At Laudio, we believe that frontline leaders are at the heart of healthcare transformation. To explore how health systems are empowering these leaders, we recently spoke with Michael Vaccaro, Chief Nursing & Clinical Operations Officer at Novant Health. In this conversation, Michael shares why his organization first considered Laudio, the early impact the platform has had on retention and engagement, and how the organization has expanded its role in supporting nurse managers over the years.

Q: What initially drew Novant Health to consider the Laudio platform?

A: We started conversations internally about the topic of leadership operations and supporting our nursing staff in 2021, right in the middle of the pandemic. To me, nurse managers are a critical part of executing our team’s strategy, and their roles were under tremendous pressure during that time. 

Anything we could do to remove administrative burden and make their work easier was becoming a top priority. After learning more about Laudio and seeing how it could directly support managers through a handful of conversations and demos, we made the decision to invest because ultimately we saw supporting managers as one the best ways to ensure we could execute on our organizational strategies.

Q: What was your implementation experience like?

A: Because Laudio addressed nurse leaders’ administrative burden, getting buy-in wasn’t too difficult. Laudio was a great partner throughout the rollout, working hand in hand with our digital products and services team. In terms of how we approached the rollout, we started regionally—Charlotte first, then Winston-Salem, then it spread throughout the organization from there.  

And what helped adoption most was hearing really positive feedback from early users. Managers themselves saying and sharing how, “this is changing my world,” that kind of feedback spreads quickly and helps. On top of that, we began to see measurable improvements in retention and turnover. In fact, our higher utilizers showed up to a 4% reduction in turnover early on.

Q: What did you hear directly or indirectly from team members about how it impacted their day-to-day work?

A: We had an existing solution for HRIS and a different one for payroll and scheduling system, but the information in those systems didn’t always talk to one another. Now we were giving our teams and leaders a consolidated tool for things spanning scheduling, check-ins, certifications, and more. We heard folks saying "this is great because I don’t have to go to multiple systems and log in.”

Additionally, we also heard stories from CNOs and nursing directors who used Laudio’s recognition tools since they could now easily get notified about team member birthdays, overtime shifts, or special contributions—and reach out directly. Staff were often pleasantly surprised and grateful that senior leaders noticed and acted upon these small but important details.

Q: What impact did you see on engagement and retention?

A: Managers used Laudio for initiatives such as 30–60–90 day check-ins, as well as supporting initiatives like our “time to shine” program. The results were clear: managers with the highest utilization saw lower turnover, which directly reduced our need for contract labor. At the height of COVID, we had over 1,500 contingent nurses. Now we’re under 500. That reduction saves enormous costs and helps us create a better environment for permanent staff.

We also have noticed an interesting correlation between Laudio usage and team member engagement. Regions that adopted Laudio earlier had engagement scores in the high 80s, while regions without it were in the 70s. Now it’s not the only factor I think, but it’s certainly a contributor. What we’ve spent on Laudio, that investment is paid for tenfold over just by being able to hold onto our nurses and our managers love it.

Q:  How has the platform evolved since you started using it?

A: So the thing I really love about the Laudio team is how open they’ve been to evolving with us. Over time, we’ve incorporated employee rounding, audit tools, and we’re now bringing patient experience rounds into Laudio through an integration with Epic. That way, managers can both capture patient feedback and immediately recognize staff contributions.

The tool is already very slick, but I’m really excited about the potential of it moving forward –whether it’s engagement surveys or education modules, the platform could extend into many areas throughout the organization. The more things you can funnel to Laudio and reduce the places your team has to go to do their job, the easier it gets for the nurse managers to use and benefit from it. 

Q: How does this technology connect to Novant’s focus on employee well-being?

A: One of our strategic pillars as an organization is employee well-being. For managers especially, given their span of control, we have to make their work easier. If we don’t, they won’t be as successful – and that has a trickle-down impact across the organization. Laudio supports their well-being by reducing administrative burden and giving them more capacity to lead effectively. Overall, Laudio delivers on their promises, which is why I think the managers appreciate it.