“It’s a really great way to get a pulse on where your employees are and how they’re feeling,” Pace said.
At Texas Orthopedic Hospital, the organization surveys employees and has monthly town hall meetings to solicit feedback. And it operates an employee advisory group to hear from staff directly.
“Leaders are employee-focused and our role is to empower our staff and provide them with tools to succeed,” said Karina Lopez, human resources coordinator for HCA Houston Healthcare, which operates Texas Orthopedic Hospital.
At Pacific Companies, the organization’s leaders directly respond to every comment made on Glassdoor, a website where employees can review their employers and will sometimes implement changes based on those comments.
They also have a 30-day, 90-day and one-year interview with new hires to see how they are doing and look for ways to improve their experience. Leaders also share insights into how the company is performing.
“Transparency is key. When a company is not doing well, you need to tell your employees,” Voorheis said. The same is true, she added, when the company is doing well.
Pacific Companies’ leaders also don’t micromanage employees and instead trust them to get the job done, Voorheis said. Because employees know what is going on in the company, they know how their performance affects the organization.
“We have a metrics system, so they know what they need to do,” Voorheis said.
But they also are well connected. When the company went remote for a few months during the peak of the pandemic, they used Zoom to hold meetings and training together. And the CEO held a virtual happy hour every Friday to keep employees engaged. From sharing baby pictures to talking about their first concerts and their hopes for a post-pandemic world, the sessions served as a way to connect and check in on one another, Voorheis said.
“It made it fun, and it actually made us get to know everybody in a different light,” she said.
Day-to-day operations at J2 Interactive, a software development and IT consulting firm based in Charlestown, Mass., didn’t change much during the pandemic. The remote company was already set up to allow employees to live and work just about anywhere in the world and stay connected using a social platform, said Sonia Byard, a professional services coordinator at J2 Interactive.
“While we use this platform to connect with each other on various business functions, we also encourage channels of communication on life topics ranging from fitness to cooking to woodworking and more,” Byard said.
Best Places to Work in Healthcare – 2020
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