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Fairfield Medical Center

Winning year: 2007
Industry: Hospitals/Healthcare
Location: Lancaster, OH
URL: www.fmchealth.org

Highlights of 2007 Winning Strategies

Fairfield Medical Center (Fairfield) is supportive of employee training and education, and offers flexible schedules to accommodate employees enrolled at universities, technical schools, or other outside educational or career advancement programs. In addition, Fairfield has over 400 casual status employees to help cover shifts for those employees enrolled in outside education.

Additional Policies and Practices

• Workplace Culture/Continued Opportunities: Fairfield Medical Center offers these programs for learning and development to its full- and part-time employees: tuition reimbursement, in-house classroom training, on-line training, certification classes, and an internal leadership development program offered through the Fairfield Medical Center University. Employees must work at least 15 hours per week to be eligible for the tuition reimbursement program and at least 4 hours per week to be eligible for the remaining programs. In the past 12 months, 93 percent of Fairfield's employees participated in at least one of these training opportunities with an average of 8 training hours. Employees gain new experiences within Fairfield by working on temporary assignments in other departments and on team projects, and by participating in job shadowing.
• Benefits/Health: Full- and part-time employees (working at least 15 hrs/week) receive individual and family medical coverage, individual and family prescription drug coverage, individual and family vision and dental insurance, and individual and family long-term care insurance as well as short- and long-term disability.
• Benefits/Financial: Fairfield offers a money-purchase defined contribution plan to its full- and part-time employees. Employees receive financial planning information from staff members and from the financial services firm that administers their pension plan. Outside financial planning is offered during or after the Annual Benefits Fair. Fairfield offers short-term time off without pay as well as long-term leaves of absence without pay to allow for caregiving. In addition, employees are permitted to donate PTO to fellow employees who are experiencing a personal or family hardship. Full- and part-time employees can participate in the following wellness programs: flu shots, health screenings, health risk appraisals, smoking cessation programs, health club discounts, physical activity/exercise programs, weight loss programs, stress management training, and an annual TB skin test. Eighty percent of Fairfield employees have used at least one of these wellness benefits in the past 12 months. On-site childcare and referral services to assist with childcare/care for grandchildren/ eldercare, are among the dependent care services offered to full- and part-time employees. Any employee with a sick child or grandchild may bring the child to the Pediatrics Unit for $10 per day.
• Benefits/Alternative Work Arrangements: Fairfield offers its full- and part-time employees alternative work arrangements: flextime, compressed work schedules, job sharing, and telecommuting. Full-time employees are eligible to move to part-time work on a permanent or temporary basis.
• Opportunities for Retirees: Fairfield currently has 116 retirees. Someone has direct responsibility for retiree relations. The medical center stays connected with its retirees by inviting them to events and formally acknowledging them when they retire. It offers retirees temporary work assignments and part-time work. In addition, it invites all retirees to be volunteers or work on a contingent/casual status.
• Age of Workforce: Twenty-seven percent of Fairfield employees are 50+. The average tenure of employees age 50+ is 12.5 years.