11 Jun 2025
The Labcorp Employer Services team recently attended the 2025 SHRM Talent Conference where they presented alongside the largest academic health system in New Jersey to over 250 HR leaders. They discussed how our collaboration helped reduce onboarding time and solve staffing challenges.
Key Takeaways
- Sped up offer-to-hire process, getting more workers on the job and decreasing reliance on temporary staff
- Protected the health and safety of critical healthcare workers
- Increased access from 10 in-house locations to 58 local Labcorp patient service centers and over 2,000 patient services centers nationwide
- By outsourcing laboratory testing, staff at employee health centers were freed up to focus on other tasks
- Better candidate experience by reducing multiple in-person appointments to just one, while boosting same-day clearance by 70%
About the panel
Racquel Benford, MPA, Senior Vice President, Corporate Care – Employee Health, RWJBarnabas Health
Racquel Benford, MPA, is a nationally recognized healthcare executive with over two decades of experience driving transformative change across complex health systems, ambulatory care facilities and major nonprofit organizations in senior leadership roles. As a results-oriented leader, she has a distinguished track record of developing and executing innovative strategies that optimize operations, enhance financial performance and foster sustainable growth.
Racquel holds an MPA, completed executive leadership programs at Yale and Harvard and is pursuing a PhD in management focusing on leadership and organizational strategy.
Giovannie Jean-Baptiste, MD, MBA, CHCQM, Senior Vice President, Employee Health Services, RWJBarnabas Health
Giovannie Jean-Baptiste, MD, MBA, CHCQM, is an internist and geriatrician, board-certified in quality management and utilization review. She received a BS in biology from Florida International University, an MD from the State University of New York Health Science Center and an MBA in healthcare management.
Dr. Jean-Baptiste has worked as a physician, an associate medical director, medical director, executive medical director, a faculty teaching attending the department of medicine and geriatrics, a director of the anticoagulation clinic and senior vice president of employee health and services. Dr. Jean-Baptiste has also served on the executive board of the Richmond County Medical Society and was one of a handful of women and the first African Americans to serve as president in the society's 200-year history.
Courtney Paden, Regional Director of Operations, RWJBarnabas Health
Courtney Paden is a transformational healthcare operations executive with a track record of driving organizational excellence, workforce optimization and strategic growth across multi-site healthcare systems. With extensive experience in talent management, process improvement and compliance, Courtney specializes in aligning human capital strategy with operational efficiency to enhance patient outcomes, staff engagement and financial sustainability.
Courtney is pursuing a BS in health administration with a concentration in patient safety and quality at Southern New Hampshire University and holds an associate of science in nursing from Mercer College.
Karen Koenig, Senior Director Customer Operations, Associate Vice President, Labcorp
As the senior director of the customer operations department, Karen Koenig oversees the Labcorp account setup and customer support teams, recently celebrating 30 years of service. Over the years, Karen has held a variety of positions all focused on customer experience, leading to her current role. She graduated from St. Cloud State University, majoring in speech communication and German with a minor in human relations.
Ken Baynes (moderator), Senior Director, Associate Vice President, Labcorp
Ken Baynes is an associate vice president at Labcorp specializing in helping large employers develop and implement comprehensive employee health and safety programs. Passionate about improving employee well-being and driving organizational success, Ken joined Labcorp in 2010. He has extensive experience in occupational health and safety and a background in leading national sales teams and working with medium to large companies, including Fortune 500s, across a wide range of industries.