INTRODUCING THE 2022 HEALTHIEST 100 WORKPLACES IN AMERICA
Northwell Health
Nov. 11, 2022
Ranking: #5
Headquarters: Lake Success, New York
Full-Time Employee Count: 79,278
About: Norwell Health is New York state’s largest health care provider and private employer, with 23 hospitals, more than 665 outpatient facilities, and more than 70,000 employees. Since it was founded in 1997, our non-profit organization has evolved into a vast clinical, educational, and research enterprise, providing world-class service, truly compassionate care, and cutting-edge innovation.
Each year, we care for more than two million people across the metro New York area and beyond, including almost 39,000 births, over 635,000 emergency visits, and 832,000 home health visits. We proudly serve one of the most diverse communities in the country, with more than 175 languages spoken in our service area.
As Northwell Health continues to grow, our mission, vision, and values remain central to the success of our brand and who we are. That will never change.
And, we will always strive to innovate and transform the future of health, wellness, and quality of life.
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Q: What is the most unique benefit offering currently in place? If you were to talk about your program with someone who does not work there, what would you share about your program that would make them want to join your team?
A: Today, when commodities are at an all-time high, the Employee Wellness team and our partners are amplifying our financial well-being offerings to support team members and their families. The most unique benefit offering currently in place is financial assistance through a Caregiver Support Fund through our internal Employee + Family Assistance Program (EAP). This fund supports team members that are requesting financial assistance for any financial crisis including, but not limited to, food insecurity, homelessness, debt maintenance, and disaster response. To date, Northwell has supported multiple team members with over $100,000 toward financial relief. A particularly effective way to articulate how much this program impacts our team members is through their testimonials. In late 2021, Hurricane Ida hit New York, leaving parts of the area virtually unrecognizable. A team member from Staten Island University Hospital, reached out for assistance and here’s her story:
“There are no words to describe how thankful I am for Northwell and EAP for the assistance that was provided to my family and me because of Hurricane Ida. We experienced tremendous loss – one of our vehicles was a total loss and was submerged to the roof. Our home was destroyed and though we had 5 sump pumps and were also manually bailing water, it was no use. The hot water heater/boiler, freezer, and pantry full of food, furniture, clothing, equipment, and our newly renovated basement was all destroyed. Our door completely bowed in due to the force of the water. Our staircase was destroyedby water damage and could not be salvaged, all of it extremely unsafe. Demolition was done by us to mitigate the black mold that was sure to come, as we frantically worked against the clock. It was an extremely stressful time, full of uncertainty as the event was considered a ‘once in a 50-year event’. I do not live in a flood zone and my additional flood and sewer coverage was dropped years prior because of this disaster. It was also an incredibly hectic time at work due to projects,so life was just beyond difficult. No insurance coverage for this event, and to this day – our appeal to the immediate denial we received from FEMA still pending.
EAP stepped in and provided support beyond anything I could have imagined. Though Northwell Health is a huge organization, at no point did I feel like I was “just a number” – in fact, the attention I received from EAP felt so intimate – and there is no doubt in my mind that I mattered. Not only did EAP extend a full offering of supportive services, but I also received a very generous gift of financial assistance and with that was able to make much needed repairs to my home. I am so touched by the empathy, compassion, kindness and concern shown to me and my family that I don’t think I’ll ever find the right words to express my thanks.”
Northwell cares about the well-being of its team members, their families, and the communities we serve. As a Healthiest100 employer and a Best Place to Work organization, thisrecognition helps us engage team members as part of ‘Team Northwell’. The abundance of offerings and support Northwell provides to itsteam members is amazing. From wellness platforms, to counseling services, to fertility and childcare coverage, financial assistance programs, to career framework that helps everyone grow within the organization.
Gregg Nevola, Chief Total Well-being Officer, comments: “Knowing how we connect with our team member’s well-being journeys, allows us to better understand their journeys – what is working and more importantly where can we provide additional resources and programs.” Our leadership stands behind these programs and initiatives with the belief these will impact our team members positively. Leadership is 100% invested in the health and well-being of our team members – it is not just a check-the-box thought process. It’s how can we provide our team members with the resources to help them and their families thrive: physically, emotionally, socially, financially, and spiritually.
Q: How are you addressing the mental health crisis in the United States as COVID-19 continues to pose a threat?
A: At Northwell, we proactively outreach directly to our members, offering them multiple opportunities to opt-in to the following services:
- Employee + Family Assistance Program
- An internal team of psychologists, social workers, and mental health
professionals that deliver confidential, short-term counseling care to team
members and their benefit-eligible dependents, as a value-added benefit.
