From mass layoffs to robust upskilling programs, organizations today are betting big on how AI is going to revolutionize their enterprises. However, AI integration without a real drive toward adoption could lead to big investments with little return.

Those were outcomes recruiting leaders at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital wanted to avoid when they implemented Phenom’s AI-powered recruiting platform. The partnership started in 2023 and gradually was rolled out across the function, but like any tech implementation, the process faced obstacles in garnering widespread and seamless buy-in, said Brandon Sandlin, senior talent acquisition specialist, and Ben Enegren, data/project analyst during the recent IAMPHENOM conference in Philadelphia.

While attending last year’s conference, the hospital’s team heard about Land O’ Lakes’ ambassador program to empower talent professionals to drive AI adoption and were motivated to follow that lead, ultimately rolling out their own peer-led project team. Today, the organization has 14 such teams across the function for each of its major tech platforms.

“With this structure,” Sandlin said, “it avoids one person getting all the Teams chats: ‘Can you show me how to use this? Are you available for a call?’ Now, everyone knows who to go to, and it’s way more manageable.”

Apart from easing pain points, the strategy has also driven significant adoption of the tool among recruiters. Since launching the Phenom project team in July, the hospital has seen a 184% increase in the number of active users—both recruiters and hiring managers—along with a 67% increase in automations. At the same time, interview intelligence usage, which enables recruiters to tap AI for recording and note-taking on interviews, jumped by 179%.

Getting a peer-led project team off the ground

Asking recruiters to join a project team on top of their already busy schedules is a big ask. So, leaders focused on addressing what was really in it for them, including the opportunity to work closely with recruiters from different specialties—patient services or physician faculty, for instance—advance their own network and professional development, and hone leadership skills.

Importantly, leaders were looking for volunteers from across the recruiting space to step up.

“Having a little bit of everyone involved in the mix helps with cross-functional representation,” Sandlin said.

Naming a sponsor—Enegren serves in this capacity for the Phenom project team—is also important to drive progress. The team also has two project leads.

Once the team formed, they led a five-part training session for recruiters, and offered open office hours between them to address questions.

Goal-setting has helped the team continue to drive adoption over the last year, which included increasing Phenom adoption and utilization of its features, building at least seven wide-impact automations every quarter and expanding its talent community.

“We had about 1,500 [potential candidates] from our go-live, but we weren’t doing much with them,” Sandlin said. “We knew the project team could focus on it.”

The team launched an all-day career event that required participants to join the talent community, which has more than doubled to nearly 4,000. Over 400 of those individuals have since applied to positions, and more than a dozen were successfully hired.

Enegren said peer-led project teams should work together to keep information flowing and ensure collaboration is driving innovation. He hosts a weekly “tech talk” series, where each project team offers updates, including new project features or pain points.

“It’s been an opportunity for the teams to connect and learn from each other,” said Enegren. “It’s really important to have those touchpoints, and we get a lot of good feedback from it.”

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