“In our annual internal employee surveys, more than 90 percent of employees say they’re proud to work here.” —David Enbright
According to its website, “Kaiser Permanente exists to provide affordable, high quality health care services to improve the health of our members and communities we serve. At Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa, We’re delighted and privileged to provide health care to the approximately 144,000 Kaiser Permanente members in the Santa Rosa area.”
When asked what makes Kaiser Permanente different from other health organizations, Communications Manager David Ebright says he believes it’s the integrated care delivery system, where care is easily accessible: each patient’s personal physician, specialty care, hospital services, lab, X-ray and pharmacy records are all connected through an electronic medical record (EMR) system.
When congratulated for Kaiser Permanente being voted Best Place to Work, Ebright says, “We’re a diverse team of smart, enthusiastic, compassionate and caring people. You’ll see lots of genuine smiles here.”
According to Ebright, there’s little turnover at Kaiser, where you’ll find many long-term employees. As part of the incentives to stay with the company, employees are offered great medical benefits, paid time off, retirement programs, tuition reimbursement, employee assistance programs and a host of other benefits.
Ebright goes on to explain, “Being a ‘Best Place to Work’ is one of our core values, along with offering best quality, best service and being most affordable. In our annual internal employee surveys, more than 90 percent of employees say they’re proud to work here, that they’d prefer to stay with Kaiser even if a similar job were available elsewhere, they’d recommend this as a place to work and that they’d recommend Kaiser Permanente as the place to receive health care.” He also attributes low turnover of employees because Kaiser practices patient- and family-centered care. “We really put our patients at the center of everything we do, and our employees are proud of and support our core values.”
Additional employee benefits include the Live Well Be Well program, which offers support and inspiration for healthy eating (“our cafeteria offers a variety of healthy picks, and we have a farmers market on campus”); physical activity (there’s a marked walking route, a gym, yoga and other exercise classes); a healthy workplace; and focus on prevention (“we focus on our Workplace Safety program, and we offer employees free health assessments through our Total Health Assessment program”). And of course, he adds, “We’re committed to the health of our community and we offer our employees the opportunity to participate in such activities as the Heart Walk and the Human Race. We’ve been recognized as one of the healthiest companies in the North Bay.”
New Member Experience Department Manager Karen Latiker began working for Kaiser in 1997. She has other family members who work for the company, and from their assessments, she knew Kaiser would be a great place to work and have a career. She was first hired as a receptionist, then promoted to a medical assistant and, in 2006, was offered her present position. Latiker attributes her success at Kaiser to the cross training programs offered to employees. “I learned the skills I needed to become a medical assistant with the support of Kaiser’s tuition reimbursement program and its belief in lifelong learning for employees.”
“With great leadership and communication, we not only have a great place to work but also a place we’d want our own families to both work and receive care,” says Latiker.
