Director-Labor Productivity and Workforce Optimization

Presbyterian Healthcare Services

9d•Hybrid

About The Position

Presbyterian Healthcare Services is transitioning the management of labor productivity from a location-based model to a centralized, system-led model, with a primary focus on clinical labor — the nursing, medical group, ancillary, and patient-care departments that drive the majority of the system’s labor expense and most directly affect quality and safety. The Director, Clinical Labor Productivity & Workforce Optimization will build and lead this centralized function, serving as the system’s single point of accountability for clinical labor productivity strategy, monitoring, benchmarking, and optimization across all facilities. Working as the system administrator and primary expert for the Premier OperationsAdvisor® platform, the Director will standardize how clinical labor performance is measured, reported, and acted upon — aligning worked hours to clinical volume and acuity, optimizing nurse and ancillary staffing and skill mix, and reducing reliance on premium and agency labor while protecting safe staffing and high-quality patient care across New Mexico’s urban, rural, and frontier communities. This role is a strategic partner to the Chief Nursing Officer, clinical operations, finance, and human resources, and is responsible for educating and empowering nurse managers and clinical department leaders to own day-to-day labor management within a common, evidence-based system standard. Additionally, the Director will be available to mentor and consult with individual supervisors, managers and directors who may need assistance and guidance in developing workforce standards and determining what changes are needed to reach those workforce standards. Oversees and directs workforce management projects and provides industry research, expertise, internal benchmarking, and operational feasibility analysis. Designs and oversees training programs for all levels of supervisory and management staff and facility based specialists on workforce management. Work entails a high degree of autonomy and influence on system initiatives. Maintains strict confidentiality of all patient, employee and company data.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Nursing, Healthcare Administration, Finance, Industrial Engineering, or a related field.
Minimum of [7–10] years in healthcare, including significant experience in clinical labor productivity, nursing operations, or clinical decision support, with a track record of leading productivity efforts across multiple facilities or a system.
Strong working knowledge of clinical staffing models, acuity/volume drivers, and nursing labor metrics (e.g., HPPD, nursing hours per unit of service, skill mix).
Demonstrated experience with healthcare labor productivity and benchmarking platforms — Premier OperationsAdvisor strongly preferred (experience with comparable tools such as Strata or Vizient ODB considered).
Proven track record of reducing clinical labor cost, premium/agency spend, or improving productivity performance without compromising care quality.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to interpret complex clinical, operational, and financial data and present it clearly to nursing and executive leadership.
Proficiency in data visualization and analysis tools (e.g., Power BI, Excel).

Nice To Haves

Active or prior RN licensure and clinical/nursing leadership experience.
Master’s degree (MSN, MBA, MHA) or CPA.
Experience standing up or centralizing a system-level clinical labor productivity function.
Lean / Six Sigma or other process-improvement certification.
Familiarity with clinical staffing, scheduling, and time-and-attendance systems (e.g., Kronos/UKG, Workday, API Healthcare) and HRIS data.
Knowledge of New Mexico’s healthcare landscape, including rural, critical-access, and tribal/underserved care settings.

Responsibilities

Serve as the system leader for clinical labor productivity, integrating clinical, financial, and operational priorities into a single, cohesive framework spanning nursing, medical group, ancillary, and patient-care departments across all entities.
Lead the transition from a location-based to a centralized clinical labor productivity model, defining the operating model and responsibilities between the central team and clinical facility leadership.
Serve as the primary analytical and operational leader supporting the PDS Labor Productivity Governance Committee, including productivity reviews, action plan oversight, position control recommendations, and workforce optimization initiatives.
Partner with the Chief Nursing Officer, facility CNOs, and clinical department leaders to translate system targets into unit- and department-level accountability.
Lead workforce forecasting and labor planning activities, partnering with finance, nursing, and operational leaders to align staffing resources with projected volume, acuity, strategic growth, and financial targets.
Provide analytical support and recommendations for system position control processes, evaluating staffing requests against productivity performance, workforce targets, operational need, and financial impact.
Own administration, data integrity, and optimal use of the Premier OperationsAdvisor platform as the system’s authoritative source for clinical productivity and benchmarking.
Ensure timely, accurate pay-period and quarterly data submission, benchmarking audits, report generation, and validation across all clinical and ancillary departments.
Deliver clinical labor KPI reporting — worked hours per patient day (HPPD), nursing hours per unit of service, FTEs, overtime, premium/agency labor, and RN/skill-mix metrics — adjusted for patient volume and acuity, including both routine and ad-hoc analyses.
Build dashboards and standardized scorecards that give the CNO, executives, and nurse managers a consistent, comparable view of clinical labor performance by unit.
Monitor and drive performance against key labor financial metrics including salaries, wages, benefits, premium pay, agency utilization, labor cost per adjusted discharge, labor cost per adjusted patient day, and labor expense as a percentage of revenue.
Use OperationsAdvisor’s national comparative database to recommend evidence-based, acuity-adjusted productivity targets for clinical departments and identify performance gaps against peer healthcare organizations. Target changes ultimately reviewed and approved by the PDS Labor Productivity Governance Committee.
Drive standardization of clinical statistical metrics, units of service, and department definitions so nursing and ancillary labor performance is measured consistently across every facility.
Identify opportunities to reduce vacancies and premium/agency clinical labor through creative, safe staffing and scheduling approaches, accounting for the realities of rural and critical-access nurse staffing in New Mexico.
Lead clinical process-improvement initiatives to close productivity gaps, conducting unit-level reviews and interviews with nurse leaders to understand staffing, scheduling, and shift practices.
Develop and implement workforce productivity education programs for leaders, including labor management, productivity standards, staffing models, workforce analytics, and workforce stewardship principles.
Provide training, tools, and educational materials that enable nurse managers and clinical leaders to interpret OperationsAdvisor data and manage labor independently.
Facilitate executive and nursing-leadership reviews of clinical productivity and labor metrics, supporting data-driven decisions that improve salaries, wages, and benefits (SWB) performance without compromising care.
Champion a culture of disciplined, transparent clinical labor management that balances cost, coverage, and patient safety.
Monitor clinical staffing trends, technology innovations, and regulatory and nurse-staffing requirements to continuously evolve the system’s labor management approach.