RNnetwork - No. 3 in the 2015 Best Places to Work in Healthcare

RNnetwork offers the typical perks companies use to lure and retain employees: “You know, picnics and video games—we have all that,” said company President Eric Darienzo.

The Boca Raton, Fla.-based company, which recruits traveling nurses and matches them with hospitals and other healthcare facilities that need short-term help, actually has more than a hundred games in its arcade.

But “play” opportunities are offered by many corporate employers these days. “Much of that is just a ticket to play now,” Darienzo said.

What really defines RNnetwork, he believes, is a leadership commitment to helping staff grow at work and outside of the office, and enjoy their lives at the same time.

“We've really focused on people's professional and personal development,” Darienzo said. Trying to help employees get ahead may also be common, he noted. “But we try to learn what 'ahead' looks like to people.”

That might be more education, aided by company tuition reimbursement. Or it might be a work-life balance tilted toward family, which RNnetwork encourages through a corporate culture that doesn't subtly push people to work longer hours.

“If leadership are the last people to leave, everybody is staying late,” Darienzo said. “We have to put everybody's longevity ahead of short-term goals.”

That culture comes from above. RNnetwork is a division of Salt Lake City-based CHG Healthcare Services, and the parent company is often cited for its own desirable workplace culture.

RNnetwork placed No. 1 among medium-size suppliers, No. 3 among all suppliers and No. 3 overall among the Best Places to Work in Healthcare.

But the company's “people first” approach isn't just top-down. Employees say it works because RNnetwork seeks to hire people who find the culture a comfortable fit, and who will treat others according to those values. The company reinforces it by giving employees a class titled “Living Our Core Values.”

That also helps with business goals, because many of RNnetwork's

100-plus employees recruit, screen and hire travel nurses and match them with healthcare facilities—and they project those corporate values, making it easier for them to find suitable nurses, Darienzo said.

Hiring people who match the culture and using training to reinforce it also leads to a building full of people who care about each other, said Lisley Rossi, who leads a team of recruiters.

When Rossi got married, her co-workers took up a collection to help her and her husband take a trip to her native Philippines. Rossi said the people RNnetwork hires believe in treating co-workers like family.

Darienzo agreed, saying if they don't hold those values, they probably don't get hired.