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Inova Health System

Winning years:  2006, 2005
Industry:  Hospitals/Healthcare
Location:  Falls Church, VA
URL:  www.inova.org

Winning Strategies 2006

Inova Health System offers its employees a free 24/7 referral and counseling service to assist with financial problems, elder care assistance for a parent living across the country, alcohol or substance abuse, and child care needs.  The hospital’s phased retirement program offers 36 different scheduling options that employees can customize to meet their needs.

Other Benefits:

• Recruiting: Inova Health System uses senior placement agencies to target mature workers/retirees.  The hospital developed a recruitment campaign, which included advertising aimed at recognizing their long-term senior nurses.
• Workplace Culture/Continued Opportunities: The hospital offers the following learning and development programs to its full- and part-time employees:  tuition reimbursement (16% used in past 12 months), in-house classroom training (94% used in past 12 months), on-line training (40% used in past 12 months), and certification classes (2.3% used in past 12 months).  Part-time employees must work at least 20 hours/week to be eligible for the tuition reimbursement program. The following benefits/programs were added in the past three years due to employee requests in the hospital’s satisfaction survey:  long-term care insurance, quarterly retirement investment education meetings, and retirement seminars and classes.  Long-service anniversaries are celebrated with announcements, parties, awards, and gifts.
• Benefits/Health: Full- and part-time employees (working at least 20 hours/week) receive individual and family medical coverage, individual and family prescription drug coverage, individual and family vision and dental insurance, as well as individual and family long-term care insurance.  Short-term disability is also offered to full- and part-time employees (working at least 16 hours per week).  Long-term disability is only offered to full-time employees.  Employee enrollment: 52% of employees are enrolled in the individual medical insurance, prescription drug, and vision plans; 50% in the individual dental plan; 48% in the individual and family medical insurance, prescription drug, and vision plans; 50% in the individual and family dental plan; 5.5% in the individual and employee and family long-term care insurance plan; and 100% in the short and long-term disability plans.  The hospital offers a health reimbursement account.
• Benefits/Financial: The hospital offers a 401(k) as well as a cash-balance retirement savings plan to its full- and part-time employees.  A 401(k) match dollar for each dollar contributed on the first 2% of eligible compensation and $0.50 for each $1 contributed on the next 2% of eligible compensation for a total match of 3% on the first 4% of compensation.  The hospital offers on-site child care, back-up for child care, as well as referral services to assist with child and elder care.  In the past 12 months, 3% of employees have used the on-site child care services, 1% of employees have used the child care and elder care referral services, and 5% of employees have used the back-up for child care services. The on-site child care, back-up child care, and referral service to assist with child care are all programs offered to employees to care for grandchildren.  The following wellness programs are offered to full- and part-time employees: flu shots, health risk appraisals, smoking cessation program, health club discounts, exercise programs, and weight loss programs at least one of the above benefits has been used by 43% of employees in the past 12 months.
• Benefits/Alternative Work Arrangements: The hospital offers the following alternative work arrangements to its full- and part-time employees: flex time (50% participation), compressed work schedules (28% participation), job sharing (0.5% participation), telecommuting (40% participation), and a phased retirement program. Full-time employees are eligible to move to part-time work on a permanent or temporary basis.  
• Opportunities for Retirees: The hospital currently has 1585 retirees.  The hospital stays connected with its retirees by communicating on a regular basis with the retiree, inviting retirees to organization events/celebrations, providing retirees with ongoing access to retirement planning workshops, and formally acknowledging retirees on the occasion of their retirement.  Retirees are offered the following work arrangements: temporary work assignments, consulting/contract work, telecommuting, as well as full- and part-time work.  The hospital also offers a PRN option to its retirees, with 31 retirees having used this option within the past 12 months.
• Age of Workforce: Of the hospital’s total number of employees, 28% are 50+.  Eleven percent of the hospital’s past twelve month new hires are 50+.  The average tenure of employees age 50+ is 12.4 years.