She makes dream jobs a reality: A look at how IU Health is expanding its workforce in Fishers

As IU Health Saxony—soon to be IU Health Fishers—continues on with its $300 million expansion, Kera Martin, Talent Acquisition team lead, is gearing up to bring more than 200 jobs to the community.

By Charlotte Stefanski, cstefanski@iuhealth.org, writer for IU Health's Indianapolis Suburban Region

As a Talent Acquisition team lead at IU Health, Kera Martin works behind the scenes to make dream jobs a reality for potential candidates.

Now, as IU Health Saxony—soon to be IU Health Fishers—continues on with its $300 million expansion, she’s gearing up to bring more than 200 jobs to the community by October 2025.

“I love talking about IU Health to anyone that will listen. It is amazing to witness how excited people are to hear about the expansion and the career opportunities,” Martin says. “It is humbling and exciting to be able to help candidates through the recruiting and hiring process then to see them thriving in their new job.”

Martin first joined IU Health as a Talent Acquisition consultant in June 2021 and has served the Indianapolis Suburban Region—which includes IU Health North, Saxony, Tipton and West hospitals—as team lead since July 2022.

In her day-to-day work, she works closely with talent acquisition consultants throughout the region, training them in hiring and recruiting. She also bridges the gap between hiring managers from across the region.

While Martin doesn’t live in Fishers, she was excited when news of the expansion broke in spring 2022.

“It is wonderful that IU Health recognizes the Fishers community’s needs and is committed to providing these additional services,” she says.

And from a Talent Acquisition standpoint, she knew it would be a great opportunity to hire community members onto the team, or even bring new roles to current team members.

The ins and outs of Talent Acquisition

Within her role, Martin focuses on the business-side of the hospital’s units, working closely with leaders and Human Resources teams to understand the total staffing projection in each department, based on job title, that's needed to be fully staffed.

Along with training, she keeps an eye on the flow of the application process and the steps necessary to move a job candidate.

Because of the Fishers Community Impact Project, her role at IU Health Saxony has expanded. Since the beginning, teams have been working to calculate how many positions will be needed, what type of positions and when.

That work can be tricky, as construction work at the hospital is completed at different rates. But Martin says the project’s leadership has made it easier.

“The Saxony team has done an exceptional job planning the expansion, which includes identifying each new position that will be needed,” Martin says. “This allows Talent Acquisition to be very strategic in our recruiting efforts.  Talent Acquisition is always on the move, identifying ways to improve and adapting to changes in these highly competitive markets.”

Talent Acquisitions is also working to make the hiring process easier, system-wide, at IU Health, including expanding relationships with local degree and certification programs, streamlining the application process for the ease of candidates, improving connection with candidates through technology advancements, deploying new diversity recruitment strategies and adding a new executive director of Talent Pipelines.

The success of an investment as large as the Fishers Community Impact Project will rely on attracting top talent, which is why Martin’s work is vital. She’s looking to bring in a skilled workforce, and she’s doing so with a large scope.

“Our strategy is to not only focus on accredited nursing schools, for example. We broaden our recruiting efforts to not only attract new graduates, but those currently employed or the active and passive job seekers,” Martin says. “For example, technical schools, vocational schools or even the high schools here are helping to build the talent pipeline for the future.”

Meeting the needs of the Fishers community

Being part of the Fishers Community Impact Project has allowed Martin to see behind the scenes and meet new team members along the way.

As time goes on, she says there will be increased communication between Talent Acquisition and the expansion team to ensure they meet hiring goals.

She’s excited to see where things go in the future as the IU Health team grows in Fishers.

“Being a part of the creation of broadening and expanding our services to this local community is exciting and it's humbling at the same time. From a Talent Acquisition perspective, we are helping people achieve their goals and change their way of life,” Martin says. “In many examples, they either graduate and start their career, or maybe they're looking for a different opportunity, and they come to IU Health.”

“The expansion is broadening everything—there are different options now, there are different departments being added,” she continues. “If you live in that area, and you want to work for IU Health, now is the time to be able to do that.”