How Cedars Recovery improved compliance and engagement

Company

Cedars Recovery is a leading Canadian healthcare provider specializing in evidence-based treatment for addiction, mental health, and trauma. The organization has been dedicated to helping individuals and families build a foundation for lasting recovery since 2006. Cedars Recovery is based in Cobble Hill, BC.

Overview

In February 2024, Cedars Recovery implemented Collage HR to replace manual processes and address compliance risks. With an intuitive platform in place, Cedars Recovery enhanced efficiency, boosted employee engagement, and improved organizational compliance oversight.

The Challenge

Before Collage, Cedars Recovery's HR operations were reliant on a patchwork system of manual processes. HR leader Geoffrey Schmidt summarized their HR workflows as a combination of "Google Forms, sweat and heartache."

As Cedars Recovery scaled its operations to provide more care to more people every year, they realized their HR workflows needed a solution that could:

• Simplify compliance tracking.
• Streamline performance management and reporting.
• Save valuable time for the HR team by automating repetitive manual tasks.
• And engage employees and managers without requiring extensive training.

The Solution

After evaluating multiple solutions that could improve their HR processes, Cedars Recovery chose Collage HR for its accessible mobile friendly interface, robust features, and ability to customize fields to suit their unique needs. 

Geoffrey was very pleasantly surprised by the ease and speed of implementation with Collage, with all of his customizations and questions being addressed quickly by the Collage team.

Collage HR's intuitive design allowed employees to start using the platform with little to no training. "We find that Collage is very intuitive," said Geoffrey. "There was no training required. Our employees just picked it up and went with it."

After implementation, the team at Cedars Recovery quickly saw engagement levels rise across the organization, and Collage's HR solutions instantly improved existing workflows. Previously hand-collected information was securely stored in a unified location; notifications for upcoming events were preset, and certification tracking could be viewed and actioned with less stress.

Key Benefits

1. Compliance Made Simple

Cedars Recovery operates in a highly regulated industry and must adhere to strict accreditation and licensing requirements. Team members must show documentation, images, and specific information to comply with partner and regulatory requirements for their care services. Collage HR made employee data collection simple with custom fields designed to fit their exact, specific needs.

"When our licensing team came on-site, they were amazed that I could pull up all required documentation instantly," Geoffrey shared. 

With Collage HR's custom fields, Cedars Recovery could track everything from criminal record checks to training certifications. With automated alerts and detailed tracking metrics, Geoffrey could flag critical deadlines and be more proactive with new training requirements and clinician outreach. 

2. Streamlined Performance Management

Collage HR helped elevate Cedars Recovery's approach to performance management with consistent reporting capabilities. With the ability to set specific recurring report requests, managers and key stakeholders no longer needed to monitor multiple calendars for dozens of individual team members.

With Collage's performance management module, the team achieved its highest-ever completion rate for annual reviews. Geoffrey particularly appreciated the "cycle results" feature, which provided heat maps and data visualizations to support decision-making.

Geoffrey explained the importance of quantifying subjective metrics: "For us at the leadership table, bridging the gap between people dialogue and data dialogue with Collage’s performance management is crucial. Collage gives us the data points and metrics to set goals and measure success."

3. Increased Engagement

Cedars Recovery quickly trained their team on new HR workflows and increased employee engagement with Collage HR's streamlined user interface.With Collage's people-first UX approach and automated reminders for important events, keeping staff records up to date was simple. 

Geoffrey explained that "people are engaging with the system, and it's making HR processes feel seamless."

4. Significant Time Savings

Geoffrey estimates that Collage saves Cedars Recovery approximately 80 working hours each month. That is approximately half a full-time employee.

Tasks like updating employee records, tracking anniversaries, and generating reports can now be completed in a fraction of the time of manual entry.

Geoffrey highlighted the efficiency gains, saying, "Collage has sped up and made so many of our HR processes more efficient. I don't know how we functioned a year ago without it."

With Collage, Cedars Recovery spends less time tracking employee information and more on impactful HR initiatives and strategic planning. 

5. Empowering HR Administrators

Geoffrey explained that one of the "unexpected benefits" Cedars Recovery experienced was the confidence that Collage HR instilled in administrators. "I've never felt like I'm going to break anything. If I make a mistake, I can easily reverse it. That elimination of fear is huge."

With a system that allows for stress-free customization, Cedars Recovery could shape their HR processes to accomplish exactly what they needed faster than ever. 

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