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Cabell Huntington Hospital

ABA11 Winner / How to Enter

Company: Cabell Huntington Hospital, Huntington, WV
Company Description: Cabell Huntington Hospital is a regional, 313-bed referral center located in Huntington, West Virginia. Cabell Huntington cares for patients from more than 29 counties throughout West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and southern Ohio. Opened in 1956, it is also a teaching hospital and is affiliated with Marshall University Schools of Medicine and Nursing. We have 2,300+ employees.
Nomination Category: Human Resources Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Human Resources Department of the Year

Nomination Title: Cabell Huntington Hospital Human Resources Department

    Tell the story about what this nominated organization/department achieved since January 1 2010 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

        When Barry Tourigny arrived in 2005 to serve as VP of Human Resources, he
inherited a small, dispirited staff that had lost its former leader to a 2 year
battle with melanoma.   A bare-bones staff of five employees had been
struggling to serve more than 1800 union and non-union employees.  Barry
developed a five-year plan focused on three department goals ? an enthusiastic
and highly trained HR staff; open, accessible office space; and automated
services to replace a paper-centric approach ? all while meeting the day-to-day
needs of employees. Barry began the challenging process of reorganizing the
department and hiring just the right people to bring his five-year plan to
fruition, and here is a review:

        HR Personnel
•     HR now has a staff of 12 professionals and a thriving intern program to
serve 2300 employees. By 2010, five staff members had earned a master’s degree
with two more near completion. Three employees had earned their PHR and two
their SPHR.
•     HR employees are cross-trained to share functions; a formal succession
plan allows employees to retire and be replaced without negative effects on HR
functions.
•     HR now includes Occupational Health, offering more control over
employee sick time, LOA and return-to-work processes, resulting in improved
workers’ compensation exp mod from 2.99 in 2007 to 0.73 in 2010, reducing
premiums by over $1 million.
•     HR now includes the Volunteers, with volunteer staffing structured to
benefit CHH and influence over the selection and price point of Gift Shop
merchandise, increasing profits from an average of $100,000 to $400,000
annually.

        HR Offices
•     To help signal a change in philosophy, the HR suite was expanded and
redecorated to be more welcoming  to staff and visitors, with office hours
convenient for employees from all shifts.
•     The kitchenette is visible and open to visitors conducting business in
HR with a stock of snacks and beverages encouraging the informal, family feel.
•     Barry had one wall of his office replaced with windows and a door; now
he is visible and available to employees from the hallway, further emphasizing
his open attitude.
•     Offices for the physician and nurse recruiters were moved across the
hall to establish a separate area for more formal HR business, so that the
atmosphere in the main offices could remain friendly and informal.

        HR Function Modernization
•     Now automated services help monitor and address job vacancies, time and
attendance, evaluations and employee training. The outcome?
•     CHH’s time to fill vacancies of 21 days surpasses the national average
of 88 days.
•     Managers receive biweekly HR reports for monitoring sick leave,
resulting in improved non-productive lost work time.
•     Timeliness of evaluations has grown from 84% to 98%.
•     Overall length of service is now 21.3 years.
•     Personnel files are now almost entirely paperless. As of 2007, all
applicants submit electronic applications that become their files once hired.
Personnel files for employees hired prior to 2006 have been scanned into PDF
format.

    List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

        http://cabellhuntington.org
http://cabellhuntington.org/downloads/

    Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated organization/department:

        With his passion, vision and sense of purpose, VP of Human Resources Barry
Tourigny, SPHR, GPHR, brought new life to a 50-year-old institution that was
showing its age. As he brought the processes and practices of his department
into the 21st century, other departments followed suit, energizing and
revitalizing the entire hospital. Barry is on this planet to become better ? to
learn, to experience and to grow, and he expects and encourages those around
him to do the same. His open-minded attitude supports each employee and each
department as they strive to become better by doing their best.