Being a “Dream Employer” Is More Than an Honor. It’s an ideal patients are counting on all of us in healthcare to deliver.

When University Hospitals was named to Forbes Magazine’s inaugural list of “dream employers” late last year, I was immensely and understandably proud. It’s not every day that an organization like ours gets that kind of national validation. The magazine’s survey of more than 10,000 American college students and more than 140,000 U.S.-based employees from all sectors asked a few simple questions. For students, where can you find your “dream job”? For employees, would you recommend your employer to your friends and family? When all was said and done, University Hospitals ranked #9 in the nation as a “dream employer,” in the company of some well-known corporate giants, including Microsoft, Google, Apple and Nike. Pretty amazing stuff.

However, as the months have gone by, my focus has shifted a bit. I’ve reflected less on the accolade, instead thinking more about why all of us in healthcare should have “dream employer” as our goal. And I’ve come to a conclusion: It’s because it’s best for patients.

Take the case of a person hospitalized for only a few days. That single patient will likely encounter doctors, nurses, therapists, pharmacists, allied health workers, environmental services workers and patient billing representatives, to name just a few. He or she will interact with more and different people – with more and different expertise – than in nearly any other industry.

In fact, it’s this dense network of individuals -- clustered around a single person – that distinguishes healthcare as a field. And it makes it all the more critical that we attract the best and brightest people to our hospitals and health systems – and support them once there so they can do their best work. There are many diverse roles to fill in healthcare, but one thing is crystal-clear: Outstanding, effective people make what we do possible. The work in our field is always high stakes -- sometimes life and death. But we know that when we create a community of caregivers who are strong and engaged every day, thriving in their jobs, they are, by definition, taking better care of patients. It’s a win-win. Employees may rate us a “dream employer,” but we know the real reward is in better outcomes for our patients.

How are we making this happen at UH? Simply put, we’re committed to building a workforce where people want to join and those already here want to stay. That’s the “secret sauce” behind the “dream” – and it doesn’t happen by accident.

To build our physician workforce, for example, our department chairs are continually scouring the globe for exceptional doctors to join us at UH, bringing on those just out of training as well as those more established physicians relocating to Cleveland. To give just one example, UH Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute has added more than 50 surgeons and cardiologists in the last five years. That’s a significant influx of talent in an institute that employs 170 physicians.

Nursing recruitment has been especially difficult since the COVID-19 pandemic, both here and elsewhere. But we’re discovering solutions. At the early end of the career pipeline, our UH Future Nurse Academy introduces high school students to the nursing profession through a two-week, a first-hand learning experience, now expanded due to high demand. For more immediate results, we’re also collaborating with Cleveland Clinic to boost nursing school enrollment. By working with 16 Northeast Ohio nursing schools in a program launching this month, our goal is to tap 150 new people to serve as clinical adjunct nursing faculty, expanding regional nursing school capacity by 200 students a year. In addition, we at UH are proud to offer $15,000 in loan repayment to all new graduates taking one of our positions as a registered nurse.

For nurses we’re fortunate to already have on our team at UH, we’re also making progress. Our nursing turnovers rates have declined in the last year from 16.2% to 13.97%, putting UH well ahead of the industry benchmark of 16.4%. Our innovative Care Team of Tomorrow model is one factor among many that our nurses say is making their work more satisfying. Designed by our direct patient caregivers to support and enhance patient care and patient experience, this new approach is now in place in our medical surgical units across our health system. The biggest change is the six new roles we’ve created to focus on putting the patient at the center of all we do, from Patient Experience Liaisons to Mobility Aides to Personal Hygiene Experts, to name just a few. Everyone operates at the top of his or her ability and contributes to the best outcome for the patient.

Beyond nursing, though a program called Funding Healthcare Futures, we hire students pursuing a healthcare major early in their college career into a UH training role in one of the allied health professions, providing funding milestones up to graduation and promotion into licensed/post-secondary degree role. Through this innovative program, we hire more than 60 radiology techs, respiratory therapists, medical lab techs and sleep techs each year.

For the positions of medical assistant, pharmacy tech, EEG tech, community health worker and licensed practical nurse, our nationally recognized apprenticeship “earn and learn” program helps us hire more than 200 people a year. And our well-known Step Up to UH program helps Cleveland residents obtain careers in our healthcare system, putting them on a path out of poverty and toward a family-sustaining wage.

However, getting people to join UH is only the first step – necessary but not sufficient for creating the engaged healthcare workforce we want to assemble. We put equal effort into building a culture and environment where people want to stay to pursue their careers.

This takes many forms, from our Employee Resource Groups for women, veterans and other groups, to my recognition programs honoring our talented physician and non-physician caregivers, to the UH Appreciates program, where caregivers can recognize each other for a job well done, as well as receive kudos from their manager. One of my favorite things to do each year is also to tour each of our hospitals across the system, hearing what’s on people’s minds. We also regularly survey our caregivers – and act on the feedback we receive, one recent example being our newly expanded maternity leave policy. Another popular service supports our caregivers’ financial well-being. About 8% of our workforce is enrolled in our earned wage access program, which lets caregivers tap wages already earned to help with emergent financial needs in between pay periods.

That’s a long list, and others certainly have different tactics and approaches that work for them. We don’t claim to have all the answers. But it gets at something important. It shows that a mix of tangible benefits -- combined with that intangible sense of community and belonging -- inspires loyalty and helps us build the healing culture our patients are counting on us to create.

And in the end, that’s what matters – the environment we provide for our patients. College students and different employees across the country may answer questions about us on a “dream employer” survey, which, of course, we value. But we know the truer test of our worth is the care we provide.

We’re just so fortunate to have the talented people at UH – in every corner of the organization and in every role – to ensure that the care we provide is stellar. That’s a “dream” we can all get behind.