Putting people first” is a nice slogan for a coffee cup, a banner or a YouTube video. The 265-employee Weatherby Healthcare, a healthcare industry staffing firm, works to make that slogan a day-to-day reality.
“Virtually the only differentiator we have is our culture,” says Pat Kennedy, president of Weatherby. “We will focus on quality; we will put people first. We will make the environment one where people want to work.”
Weatherby Healthcare was the highest-ranked company in the medium-sized employer category, defined as having 100 to 999 employees. Weatherby finished first overall on Modern Healthcare's ranking of the 100 Best Places to Work in Healthcare.
Lynnette Odom, director of training and employee engagement for the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company, says the principles Kennedy outlined are applied internally with regard to employees and externally in dealing with clients. “For any transaction, that's the driving force behind it,” she says. “We hire for culture. We can always train the rest. If the person is a good cultural fit, many of those other skills are teachable.”
Those who make a good cultural fit are typically happy, trusting, honest and willing to assume personal accountability, Kennedy says. “We look for people who have a positive professional outlook and a positive outlook on life,” she says.
About 80% of recent hires have been through internal referrals, and almost all of the rest are through some form of word of mouth, says Eddie Rodriguez, senior marketing coordinator. “We've built our reputation that way,” he says. “Our staff likes to be here and recommend friends and family to interview to work here. … With every company, you have ups and downs, but we work together and get through the downs and celebrate the ups.”
New employees are made to feel welcomed into a family-like atmosphere during lunches with Kennedy and other senior leaders during their first week on the job. “They get an opportunity to spend quality time,” Odom says. “It's a very relaxed atmosphere. That's highly unusual. Most (new employees) don't get to spend that much face time with senior leaders.”
Once on board, employees receive coaching and professional development; the company has provided 499 hours to the sales force and 333 hours to business partners and technical staff between January and August of this year, Odom says.
“It's a lot of one-on-one attention,” Kennedy says. “If you were to say to (managers), what is your primary goal? People at other companies might say, ‘driving revenue,' but ours would say, ‘coaching and developing my team.' That is our view, and it's hard-wired in—if we coach and develop our team, the rest will follow.”
That philosophy has worked, with top-line revenue growth in the low- to mid-double digits, hitting 40% this past year, with 51 new positions created. The training department has grown from one person to eight, and Weatherby has added three people in employee engagement, who are there “for no other reason than to keep people happy,” Kennedy says.
But Weatherby doesn't coast on that success and assume employees will stay happy only for that reason, Rodriguez says. “The employees are appreciated in all they do, and you see it and you feel it,” he says. “They're recognized in tons of different ways—team events, birthdays, anniversaries, holiday gifts, different contests that we hold recognize success and meeting goals.”
To keep the communication flowing after that first week, Kennedy says she keeps her door propped open. “I keep trying to entice people into my office,” she says. “I'm fundamentally trying to understand what each and every person, at the desk level, feels about the business.”
Weatherby stresses wellness among employees and backs that up with an on-site gym and healthier food options as a result of employees' suggestions, Rodriguez says. “A happy, healthy employee is one that's going to stay on indefinitely,” he says. “We have a committee that goes around with healthy snacks for the staff—we always incorporate fruits, salads, and things like that.”
The company tries to instill a “work hard, play hard” mentality, Odom says. “We say it all the time,” she says. “We're performance-driven but good-natured—it's about being able to laugh, have fun and focus on performance.”
The organization provides casual “Weatherby Wear” including branded T-shirts and button-down shirts for employees to wear on Fridays and allows employees to leave by 3 p.m. on Fridays if company goals are met, Rodriguez says.
“It's a fun thing to keep their spirits up,” he says. “No one's chained to their desk here. Our leaders say, ‘If you need a break, take a break. If you need a vacation, take it.' You can go to the TV center, watch the news and catch up on something.”
Weatherby trusts that providing a pingpong and foosball table in the company lounge and giving employees flex time on when they arrive and leave will not undermine their sense of responsibility to perform their functions, Kennedy says.
“It's treating people like adults,” she says. “If you expect the best (and) realize that each one of your co-workers has the best intentions, there's no conflict. If someone trips up and you realize that their intention was good, you deal with the cleanup.” A potential hire who doesn't seem to have that mentality and might be more prone to finger pointing and covering themselves raises red flags, Odom adds. “If a person in their interview seems to be unclear on what the right thing is, that's a problem,” she says. “Sometimes people think, ‘I need to do this to you before you do this to me.' ”
Weatherby's facilities will no doubt require a lot of cleanup Nov. 1, but in this case it will be intentional and not because someone tripped up. “You should really come and visit us on Halloween. It's a zoo here,” Kennedy says. “One time, we set off the fire alarms with a popcorn maker, a cotton candy machine and smoke machine going all at once. The entire building had to be evacuated. One year, a vice president dressed up as Diana Ross and sang. It's endless. It's a three-ring circus.”
