Meet the family-friendliest 2024 Best Places to Work winners

Memorial Healthcare System, a six-hospital safety-net system serving south Broward County in Florida, seeks to enhance its employee benefits every year.

That may explain why the health system landed in a top spot on the “family-friendliest” category of Modern Healthcare's 2024 Best Places to Work in Healthcare rankings.

“Our goal is to continue to improve the quality of life that our employees experience, not just here at Memorial while they are on the clock, but when they are at home and dealing with the other side of their life,” said Margie Vargas, senior vice president and chief human resources officer.

Memorial recently added housing assistance to its financial wellness programming. Many of the organization’s tens of thousands of employees are squeezed by South Florida’s high-cost housing market and don’t know where to turn for help, she said.

“If you want to become a first-time homeowner, how do you do that? And if you are experiencing some challenges with your rental property, how do you connect to resources in the community that may be able to provide financial assistance?”

Read more about the 2024 Best Places to Work in Healthcare

The system partnered with local government agencies to help its workers tap into programs that offer financial assistance for local residents.

“We are making those connections and then holding our employees’ hands through the process,” she said. “And our credit union has started doing credit counseling: helping our employees rebuild their credit if necessary, learn how to read a credit report and create savings strategies.”

Memorial also partnered with Tuition.io, a student loans benefits provider, to help employees learn whether they are eligible for a federal loan-forgiveness program and, if so, how to successfully apply.

“I just heard from a pharmacist in one of our smaller hospitals who was able, through this partnership, to apply correctly and receive over $100,000 of loan forgiveness,” Vargas said. “She shared with me that, for her, this is life-changing.”

At PACE@Home in Newton, North Carolina, Samantha McCoy, manager of the company’s adult day care center, said the organization’s most “family-friendly” feature is the center’s operating hours, which exclude evenings, weekends and holidays.

“That’s a great situation for healthcare professionals,” she said.

Other perks that could help support employees’ families: PACE@Home’s 100 or so employees all get one wellness day each quarter — not related to their paid time off benefits — to do as they please. And all employees and their family members enrolled in the company-sponsored insurance plan can visit a company doctor, free of charge.

James Stevenson, director of people and culture at Fortified Health Security, said one of the company’s values is “people first,” and it applies not only to clients externally, but also to associates and their families.

“We are constantly striving to improve our associate experience through benefits like unlimited paid time off, training and development programs and acts of kindness when life happens,” he said. “These are the keys to being a family-friendly employer.” Fortified, a provider of cybersecurity services for healthcare organizations, is based in Franklin, Tennessee.

The company has just over 100 staff members, most of whom work remotely. Anyone who plans to be away from work for two consecutive weeks under the unlimited PTO policy is expected to discuss the timing with their manager to make sure all duties are covered.

“We believe in taking care of our associates because they are the key to our success," Stevenson said.

Fortified also demonstrates its care for workers’ families when they face challenges, he said. For example, when an associate’s child had an extended stay in the hospital, the company ordered food for them for several days.

Jackson Physician Search, based in Alpharetta, Georgia, shows its appreciation for employees’ families by including a “plus-one” on annual trips — Ireland, France and Greece in recent years — to reward its most productive staff members.

“The memories and the camaraderie that you can get — and being able to bring your spouse or significant other with you — is just something that people never forget,” said President Tony Stajduhar.

The company, which employs about 100 people, offers several other “family-friendly” benefits, including pet insurance, legal insurance, will preparation and financial planning. Along with other staffing, search and technology firms operating under the Jackson Healthcare umbrella, it hosts events such as Family Fun Day featuring water slides, arts and crafts, music, and food, along with a Halloween party to bring families to the sprawling campus.

“The companies have different themes — recently one had ‘Star Wars,’ one had ‘Wizard of Oz,’ and the [corporate] offices are transformed into this wonderland that kids can go through to get candy in a safe environment,” Stajduhar said.

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