A laser focus on employee engagement

Healthcare’s “great resignation” largely bypassed Floyd Lee Locums, a North Charleston, South Carolina-based company that places physicians and advanced practice providers in temporary positions.

The company more than doubled in size last year, adding 55 staff members. All but two were referred by current employees.

“It’s proving that this is a place people are proud to be a part of,” said CEO Natasha Lee.

Organizations like Floyd Lee Locums at the top of Modern Healthcare’s 2023 Best Places to Work in Healthcare list have a laser focus on employee engagement. They support their workers’ professional goals and personal priorities, and they seek input on how to make their organizations better.

At Floyd Lee Locums, the highest-ranked supplier organization on the Best Places to Work list, Lee partially attributes the low staff turnover rate to the benefits package. The company pays 100% of the medical, dental and vision plan premiums for staff members and dependents.

She points to its culture, as well. Floyd Lee Locums recently launched two employee-focused initiatives: The “We Serve” campaign encourages staff to engage in volunteer activities during their work hours, while the “We Sustain” campaign gives employees free round-the-clock telehealth access to physicians, mental health counselors, breastfeeding support and chaplains for all belief systems.

“It’s not about religion—it’s all about caring and concern for the employee,” Lee said. “That’s a piece of how we help people deal with life and stress.”

The majority of staff work remotely full time at Floyd Lee Locums, which embraced work-from-home policies before the pandemic.

“They can figure out how to flex their day so they get their work done but are also able to prioritize things that are important, like picking kids up from the bus stop,” Lee said.

The HCA Houston Healthcare Gulf Coast Division Office, in Texas, also seeks to curate a supportive environment.

“It doesn’t just happen that you are a nice person and you get highly engaged colleagues,” said Doug Goodman, Gulf Coast Division regional human resources vice president. “You have to take action to get the outcome.”

Twice-annual surveys sent to the staff are taken seriously.

“Every leader is responsible for sharing those results with their colleagues and for developing action plans,” Goodman said.

Leaders at the Gulf Coast Division Office, the highest-ranked provider organization on the list this year, are held accountable for sustaining engagement and retention metrics and adhering to best practices—such as connecting with new hires at regular intervals—associated with high employee engagement.

Career development and growth are top priorities.

“We are constantly having conversations, during evaluations or just during rounding, to say, ‘I know I asked you this recently but has anything changed? Where do you want to be, and how can I help you get there?’ ” Goodman said.

The division, including the office, makes use of an employee recognition program, in which leaders are given a quarterly budget of “care recognition” points to reward team members for their performance.

Goodman shares the information at a meeting including all facility CEOs in the division to “demonstrate to them that there’s a strong correlation between leaders using their care recognition points and higher employee engagement,” he said.

Corazon, a professional services firm that provides consulting, recruitment, interim management, and accreditation for cardiovascular, neurosciences, orthopedics and surgery programs, looks to keep employees engaged through a culture of transparency and shared responsibility.

Each of the Pittsburgh-based company’s staff members participates in an annual strategic planning session where employees help set the performance targets for the year ahead, along with monthly meetings to keep everyone in the loop.

“Every employee here could tell you how we’re doing financially, what clients are
new, what strategic initiatives we’re working on,” said Ross Swanson, Corazon’s chief operating officer.

Corazon’s annual employee program keeps everyone focused on achieving goals. A committee of staff members works with management to develop a slate of activities—from trainings and team-building activities to trivia and happy hours—that promote specific Corazon values.

When the company achieves certain activity targets—say, 75% participation in happy hours—employees get extra days off, such as the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. When Corazon’s business targets, such as client satisfaction metrics, are met, the office closes for the last week of the year. That has happened for at least the past 15 years, Swanson said, because everyone is working toward the company’s success.

“We don’t want to point at five people and say, ‘Why aren’t we making sales?’ or ‘Why is project delivery not occurring in a timely manner?’ ” he said. “This really engages the entire company to know where every division stands and to get people to pitch in so we make our goals.”

New this year at Corazon: unlimited paid time off.

“We have a lot of tenure and we trust these employees,” Swanson said. “The work is getting done and we are having successful results with our clients. This speaks volumes to the trust we have in the team and management.”

Employees at Atlantic Health System in Morristown, New Jersey, can turn to the provider organization itself for medical services. Its wellness program, which offers financial incentives for various levels of participation, starts with having a regular source of healthcare.

“The entry point into our program is having a primary care doctor or ongoing relationship with a physician of some type,” said Nikki Sumpter, executive vice president and chief administrative officer. “It can certainly be someone outside of the organization, but 80% of our team members have a physician at Atlantic.”

Always looking to enhance its benefits, Atlantic Health recently added a fertility and family-building benefit that provides financial support for services including adoption and surrogacy; app-based support for pregnant employees; and opportunities to work with personal trainers subsidized by the health system.

Oshi Health, a virtual-first care model for people with gastrointestinal disease, also offers benefits beyond medical coverage. The organization offers four months of fully paid leave for parents after the birth or adoption of a child, unlimited discretionary time off, and a life concierge service that handles administrative tasks ranging from researching honeymoon sites to fighting an insurance claim denial.

“They do just about anything, and that’s a popular benefit,” said Dwight Scott, people operations lead. “We even have a Slack channel dedicated to how people are using the life concierge.”

As a fully remote organization, Oshi relies on its “Sunshine Committee” of eight staff members or so to build community among its 71 employees all over the U.S. The committee surveys every new employee to learn what foods they like, how they like to be acknowledged, when their birthday is and other key details.

“Everybody gets a birthday present,” Scott said. “We celebrate life events, such as getting engaged or having a baby, and we help with bereavements when they happen.”

The company hosts quarterly virtual fun events during work hours, supplying employees with any necessary supplies. Various Oshi teams occasionally convene in person for a mix of work, team-building and socializing.

At the end of the year, Oshi Health Week is celebrated by staffers providing virtual tutorials on their outside-of-work passions.

“We had a doodling session with somebody who’s a graphic artist. One of our staff members is a backyard beekeeper who took us on a virtual tour of the bees,” Scott said. “One person did a tutorial on the history of jazz in the U.S. and somebody else did pizza-making.”

Lola Butcher is a freelance journalist who writes about health policy and the business of healthcare.