Centralized, Secure and Data-Driven: Major Health System’s Employee Relations Transformation
The Challenge
A major health system in the Midwest had nine HR teams managing employee relations cases independently — making gaining a clear organizational view and ensuring consistency a challenge.
In 2023, the Executive Director of Employee Relations, Investigations & Leave Management and her team piloted a tool already used by the compliance department to explore ways to bring more structure to case management. However, it quickly became clear that the tool wasn’t built for the unique needs of employee relations. “It was too clunky and very manual,” she recalled.
When the Executive Director was tasked with building a centralized employee relations function, she saw the perfect opportunity to implement a purpose-built solution — one that could bring consistency across the Midwest-based health system and provide the insight the HR team needed to better support its people and the patients they serve.
Discover How a Major Health System Acts on Data-Driven Insights with HR Acuity
At-a-Glance
- The regional health system now closes ER cases in 7.5 days on average — which is well-below the industry average time to close
- Expanded from 25 to 150 licenses as HRBPs, legal, risk, compliance, HIPAA and absence management teams joined employee relations on the platform
- HR Acuity data insights led to approval of two additional headcount requests for 2026
“HR Acuity is the best of the best. It was built for employee relations, by employee relations — and that’s what sold us on it.”
The Solution
After evaluating multiple platforms — including a legacy enterprise case management system, which the Executive Director noted “couldn’t meet 40% of my team’s needs,” — the health system chose HR Acuity for its intuitive design and deep understanding of employee relations.
“HR Acuity is the best of the best,” the Executive Director shared. “HR Acuity was built for employee relations, by employee relations — and that’s what sold us on it. It comes with best practices and industry standards already built in.”
Implementation was highly collaborative. From sales through onboarding, the HR Acuity team worked hand-in-hand with the organization to design a scalable, secure solution.
“HR Acuity helped us dream big,” recalled the organization’s Executive Director. “What started as 25 licenses grew to 150. Now, our HR, legal, compliance and risk teams are all connected in one seamless platform.”
With HR Acuity, the health system gains:
- Centralized, secure employee relations case management
- Real-time visibility and consistency across HR, legal and compliance teams
- Robust reporting and analytics on trends and hotspots
- Permission-based access to protect data
- Reduced risk and stronger documentation, resulting in greater defensibility
“HR Acuity has been a complete game-changer for us.”
The Impact
Enhanced Data-Driven Decision Making
Now, the health system has end-to-end visibility into employee relations. Metrics that were once guesswork are instant.
“Before, if you asked how many harassment cases we had, we’d have to dig through emails or spreadsheets. Now, I can answer in seconds,” said the Executive Director. HR Acuity dashboards also surface top issues, substantiation rates and regional trends, giving leaders actionable insights for the first time.
Improved Efficiency and Risk Mitigation
The health system team now closes ER cases in an average of 7.5 days, which is well below the industry average time to close. Investigations take an average of 16.9 days to close — demonstrating how tight, compliant processes embedded with best practices enable the employee relations team to reach timely, consistent outcomes. HR Acuity’s documentation also provides critical protection for staff and patients.
“With HR Acuity, all documentation is in one easily accessible place,” said the Executive Director of Employee Relations, Investigations & Leave Management. “If a leader goes against our recommendations, we note it in the platform, and that protects our team and the organization if issues arise later.”
Seamless Integration with Speak Up Hotline
The regional health system uses HR Acuity’s employee reporting hotline as its “speak up” channel, allowing team members to confidentially raise concerns or report issues. Now, those reports flow directly into the case management system, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.
“I can see anonymous complaints from employees in real time,” explained the Executive Director. “We can immediately identify the type of issue, the region and even track patterns.”
By centralizing anonymous complaints with employee relations issues in a single system, the organization ensures that every concern — no matter where it originates — is documented, addressed and analyzed for trends, strengthening its culture of accountability.
Secure, Compliant Collaboration
Sensitive cases, often involving protected information, are tightly controlled with permission-based access.
“We’re able to lock down permissions with HR Acuity,” said the Executive Director. “If compliance gets a case, HR can’t see it and vice versa. That means our teams can work together seamlessly in the platform without worrying about unintended access.”
Scalable Growth and Organizational Confidence
The health system’s ability to drill into its case data surfaced clear resource challenges driven by caseload and case complexity, enabling the organization to scale its team accordingly.
“We will be adding two additional full-time employees in 2026,” shared the organization’s Executive Director. “With HR Acuity data and best practices, we demonstrated that workload and case complexity required additional resources. This helped us justify the extra headcount and, for the first time, clearly show the need based on data.”
Major Midwest Health System Drives Clarity, Connection and Confidence with HR Acuity
The organization has thoughtfully evolved its employee relations practice with HR Acuity — bringing unprecedented visibility, consistency and confidence to the organization. Today, leaders have the insights they need at their fingertips, and teams collaborate securely across functions to support every employee’s experience. “HR Acuity has been a complete game-changer for us.”
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