials and information
Clicking on the Pencil icon will bring Christina into a slideout with the candidate’s list of credentials, organized and all in one place! Christina can quickly tackle expired credentials so that nothing slips through the cracks!
Changing the Credential Status
Easily change a credential status = save time
Mass Action/Edit on Credentials
Take specific action on 1 or more credentials
Filtering Credentials by their Type
Expanding and Going Even Deeper
View the list of credentials by 1 or more types
Information about a single credential is stored here
After working closely with our fellow Avengers, the developers and Product Owners, the Compliance Manager MVP, a self service all-in-one manager, was developed and shipped out into the world.
The solutions to our Credentialing Specialist Christina’s challenges were:
Chapter 5 - The Compliance Manager is Shipped and Out Into the World...
Miscommunication Between Teams?- NO MORE!
All Notes Related to Candidate Are Found in the Notes Tab (in One Place)
All Notes Related to a Credential are Accessible with it’s Credential Information
Credential Specialists don’t have to leave their workflow/Compliance Manager. They can find and filter old notes, leave a new note, edit or delete a note in one place!
If a Credential Specialist has to leave or view a note that a team member left previously specific to the credential, they can easily view it under the notes tab.
Adding New Credentials Directly to the List of Requirements
Uploading, Storing and Viewing Files is Quick = Don’t Have to View Files in a Shared Computer Drive
In case a credential must be changed immediately or it's absent, it's possible to add it from an existing list or a bundle of credentials. No need to wait for an admin.
Previously, clients had to hunt through the ATS for a submitted credential file or switch to a shared computer drive. Now, files can be easily viewed, uploaded, and verified directly from the expanded credential card or a files list.
Context Switching Between Tools? - NO MORE!
The Compliance Manager’s design (shown above) focuses on keeping Christina, the Credentialing Specialist, within one screen and providing all the actions she’ll need to finish her workflow from beginning to end.
Here are other features to help alleviate swivel-chairing for Christina:
Last Chapter - Superheroes End Game...Until Next Time!
You reached the end of our story with a happy ending! 🙏🏻 In a prior survey, 38% of staffing professionals found credentialing their toughest task due to its manual nature.
After launching in October 2023, one client saw their workflow jump from 79% to 91%! The Compliance Manager empowers Credential Specialists and this new tool can be automated with a B2C talent platform that lets travel nurses directly upload credentials. This has slashed one client’s credentialing time by 65%!
Although the Superheroes Product Team saved Credentialing Specialists like Christina, there’s always room to improve the user experience! Post launch client calls revealed new challenges of teams needing additional training and a transition period from their old to new workflow.
"Congrats, you made it!
Here's a pic of Wally as a reward! Pawsitive Reinforcement!"