The Challenge: Remain competitive and keep pace with tremendous growth challenges.

The Solution: Develop leadership at all levels of the organization.

The Results: Improved communication and productivity, increased revenue, and reduced costs.

As the largest medical staffing company in the U.S., and the first to hit the billion-dollar mark, AMN Healthcare is a leader in its industry. And demand for their services seems destined to grow. Current shortages of both RNs and physicians are predicted to worsen, and by 2020 the gap between available staff and demand is expected to be in the six-digit range. Through strategic acquisition and organic growth, AMN Healthcare is positioned to provide staffing across an unparalleled spectrum of clinical disciplines and assignment lengths.

But phenomenal growth can come at a price and AMN faced potential challenges if it was to remain an industry leader. The organization lacked a formal training process and plan and was desperate to develop the leadership necessary to sustain its track record of growth. To do this AMN needed to find a leadership model that matched its core purpose and values. After an extensive vendor search, AMN selected The Ken Blanchard Companies. Stacy Ridge, Senior Director of Organizational Development, says, “We needed a partner with fabulous content and we knew that Blanchard was not only a great compliment to our company values but a great match for our development needs and a partner that would perpetuate us into the future.”

AMN chose to offer Situational Leadership II (SLII) to all leaders from the C-suite to the supervisor level. Participants went through a two-day classroom training enhanced with prework and pre-training assessment through Blanchard’s Leader Action Profile (LAP). Situational Frontline Leadership (SFL),  which was offered to all team leads and newly promoted supervisors over a three-week period, also enhanced through Blanchard’s Leader Behavior Analysis II assessment (LBAII). The process included an attendance contract signed by the participant and his or her leader. AMN also selected Blanchard’s Situational Self Leadership (SSL) program to complete the curriculum. SSL was offered to all individual contributors and is a part of the organization’s onboarding program. The three programs share a common framework, model, and language that allow the concepts to permeate the organization’s culture.

Sustainability and transfer of learning were critical to AMN, so the organization built an elaborate support network to ensure results. Top management buyin was a key component. In fact, training is often kicked off via an address from senior leaders. Elaborate intranet and SharePoint sites were built to house articles, resources, planning templates, and worksheets to reinforce the training. Skill building activities that revisit and reinforce key concepts were developed and delivered 30 days after training. Thirty-minute development seminars also offered ways to reinforce specific SSL skills.

AMN’s dedication has paid off. Seventy-three percent of participants that have been trained in SLII believe that it has led to improved communication and productivity and has strengthened relationships. Leaders attribute accelerated promotions, increased revenue, and cost savings to the SLII program. More telling is the adoption rate. AMN states that “the common language of the SLII Model is so compelling that leaders can’t wait to start using the concepts with their team members.” Specific to SSL, AMN has realized a return on investment of 238%, while 83% of participants in the program state that their learning cycle has accelerated due to the concepts learned in SSL. According to Stacy Ridge, “Our research indicates that team members who have been trained in SSL are more productive, more proactive, have more communication with their leader, and are more easily promoted.” And specific to the SFL program, AMN has found that 76% of the participants cite a significant to very significant influence on their contribution toward the organization’s goals and 100% would recommend the program to their colleagues. Blanchard’s programs have become a significant part of AMN’s culture. As Ridge states, “The real power behind these concepts and programs is their potential to change the culture of an organization one person at a time. As a result, team members know that their leaders care about their development and that this is a partnership. Not only that, but the satisfaction that comes from knowing that we’re having a true impact on people and the bottom-line results of the organization is what success is all about.”