TABLE OF CONTENTS Indeed, a business faces many challenges when establishing a project-oriented culture. After all, change is difficult. Most people do not easily embrace it. In fact, we seem to naturally resist change, regardless of the benefits that it may bring. For most firms, shifting to a project-oriented management structure represents great change. One can expect the resistance to come from many quarters within the enterprise and to manifest itself in many different ways, including:
Derisory commitment
Inadequate foundation-setting
Substandard communication
Vague portfolio management practices
Lack of program-centric strategic planning procedures
Skills deficits
Since 2001, St. Peter s Hospital in Albany, New York has been using online shift bidding as a means of leveraging the free agent nursing pool that exists in the area. Since instituting the process, St. Peter s has saved over $1.7 million while lowering its double-digit vacancy rate to less than 5%. The hospital estimates that over 127,000 shift hours have been filled through online bidding.
The bidding process is easy to use. Nurses simply log on to the hospital s website, where they can view all available shifts within the units in which they are qualified to work. From there, the nurses bid on the desired shift by providing their hourly rate. The lowest qualified bidder gets the work.
Interestingly, most work bids-out at approximately 30% higher than the common RN base rate. However, St. Peter s still pays $12 less per hour than it...