- Center for Traumatic Stress, Resilience, and Recovery
- An internal team of psychologists who deliver trauma-based care and resilience coaching. This team has launched Stress First Aid - an evidence-based model
adapted from high-risk occupations like the military - to provide a framework
for psychological peer support, with a set of seven actions designed to promote self-care and co-worker support.
- Emotional Support Call Center
- An internal phone line that connects team members seeking assistance from Employee Wellness, Chaplaincy Services, and Employee + Family Assistance Program
- Behavioral Health Navigation phone line to increase access to care
- A confidential concierge service provided at no cost to assist team members and their family members. This navigation helps individuals find the right mental
health services by providing a personal assessment, answering questions, and
expediting appointments
- Outreach Calls + Wellness Checks
- A quick outreach or drop-in session that is confidential and personalized with an EAP counselor. This represents an opportunity to speak with a licensed
professional about how you’re doing and learn about care and support options available for the team member’s well-being.
- Team Member Memorial services
- Chaplaincy provides services to memorialize and honor the life of both our deceased patients and staff. Mental health resources are also available to support team members at these services.
- Chaplaincy Heart-to-Heart sessions
- Chaplains help people of all faiths and cultural beliefs to find meaning, hope, connection, and comfort. A Heart-to-Heart session is a confidential, phone conversation with a Northwell chaplain.
- Inspiration Call Line
- Recorded by Northwell chaplains and community clergy, the inspiration call line is available 24/7 to team members and offers prayers and poems of
encouragement and hope. For inspiration, call 516-734-7980. Messages are updated every Monday.
- Site Support Activations
- An opportunity for the Employee + Family Assistance Program, Center for Traumatic Stress, Resilience and Recovery, Chaplaincy, and Employee Wellness to go on-site and provide offerings to teams that are in high need of emotional support.
- As part of our continuing recovery and healing efforts, we have createda series of events, activities and experiences for team members and their families. Celebrates campaign services include a family playbook with access to drive-in movie theaters, spa days for team members, and more. By implementing this campaign, Northwell wants to recognize the sacrifices of our team members and their contributions and celebrate the unbreakable unity we’ve achieved as we look ahead to the exciting future that awaits us.
- Unlonely Project
- Northwell partners with the Foundation for Arts + Healing, with the goal to broaden public awareness of negative physical and mental consequences of loneliness. Through the arts, our team members have found social connection and an outlet to express themselves. Northwell featured on CBS (at 1:30): https://www.artandhealing.org/cbs/
- Health Awareness months/days
- These events are a way for the health system to educate on important and timely health topics including Go Red (Feb), National nutrition (March), Stress Management/Alcohol Awareness (April), Mental Health (May), Breastfeeding Awareness and International Overdose Awareness Day (August), Suicide Awareness and Recovery month including Physician Suicide Awareness Day (Sept), Breast Cancer Awareness (Oct), Caregiver month (Nov). We work with internal communications to design a communications plan and amplify the resources that support the specific health awareness efforts. The team also works with expert speakers across the health system to create system-wide wellness workshops. myWellness (Virgin Pulse) is another component of these
national health awareness initiatives by incorporating a targeted Promoted
Healthy Habit Challenge toaligns with the specific month’s observances.
In addition, we maintaina variety of virtual offerings to support our team members well-being including digital coaching, substance misuse prevention, and stress reduction tools. With the goal of ensuring access and clear communications of resources available to our workforce of 78,000, we created a Care Collaborative of key internal partners who provide a wide range of mental well-being services, spearheaded by leaders in our wellness and behavioral health service lines
Q: What statistic best captures the success of your program’s effectiveness in the past 12 months?
A:The Employee Wellness teamsupports Northwell’s growing workforce - including full-time, part-time, per-diem, union, and non-union team members. The programs are not tied to benefits and are available to all. We take a holistic approach to the health and well-being of our team members including physical, mental/emotional, social, spiritual, and financial well-being. We believe that collaboration with our internal and external partners is the key to our success. Whether it is our partnership with our Wellness Liaisons and Wellness Champions or internal departments including Employee + Family Assistance Program, Center for Traumatic Stress, Resilience and Recovery, Employee Experience, Total Well-Being Benefits team and many more, we have created a robust network to address the well-being of our team members.
