When it comes to improving employee well-being, New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health has taken a multi-pronged approach, offering services including team member health services, stress management resources and support for healthy eating goals.
Scaling these efforts across a 21-hospital system with roughly 87,000 employees is no easy task. However, Northwell has found success with its TeamWell initiative, Patricia Flynn, assistant vice president of team member wellness and Employee and Family Assistance at Northwell, told Becker's.
The initiative is designed to support the holistic health of employees and has led to the health system's fifth consecutive year in the top 10 of the Healthiest 100 Places to Work in America. The assessment for employer wellness is conducted by Healthiest Employers, which recognizes "the best of the best" in corporate health and wellness.
Ms. Flynn said she realizes comprehensive well-being initiatives are not new at health systems, but there are certain elements of Northwell's TeamWell, such as communications and coordinated efforts, that help it stand out.
Take the annual Movement Challenge, for example. The initiative, part of TeamWell, encourages employees to log steps, boosting exercise, energy, healthy habits and mental health. This year, the Team Member Wellness team highlighted Paris Olympic venues, with teams of up to six colleagues walking approximately 2 million steps collectively over six weeks to reach the final destination. The theme was "Go for the Gold," and team members are encouraged to get family members involved. More than 3,500 teams made up of 19,000 team members competed in the challenge.
Northwell held a "closing ceremony" for the challenge at a New York City hockey arena, which included an Olympic gymnast participating in a fireside chat with Northwell President and CEO Michael Dowling.
"Every hospital, every region has representation," Ms. Flynn said. "It's inclusive, from night shifts to different locations, and it's real here. The support I get from [Chief People Officer] Maxine [Carrington] or Mr. Dowling for initiatives that change the culture of well-being is real.
"We want to create a safe, psychologically safe workplace that attracts people. One of the sayings of senior leaders is that we want you to be healthy because you work at Northwell. There are lots of opportunities, like the walk, to eat healthily and to have mental health support for you and your family. These designations, like Healthiest 100, use frameworks for great well-being cultures, and we do a lot of it here, so it's been fun."
Part of that culture is looking to do more than simply "check a box," Ms. Flynn added.
"The mistake some [healthcare organizations] make is to check a box: 'Oh, we have weight loss programs, exercise programs,'" she said. "Here, we do surveys — well-being and engagement surveys — to understand what people are dealing with and struggling with. Based on that, we've created an approach for everyone, targeting physicians, nurses, nighttime employees, union employees, all groups. We cover the physical, environmental, social, financial, emotional and spiritual."
She also noted the importance of communications with this approach.
"I couldn't do this without a good communications and marketing partner, and they helped develop the TeamWell concept," Ms. Flynn said.
"We're constantly listening to employees through surveys and sessions. Caregiving is a huge focus for us because over 70% of our employees have caregiving responsibilities. We have affinity groups for caregivers. We're also focused on financial health, especially given New York's high cost of living, to make sure team members have what they need to live and be healthy."
Still, she acknowledged the challenge of scaling TeamWell across a large organization like Northwell. To meet that challenge, the health system has wellness liaisons — about 300 volunteers — who meet monthly to share resources across sites.
Regarding the communication aspect, Ms. Flynn emphasized it is not only about top leadership support but about involving front-line managers.
"What you really need are the front-line managers," she said. "Getting the word to them is crucial, so they realize this could be a helpful tool if they have the right resources to support their teams."
For Ms. Flynn, however, TeamWell is more than just a program.
"It's the leadership, it's the culture — it's not just a program," she said. "We don't want it to be thought of as a program. We want it to be the way you do business in your department."
She added that her department's work aligns with this goal. "What we don't want to hear — or hope we don't hear from people — is, 'I work in a department that's toxic.'"
For Ms. Flynn, the ultimate aim is creating a supportive workplace culture. "It's about a cultural shift that allows people to be healthy," she said, "so they feel comfortable taking their breaks, using their PTO and ensuring they're taking care of themselves. All of those things add up, especially for physicians. But in the end, it's the culture, the leadership, the mid-managers, and then the programs themselves that really make the difference. The programs are all nice, but it's the environment in which these things happen that matters."