Page 16 - BusinessWest October 3, 2022

Passion for Purpose
Sarah Morgan, director of Human Resources and Organizational Development at Health New England, noted that the Great Resignation has affected all employers, but it has also been an opportunity to recruit talented people who are looking for new opportunities or are rejoining the workforce. And many are looking for greater purpose in their jobs.
“This is a competitive recruiting environment we face today; however, Health New England employees know they are helping our members to live more healthful lives and improving the health and well-being of the communities we serve,” she said. “Ultimately, people connect to our role as a hometown not-for-profit health plan and are excited about the possibility of join- ing that cause.”
At the same time, the pandemic showed all companies how much employees — both cur- rent and prospective — value flexibility, and Health New England was no exception.
“Even before the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, we recognized that our employees have different needs, such as around childcare, eldercare, transportation, and the like,” Morgan said. “We respect the individual needs of our staff members and offer flexibility when possi- ble, including the opportunity to work primarily remotely when the business needs allow.”
Galat agreed. “We’re highly focused on reten- tion, so we provide flexible work schedules and work-life balance, which is very important in this day and age. People have busy lives; we under- stand and that try to provide that flexibility for childcare, eldercare, school activities, sports ... those things are important, and having that abil-
ity to balance their personal life with work is more important than ever.”
At CHD, Fitzgerald added, “we definitely know flexibility is really something people are looking for. While we’ve always tried to be flex- ible, our jobs are face to face with people for the most part, so we need to be in certain settings. However, during the pandemic, we went to tele- health, and we are trying to maintain a small bit
when our employees refer folks. We’re trying to be creative from a compensation standpoint as well.”
Galat says Big Y hosts employee roundtables and focus groups and conducts surveys to get feedback on how the work environment can improve and what employees are looking for, and that information is used as a retention tool. The company also implemented a wage
“I think a lot of people were deciding during the pandemic not to do this work anymore. So we lost ground in 2021, but we’re gaining ground again. I feel optimistic; it feels less frenetic than it did last year, and it feels like things are improving.
CAROL FITZGERALD
of flexibility for telehealth. Going forward, espe- cially in remote settings, that might work best for us. For example, a clinic in Orange is posting for a position that can be primarily remote. Up there, our managers are willing to talk about any and every way to get somebody to come into work, whether that’s remote or a flex schedule where they can; they’re trying to be creative on an individual basis.”
She added that competition has changed over the past couple years as well. “A lot of ser- vice industries are paying a lot more, really crazy rates. So we had to get creative. We offer a lot of hiring incentives and bonuses to come in, and
”
increase in July that impacted 75% of the hourly workforce.
All these efforts are critical because, despite some success stories with hiring, the Great Res- ignation and a generation of young workers who feel they know their value and want to assert
it have created a smaller pool of talent to draw from.
“The highly technical or skilled positions have gotten even harder to recruit for,” Roberts said, “because there’s probably a handful of people who have a certain skill you’re looking for, and they’re either going somewhere else or already have a job and are perfectly happy where they
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