Introduction

When Shawna Forst started working at MercyOne as the Performance Excellence & Experience Improvement Coordinator in 2019, one of her first requests was to bring on KaiNexus. Shawna had worked with KaiNexus at a previous organization and saw the immense value of how using the platform helped the organization. At her previous organization, they realized they needed a centralized way to track and manage their many processes. That's when Shawna started searching for an "all-in-one" platform to centralize everything. After demoing over twenty platforms, she found KaiNexus to be the ultimate stand-out. So when Shawna left that organization and started at MercyOne, she knew she had to have KaiNexus again. 

"They asked me in my interview how I got all my work done, and I told them it was by leveraging KaiNexus. With KaiNexus, who is responsible for things and when those things are due is highly visible, and ultimately KaiNexus keeps everything in a central place. It helped my work become more efficient so that I can do more hands-on work in the department dedicated to continuous improvement." Shawna shared. Her eagerness to bring on KaiNexus resonated with the CEO at the time, who also saw the value in continuous improvement, so she helped  Shawna bring KaiNexus on board. 

Adoption of KaiNexus 

They found the overall transition from paper to digital to be smooth. However, there were some colleagues resistant to the new system. Leaders were responsible for updating a specific chart and entering data into KaiNexus. But even with the training and materials Shawna provided, there was confusion about how they should be interacting with KaiNexus. 

To help navigate around the system better, Shawna color-coded specific templates with different colors to help indicate what they need to do. For example, a blue background means it's okay to close out. She has found this simple visual management has been incredibly helpful in building user confidence when using the system. 

KaiNexus and New Hires 

With new hires, Shawna makes sure to spend their first few times working on their charts with them to ensure they understand the process and how to navigate the system. This additional attention helps them to feel more confident working in the system. 

Apart from continuous improvement, Shawna has found another way to use KaiNexus while onboarding new employees. Every new hire completes a new hire form during orientation, and a ninety-day follow-up form goes along with that. This form is critical in ensuring employees feel supported during their first ninety days. Knowing a paper-based system could cause the form to be forgotten, delayed, or require an extensive amount of time to coordinate and complete, Shawna immediately knew KaiNexus was the solution to help this workflow. Now, using KaiNexus, every month Shawna creates a project for each orientation group that just takes a few minutes. Then she creates a task to remind her in ninety days, and when that reminder comes, she assigns it to the right manager. Although this process is not technically continuous improvement, it saves them time and stress and allows them to better attend to new employees. 

Conclusion 

Thanks to KaiNexus, CI professionals like Shawna are equipped with the tools they need to make a real difference in their organizations. With the time saved and additional support KaiNexus provides, Shawna can focus on what matters - helping her people and spreading continuous improvement.