At Northwell, listening to the wants and needs of our team members is important and helps us continue to grow and improve as an organization. We routinely survey our team members through an annual Employee Engagement Survey and Well-Being Support Survey. Through these efforts, we learned that the top well-being concerns of our team members are physical, mental, and financial well-being. To note, 90% of employees complete these surveys, on average, each year:
- 70% believe “Northwell Health supports me in balancing my work life and personal life” - 75% feel that “Northwell Health cares about my overall well-being”
- 84% believe that “my manager cares about my overall well-being”
In addition to analyzing the survey results, we assess our programsin terms of engagement and adoption across the health system:
▪ 50,528 registered on myWellness/Virgin Pulse
▪ 26,628 Health Risk Assessments completed
▪ 2,574 new EAP client interactions
▪ 1,230 Thrive registrations
▪ 250+ Wellness Liaisons
▪ 300+ Wellness Champions
▪ 147 Physician Wellness Liaisons
▪ 50K EW YouTube channel views; over 250 videos available (Employee Wellness YouTube channel)
▪ Delivery of 425 site requested workshops
▪ Delivery of 60 system wellness workshops
▪ Over 400 BumpBox gifts sent to team members
▪ 14,775 registered on myHealthyBody – musculoskeletal program
▪ 37 Healthy Choice at Home recipe demo videos
▪ 55 live cook-alongs; surpassed annual goal
Joseph Moscola, Executive Vice President of the Enterprise, comments: “Caring for our patients begins with caring for our team members.” If our team members feel well and cared for, that will positively impact our patient experience. As quoted from one of our team members on the engagement survey, “It feels great to be part of an organization that is making strong efforts to improve not only the lives of the patients and clients we care for but is looking to transform healthcare. All while caring for Northwell's employees and their well-being.”
Read more about the Employee Wellness program at Northwell here:
https://jobs.northwell.edu/blog/category/wellness/
Q: Provide a testimony from one of your employees.
A: “As HR, we play a key role in serving as change leaders and champions of Northwell and the respective sites we represent Cultures and values. As we’ve seen with the last 2 years of the pandemic, we have shown up, stayed committed and often, feel the burnout-how much we put into our work and how it can affect us; emotionally, physically, financially, spiritually- you name it!
As an HR Partner, I play a key role in my wellbeing. We are often providing these resources to team members, yet we forget that these resources are readily available to us. I knew about the well-being resources available, but it wasn't until I knew I needed to make lifestyle changes and focus on my overall well-being therefore I took advantage of our emotional, physical, and financial well-being resources to build a personalized plan for myself and my family.
The resources I utilized so far among many:
1) Emotional support
A. Employee and Family Assistance Program (EAP): Free, confidential, short-term, goal-directed coaching and counseling to help you resolve problems that have an impact on your work and/or home life
B. Thrive at Northwell: Team members get free access to Thrive Global, a personalized mental resilience and well-being tool that helps to create and sustain positive new habits to drive productivity and grow resilience. Simple science backed mircosteps, like a breathing exercise to feel refreshed and awake, inspirational quotes, managing a stressful moment and so much more.
2) Physical:
a. WW – We are committed to helping you, and your eligible spouse reach your wellness goals—to lose weight, eat healthier, move more, develop a more positive mindset, or all the above. Team members receive a discounted rate and 50% reimbursement for a covered WW program when they meet the attendance requirements. Digital tools and virtual workshops available
b. Center for Weight Management: Located in Syosset, Great Neck and Manhattan, the Center for Weight Management consists of a physician, psychologist and nutritionists who work
with you on goal setting, medically supervised weight/behavioral management, planning skills and problem-solving.
3) Financial
a. Morgan Stanley at Work: Benefits-eligible team members can explore our new financial well-being offering to help gauge their finances and receive recommended and personalized resources to focus on their financial goals. You can also speak with a financial advisor to build a personalized wealth plan and more
b. Retirement planning consulting: From navigating financial decisions today to creating a smart strategy for tomorrow, a Transamerica retirement planning consultant can help — at no cost to you. Team members enrolled in an employee medical plan can receive a well being credit for participating in a 1-on-1 consult with a Transamerica consultant. I was also able to sign up and open a 529 savings plan for my daughter’sfuture.
As a wellness liaison, I would like to stress to you all, my colleagues, friends, and family the importance of taking the first step in caring for yourself, knowing there are ways Northwell offers to help you reach your goals, to live healthier and happier.”
“As an organization whose focus is on improving the well-being of our patients and communities, we place an emphasis on how we care for our own team members. We believe that increasing the well-being of our team members, helps our communities, as our team members bring these programs and learnings into their homes and communities.
Knowing how we connect with our team member’s well-being journeys, allows us to better understand their journeys – what is working and more importantly where can we provide additional resources and programs. Our constant listening allows our programs to evolve and be there for our team members where and when they are needed. This continuous listening exercise, improves our organization’s abilities to better understand impact our communities, and improve their well-being.
In essence, the value of our well-being programs, isn’t solely reflected in the well-being of our team members, it should and can be measured in how we can improve the well-being of our communities.”
– Gregg Nevola, Chief Well-Being Officer
