Hospital Innovation

Hospital Innovation

The human-resource team at Lee Memorial Health System in Lee County is nationally recognized for its innovative retention and recruitment programs. They work hard to keep employees.

HUMAN RESOURCES by Jean Gruss | Editor/Lee-Collier

As the Southwest Florida unemployment rate hovers around 3%, it pays to listen to Jon Cecil.

In fact, corporate chiefs pay $5,000 a day to listen to Cecil and his human resource team at Lee Memorial Health System in Cape Coral, learning some of the tricks of the the human resources trade.

Cecil, Lee Memorial's chief human resources officer, has earned a following by instituting innovative employee recruitment and hiring practices at the community health system, which is the second largest employer in Lee County with more than 6,700 employees. Last year, Cecil won a Stevie Award for best human resources executive in the country at the 2005 American Business Awards in New York City. In 2004, he was a runner-up for the 2004 Human Resource Executive of the Year sponsored by Human Resource Executive magazine.

In addition, Lee Memorial has been recognized by several organizations as one of the best employers in the country. For example, the not-for-profit hospital and clinic operator was named one of the best employers for workers over age 50 by AARP, ranking 10th in the country in 2005.

Cecil is now facing one of the biggest challenges to recruitment and retention: the lack of affordable housing. Cecil and his team are busy creating a resource center within the hospital that can negotiate discounts on behalf of employees from builders and mortgage companies. He declines to elaborate on the program because it's not yet established, but he's enlisted MBA candidates from Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers in its creation.

If the past is any indication, Lee Memorial's affordable-housing program will likely be imitated because it's the latest in a string of human resource programs Cecil has pioneered. Executives in any industry where labor is tight are likely to benefit from his advice.

The graying labor force

By now, most every business has felt the aging demographic shift in the U.S. population. At Lee Memorial, the average age of a nurse is 47 and about one-third of its employees are age 50 or older. About 12% of its workforce is over age 70.

Cecil says it's important to implement flexible schedules that help retain older workers. For example, employees only have to work 16 hours a week to be eligible for benefits at Lee Memorial. Under the system's "reduced schedule" program, full-time employees can gradually reduce their hours over a six-month period while continuing to receive benefits and paid vacation.

The health system has adapted to the schedule of some of its "snow bird" employees who live in Southwest Florida during the winter but spend summers in northern states. Lee Memorial's "seasonal months off" program lets employees take up to six months off during the slower summer months. During that time, employees continue to receive health benefits as when they're working during the busy winter months.

Lee Memorial also has a "transitional work" program that helps employees who may be temporarily or permanently disabled. Instead of letting them go, managers are encouraged to modify a job so that a disabled employee can continue to work. If that's not possible, the manager fills out a request-for-help form indicating the employee's disability. A transitional-work coordinator within the human resource department will then match the employee's skills with a new job within the system.

From a benefit standpoint, one of the most successful strategies has been to establish free health clinics for employees at each of the system's five hospitals. These clinics stock a three-day supply of the most common prescription medications so that sick employees can be treated immediately.

On the recruiting front, Lee Memorial tries to persuade older retired nurses to rejoin the workforce. It spends $2,500 for each retired nurse who agrees to work at Lee Memorial to take a nursing "refresher" course. In total, Lee Memorial spent $800,000 in education grants and tuition payments for its employees.

Cecil says building a reputation as a flexible employer is a good recruiting tool, especially when the powerful AARP senior lobby recognizes you as a leading employer for older people.

Recruiting nurses

One of the biggest challenges in hospital recruitment today is hiring qualified nurses. Take one of the rarest of that breed: the operating-room nurse.

Every year, Lee Memorial attends the convention of the operating-nurse association. This year, three Lee Memorial operating-room nurses attended the recruiting effort, along with a recruiters and a director who was able to make job offers on the spot, says Kristy Rigot, corporate director of human resources at Lee Memorial.

The hospital system also dangles financial incentives. For a neonatal intensive-care nurse, Lee Memorial offers $7,500 for relocation expenses and $7,500 in cash for housing. In return, the nurse agrees to work for three years.

As part of its recruitment efforts, Lee Memorial helps potential hires find jobs for spouses under what it calls its "trailing-spouse" program. What's more, Lee Memorial pays as much as three-quarters of the cost of health insurance premiums for employees and their families. Every new employee gets 24 days of vacation the first year.

"We call ourselves a spouse magnet," Cecil says. "If I was another employer, I'd rethink pushing more [benefit] expenses to employees."

Still, Cecil says Lee Memorial has to keep up with pay scales or risk losing talent. "It really is about paying competitive salaries," he says. Despite the comprehensive benefits, Lee Memorial recently slipped on the salary increases relative to its competitors and Cecil says the upcoming budget will be adjusted to account for that.

Once an employee is hired, it's essential to be able to retain them. Cecil estimates it costs 1.5 times salary to replace a nurse. That means a nurse who earns $40,000 a year costs $60,000 to replace.

In 2001, Cecil started a program called On-Boarding. When a new employee joins Lee Memorial, they meet with various key administrative executives in a brightly decorated room with pictures of employees at their jobs and the beautiful Southwest Florida environment. They meet with their new colleagues and have opportunities to ask questions about their new position in a friendly environment.

After 30 and 180 days, the new employees fill out an employee survey to let the human resource department know how they like their job. This alerts managers to any potential problems that might lead an employee to resign.

In addition, new employees are paired with a veteran member of the staff. "It's a social buddy, if you will," Rigot says. Dubbed "navigators," they share meals and breaks with the new employee, introduce them to coworkers and informally orient them to Lee Memorial.

Turnover in the first 12 months of employment has fallen by 50% since the On-Boarding program started in 2001, Cecil says. That's critical in places such as Cape Coral, which recently had the lowest unemployment rate for any city in the country, Cecil says.

Want to learn more?

Cecil says he and his staff will discuss recruitment and retention with chief executives from other healthcare companies to share his experiences in what he calls the People Institute.

"We do eight to 12 [seminars] a year and we ask that the CEO, CFO or COO attend," Cecil says. "They pay us money to come here."

Cost: $5,000 a day.