Conducting an Executive Search to appoint a Chief Nursing Officer to provide clinical leadership directly to all nursing staff and indirectly to all staff. Foster a culture that values excellence in patient care and supports an environment of safety, continuous improvement and professional development.
The Brief
This prestigious health service engaged Future Leadership to appoint a dynamic and collaborative Chief Nursing Officer to drive innovation for the organisation. As the health service continues to grow in size and scope, the Chief Nursing Officer will work to advance high quality patient centred care while also driving innovation to meet the workforce demands of the future.
With the Nursing staff at the health service recognised as being incredibly talented and committed, the incumbent would inherit a well-functioning leadership team that is open to continual improvement. Notwithstanding, like its counterparts, the hospital was facing challenges around workforce shortages and the new CNO would be required to drive effective workforce strategies to ensure attraction and retention. Strong alignment to the organisation’s well-preserved values were also an important consideration for the appointee.
Future Leadership was concurrently partnering with the Health Service on the appointment of the Chief Executive Officer and mindful of the various scenarios that could have played out in that process, and what they meant for the Chief Nursing Officer appointee.
Candidate net Promote Score
Future Leadership combines truly personalised relationships with innovative technology solutions to ensure an approachable and efficient process for all our Net Promoter Score across clients, successful candidates and unsuccessful candidates is well above industry standard.
Candidates supported every year
We maintain genuine relationships with past candidates and continue to support them with leadership solutions long term, after they land their role.
Senior Women Appointed since 2002
Over half of the executive search assignments undertaken by our team have resulted in the appointment of outstanding female or LGBTQI+ leaders to high profile roles.
Candidate Retention Rate for 12 months since 2002
Our thorough briefing process and ability to engage passive candidates mean that we go to great lengths to find the right person for the role – long term!
The Process
The briefing process provided the framework for the Future Leadership search strategy, which comprised an in-depth targeted search process supported by an online media campaign.
The Future Leadership team reached out to a range of individuals to ascertain advice and recommendations of potential candidates, who were then encouraged to apply. Following the close of applications a range of candidates completed behavioural interviews with the lead consultant evaluate their background and experience in relation to the requirements of the position, in addition to their fit with the culture of the health service. The search focussed on high calibre potential candidates across Australia and New Zealand, with the consultant team managing and assessing applications from both internal and external applicants.. The team ensured frequent calibration sessions were conducted to ensure the CEO and CNO processes and candidates were aligned as this would be a critical partnership in the health service.
This rigorous process ensured the appointment of a candidate who was not only known as an ardent advocate for the Nursing profession, but recognised as a leader with highly developed people management skills who readily fosters a climate that supports the growth and development of individuals.
Emerging Capabilities
Stakeholder Relations
Establishes rapport with stakeholders, builds and sustains trusted and collaborative relationships.
Identifies and draws on relevant and diverse perspectives and integrates them to support productive interactions.
Strategy and Purpose
Develops and leads strategy for the function/organisation, taking a broad and long-term perspective. Understands and considers context. Communicates and gains buy-in to the function/organisation goals, direction and vision, promoting change initiatives.
Culture and Engagement
Fosters a positive culture, creating a sense of belonging and inclusiveness. Creates an environment that encourages diverse perspectives and facilitates a psychologically safe environment.
Communication and Influence
Communicates with clarity and impact to facilitate individual and collective understanding, inspire action and enable information exchange. Leverages human-centric communication and storytelling to effectively influence stakeholders across the physical and virtual realms.
Clinical Governance
Proficiency in overseeing clinical standards and ensuring safe, effective healthcare delivery across nursing and allied health.
Operational Excellence in Health
Strong track record in managing healthcare operations within complex and multi-disciplinary environments, ensuring quality and efficiency.
The Outcome
At the conclusion of the process, and appointment was confirmed with a highly qualified and experienced internal applicant. Having worked at the hospital for over 25 years in various clinical, operational, project leadership and management roles across acute and subacute services, the appointee was strongly aligned with the organisation’s mission and values.
With over 20 years’ experience successfully leading high-performing operational and clinical teams the appointee is known as being an enthusiastic mentor and coach, passionate about excellence in nursing and driving continuous improvement. In a previous role as General Manager, Medicine and Emergency Services, the appointee was responsible for the operations of the Emergency Department, General Medicine, Renal, Dermatology, Endocrinology, Rheumatology and Infectious Diseases units.
