Hear how HMS unleashed their entire company to passionately drive new ways of working that translated into a massive growth engine.
NEW WAYS OF WORKING
Driving breakthrough innovation and impact
HMS has one of the largest healthcare databases in the country. The company uses technology, analytics, and human engagement to turn that data into billions of dollars of cost savings for their customers, and also enables doctors, insurers, and patients to provide and receive better care.
While HMS’ revenue hovered around $500m in 2015, the total addressable market was growing year over year into the trillions. And each year there was more competition – from nimble startups to well-funded healthcare giants.
The opportunity was clear: for HMS to re-establish itself as a growth company and reconnect to its purpose as a market leader in transforming healthcare. HMS had in its corner a large, committed customer base and a database to rival that of any company in the country. Standing in its way was increasing competition that was fast, agile, and unpredictable; an increasingly diverse and complex market; and flat performance both in revenue but also in employee engagement scores.
While HMS sought to regain its leadership position through scale and affordability, they did not want to lose the spirit of entrepreneurship that built the organization and yet is often lost by enterprises as they grow. They believed that growth was only possible with a high-performance culture that:
Placed equal emphasis on customers, employees, and financial results
Created and executed strategy with excellence, and
Created a working environment where employees perform at high levels because they want to, not because they have to.
THE "CULTURE EFFECT"
HMS' employee engagement scores had, along with revenue, tracked steady and fairly flat for a number of years. Despite (or informed by) this trend, HMS executives held – and still hold – a deep belief that a truly activated workforce has a direct impact on the company's growth. The results are clear: employees who are engaged and motivated are a leading indicator of business results.
Spotlight on
HMS360
As a result of many years of growth – much through acquisition – HMS had accumulated nearly two dozen platforms through which five petabytes of data processed daily. Not only did the number of systems introduce risk to the business, it meant that communicating value to the HMS client was fragmented. It was a monumental task for HMSers to tell the value story to their customers.
The solution to this challenge was two-fold:
1.Reconcile the nearly two dozen platforms into a simpler, consolidated system
2.Create mechanisms to tell the story of the value that HMS brings to customers (and patients)
In one of Kotter's Results Accelerators, the team stood up a new app – HMS360 – to begin to address both challenges at once. The app pulled data from multiple sources into one, central visualization that enabled customers and employees to see the value of a single platform. By visualizing the data in one, easy-to-consume place, customers could see the full value that HMS was delivering (as well as potential value they might be missing out on).
The major moment for me was the ideation, development, and revealing of HMS360 to the company. It taught me first-hand how user-centered design happens in practice and how it works. We met the customer at their site, showed how we built the prototype in four days with their data, described the challenges and successes, and revealed the beta product. "I'd like to use this with my other vendors…" was one response, followed by several similar questions and requests. That moment, and many others, including showing the product to our Board of Directors, shows the power of using urgency, crowdsourcing, and innovation methods to drive customer satisfaction.
THE HEARTBEAT OF HMS
HMS makes a massive impact on the healthcare system... every day. Even though the impact is real, many employees (and clients) were disconnected from the tangible value HMS provides through the work they do. A Results Accelerator team took on the challenge to strengthen the connection employees have with the work they do. This is one of a series of "Heartbeat" videos that have now become central to the culture at HMS.
At the start of their work with Kotter, HMS set out to establish a dual-operating system – to build a network that would elevate, amplify and challenge the typical hierarchy. The concept of a "40-year-old-startup" is part of HMS' legacy, and they leveraged Kotter to take this concept to a whole new level. In this video, which is now part of the external HMS story, you'll hear CEO Bill Lucia bring this concept to life.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Read the story – the journey, the wins, and the results – from the HMS point of view.
