In late 2024, HCA partnered with a national primary health provider to transition an entire clinical workforce of around 240 professionals across a nationally distributed, security-sensitive health network, all within a ten-week timeframe.
The provider had been newly appointed to deliver healthcare across a federally administered network of secure facilities and community health locations. Standing up the service meant recruiting and onboarding its full clinical and operational workforce from a standing start, at pace, and without interruption to the care of the people relying on it. HCA was engaged under a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) model to deliver the transition end to end, bringing structured project governance, robust systems and controls, and a partnership-based way of working with the provider’s newly formed leadership team.
Client Overview
The client is a national primary health services provider delivering care across a distributed network of secure and community settings on behalf of a federal government department. Its patient population is diverse and often vulnerable, and its operating environment demands sensitivity to cultural, security and clinical governance requirements. With a newly formed leadership team and a fixed transition date, the provider needed a workforce partner able to deliver certainty at scale, while maintaining velocity, compliance and care standards.
The Challenge
Workforce shortage in a district this size is a compounding problem. Vacancies spanned registered nursing, nursing management and mental health roles across sites separated by hundreds of kilometres, and every unfilled position increased pressure on the clinicians who remained. The hardest roles were in the smallest places. Attracting experienced nurses, let alone nurse unit managers, to towns of a few thousand people, with 12-bed hospitals and genuinely challenging circumstances, demanded more than job advertisements. It required the reach to find candidates open to relocation and the offer design to make the move worthwhile. And the district could not simply wait for permanent recruitment to succeed. Communities needed continuity of care throughout, which meant interim staffing had to be woven into the same program rather than run as a separate scramble.
At a Glance
- 240 roles Clinical and operational professionals recruited and onboarded end to end
- 10 weeks From engagement to full operational readiness across the network
- 7+ sites Secure facilities plus alternate places of detention and community health locations
- 4 disciplines Nursing and midwifery, mental health, medical and allied health
The Solution
HCA swiftly deployed a dedicated, multi-faceted recruitment team to deliver the program at scale, wrapped in structured project governance with clear reporting lines into the provider’s leadership. Robust systems and controls kept a large, fast-moving pipeline visible and auditable at every stage.
Spotlight on digital Hiring and Onboarding
Technology-enabled delivery kept the ten-week program on track. Platforms including Smart Recruiters, Referoo and DocuSign streamlined hiring and onboarding workflows, accelerated reference and document turnaround, and strengthened data security across a high-volume, securitysensitive pipeline.
Delivery was genuinely end to end: sourcing, screening, interviewing, onboarding and post-placement care for all staff, so the provider’s leaders could stay focused on standing up the service rather than running a recruitment operation. To ensure every hire fitted the environment as well as the role, HCA worked with the client to develop a tailored interview framework and employee value proposition, aligning candidates to the purpose of the program, not just the position description. Rapid mobilisation was matched with discipline. Full operational readiness was achieved within the ten-week window, with recruitment, credentialing and onboarding sequenced so that every site reached its start date fully staffed and healthcare delivery never paused. The work did not stop at placement. Structured postplacement care supported every new starter through their first months in a demanding environment, protecting the retention that gives a transition like this lasting value.
Full operational readiness in ten weeks, with zero disruption to the delivery of care.
Impact
- 100% of Roles Filled Every one of the ~240 clinical and operational roles was filled within the transition period.
- Zero Service Disruption A seamless transition maintained complete continuity of healthcare delivery across the network.
- 85%+ Retention at Six Months Purpose-driven recruitment and post-placement care kept new starters in place well beyond golive.
- 4–6 Week Time-to-Fill Permanent roles were filled in four to six weeks on average, sustaining momentum across the program.
- A Scalable RPO Framework Governance, systems and a tailored EVP now provide a proven model for future volume programs.
Conclusion
This engagement demonstrates what a true workforce partnership can deliver under pressure: an entire clinical workforce recruited, credentialed and onboarded across a national, securitysensitive network in ten weeks, without a single day’s interruption to care. For HCA, it reflects the combination that defines our workforce solutions: national reach, technology-enabled delivery and specialist healthcare expertise, applied with the sensitivity that complex environments demand. The result is not just a completed transition, but a stable, purpose-aligned workforce built to last.
Partner with HCA
Facing a large-scale transition or volume recruitment challenge? Talk to HCA’s workforce solutions team about endto-end RPO delivery.
