How Balgrist Stays Ahead of Every Other Hospital in the Race for Nursing Staff

In conversation with the expert

Sebastian Drews is Head of Nursing and Deputy Operational Hospital Director at Balgrist University Hospital. He championed PastaHR from the first conversation through to a clinic-wide rollout.

Update: Sebastian Drews was appointed Deputy Operational Hospital Director in April 2026, joining the hospital's executive management team.

The starting point: the real problem was the barrier to entry

Before PastaHR, the team had tried the usual playbook: job fairs, portals, physical and digital events. Sebastian puts it plainly: they quickly realised that wasn't the right path. The real problem wasn't reach. It was the height of the barrier.

"Someone here identified the core problem — the threshold, the barrier to applying. How do I get in? It was about first contact. It was about emotion."

— Sebastian Drews, Head of Nursing & Deputy Operational Hospital Director, Balgrist University Hospital

That was the decisive moment: not another job portal, but a channel that meets candidates where they already are — and makes the first step radically simple.

Why PastaHR: an immediate match

Sebastian doesn't describe his first encounter with PastaHR as a rational product evaluation. It was an immediate alignment with his own convictions about what good recruiting should look like.

"It resonated with me straight away, it just clicked immediately. Everyone has WhatsApp. I had the feeling: here's someone who really understood my problem."

— Sebastian Drews

The low-risk entry also helped: PastaHR offered a trial period with attractive pricing, enough to test it in practice before making a larger commitment.

The rollout: fast, pragmatic — even for non-digital teams

Setup was completed in a matter of hours. The team received a proven template for pre-qualification questions, adapted it, and could test PastaHR immediately. Notably, even team members who aren't digital natives took to it quickly.

"The ones on my team who aren't exactly digital natives, they said: 'Okay hey, this works. That was fun.'"

— Sebastian Drews

And the first measurable shift came early: in the same period, far fewer people were hired through the traditional channel than through PastaHR.

The proof: 11 vs. 5

The most striking number from the rollout isn't a percentage, it's a direct comparison over the same period: while 5 people were hired through the traditional application route, 11 came through PastaHR, more than twice as many.

Application volume: +65% qualified applications More reach at higher quality, thanks to automated pre-qualification at the very first point of contact.

Hiring quality: 70% of all hires Seven in ten people hired originally applied through PastaHR, a clear signal of channel quality.

Speed: 14 days faster Faster first contact, faster responses — time-to-hire drops measurably compared to the traditional process.

Candidate experience: 94% positive feedback Almost all applicants find the process time-saving and straightforward.

What makes PastaHR different: pragmatism meets professionalism

Sebastian describes the applicant experience precisely: the entry point feels as frictionless as a chat with a private contact, yet is fully branded as Balgrist. No login, no form, no system change.

"It's incredibly fast. Incredibly simple — everyone has WhatsApp. I click and feel like I'm chatting with the university hospital right now. The pragmatism behind it — I like that. It suits me and the way I work."

— Sebastian Drews

Following the strong results in nursing, other departments across Balgrist have since adopted PastaHR.

A recommendation that goes beyond healthcare

Asked who he would recommend PastaHR to, Sebastian goes well beyond his own sector:

"I wouldn't limit this to the healthcare sector — the approach, the way it works: I can easily imagine it across every industry."

"We are faster this way — and clearly one step ahead of every other hospital."

— Sebastian Drews

Results at a glance

• Strategic: Mobile application channel became the #1 channel across the entire clinic — in under 5 months
• Comparison: 11 hires via PastaHR vs. 5 through the traditional channel in the same period
• Volume: +65% qualified applications through automated pre-qualification
• Quality: 70% of all hires originally applied via PastaHR
• Speed: Time-to-hire reduced by 14 days
• Adoption: Even non-digital team members onboarded quickly and enthusiastically
• Scale: Rollout extended to further departments following results in the pilot area