How Community Medical Services Reduced Turnover 27% by Spotting Burnout Before It Started
Community Medical Services (CMS) operates on the front lines of mental health and substance use care. With 1,100 employees across 80 locations in 16 states, their teams deliver care in one of the most emotionally demanding environments in healthcare.
Of my vendors, HRBench is the top of my list. We held onto trailing data from our prior system and integrated it seamlessly. Our team had to do zero lift.
“I can create my own mini dashboard in the moment… and drill into what I need to know in real time.”
Challenge
High Burnout. High Growth. High Stakes.
CMS operates in behavioral health, an industry with some of the highest workforce burnout rates.
- 50% of employees are in recovery themselves
- Teams regularly navigate emotionally intense conversations
- HR leaders manage vicarious trauma from terminations and crisis events
- Growth in PE-backed environments adds operational pressure
As Stacie explains, HR teams experience what’s known as vicarious trauma, absorbing the emotional weight of others’ experiences while being expected to move immediately to the next meeting.
At the same time, CMS was experiencing turnover challenges in key frontline roles, including client services and nursing.
The big question:
How do you prevent burnout from becoming turnover, and prove ROI to the executive team?
How do you prevent burnout from becoming turnover, and prove ROI to the executive team?
Solution
Slice Data by Role, Location, Tenure, and Leader
Detect Burnout Early with Pulse Surveys
CMS shifted from relying solely on annual engagement surveys to using short, targeted pulse surveys built in HRBench.
Instead of generic satisfaction questions, they structured surveys around the symptoms of burnout:
- When you woke up this morning, did you feel energized or exhausted?
- How supported do you feel this week?
- How aligned do you feel with your goals?
These micro-surveys created leading indicators of risk, well before turnover data showed up.
“Let’s get more proactive and human-centric about how we think about engagement.”
Slice Data by Role, Location, Tenure, and Leader
CMS didn’t rely on aggregate data alone.
Using HRBench, Stacie and her team drilled down into:
- Role-specific engagement trends
- Site-level performance
- Tenure analysis (especially first 60 days)
- Leadership-level engagement patterns
- Business events (EMR rollouts, regulatory changes, policy shifts)
“Slicing that data becomes really critical. The aggregate data is important, but it’s not the only data we look at to make business decisions.”
This granularity helped CMS identify a critical insight:
Turnover in one key role was happening within the first 60 days.
That pointed to onboarding and selection issues, not long-term burnout.
Pilot Before Scaling
Instead of launching organization-wide programs, CMS ran focused pilots.
In their client services role (with 70–80% turnover), they:
- Improved realistic job previews
- Strengthened onboarding and training
- Launched 30/60/90-day pulse surveys
- Tracked engagement and tenure data in real time
By isolating the problem and measuring impact through HRBench dashboards, they reduced turnover in that segment by 27%.
This pilot approach made ROI visible and earned executive buy-in.
Real-Time Dashboards in Executive Meetings
In high-growth, PE-backed environments, waiting for reports isn’t an option. Stacie uses HRBench live in executive team meetings.
If a question arises about nursing turnover in Wisconsin, she pulls the dashboard instantly.
“I can create my own mini dashboard in the moment… and drill into what I need to know in real time.”
That capability transformed HR from a reporting function into a strategic partner.
Tell a Clear, Empathetic Story with Data
Data alone isn’t persuasive. Narrative is.
CMS combines HRBench dashboards with AI tools to translate insights into executive-ready language:
- “If turnover stays at this rate, we will lose X nurses next year.”
- “Here’s how this impacts patient retention.”
- “Here’s the financial and operational risk.”
“How do you have one story and tell a powerful story with data that’s simple enough for executives to stay engaged?”
That clarity drives action.
Reduce Employee Turnover at Scale: Inside CMS’s 27% Improvement
Community Medical Services (CMS) reduced employee turnover by 27% across their workforce. From addressing burnout before it starts to surfacing leading turnover indicators through engagement surveys, we’ll provide examples you can use.
Watch webinar
Results
27% Turnover Reduction in Targeted Role
By proactively identifying early-stage attrition drivers and launching data-backed pilots, CMS achieved:
- 27% reduction in turnover in a high-risk role
- Improved onboarding and selection processes
- Increased engagement survey participation
- Faster executive decision-making
- Real-time access to role, site, and tenure data
They are now expanding this model to nursing and leveraging predictive analytics to anticipate risk 3–6 months ahead.
Seamless HRIS Transition with Zero Lift
In addition to engagement and turnover strategy, CMS underwent a major HRIS transition, moving from UKG to Paylocity.
HRBench allowed them to:
- Preserve historical HR data
- Integrate legacy and new system data seamlessly
- Maintain recruitment and workforce analytics continuity
- Avoid manual data reconstruction
Why It Worked
CMS didn’t treat burnout as a soft issue.
They treated it as:
- A leading indicator of turnover
- A measurable operational risk
- A strategic lever tied to patient outcomes
They moved from reactive to proactive by:
- Using micro pulse surveys
- Slicing data beyond aggregate metrics
- Piloting before scaling
- Communicating with empathy
- Empowering leaders with real-time dashboards
Most importantly:
They didn’t ask questions they weren’t prepared to answer.
Community Medical Services
Community Medical Services is a behavioral healthcare organization serving tens of thousands of patients across 16 states. As a B Corp and mission-driven organization, CMS balances patient care, employee experience, and shareholder responsibility, using data to inform decisions at every level.