ArchCare is the continuing care community of the Archdiocese of New York. Our 4,000 employees, who we call our care members, serve more than 10,000 of our area’s most vulnerable individuals each day. With full support of our CEO and leadership team, we began our Great Place to Work journey several years ago, and I am extremely proud of what we have accomplished.
The building blocks that got us started
In 2019, we made the decision to focus on our care members’ experiences and set a goal to differentiate ourselves and create a more engaged workplace.
Our first Great Place to Work survey showed what we needed to improve. Our goal was to certify with Great Place to Work within the next few years, so we got to work addressing the gaps that the process uncovered.
Little did we know of the headwinds coming our way, and how we would come to value our engaged workforce even more.
Getting started amid the onset of COVID-19
In early 2020, when the pandemic hit, everyone was trying to make sense of what was going on. You saw what happened in New York, and particularly in our nursing homes; we lived it. Our Care Members – who are our front-line heroes – became family to our residents while our PACE center staff creatively used technology to reach participants at home.
A refocus on meeting people where they are – body, mind, and spirit
As an organization, we decided to focus on our Care Members. Our CEO said it this way: “You care for the people, and we will care for you.”
So, instead of a Great Place to Work certification survey, we worked with our Activated Insights partner to solicit the feedback of our Care Members.
We asked: what could we do to support, you, our healthcare heroes?
Right away, we heard the cries of food insecurity, child care issues and the need for mental health support. Before the survey even closed, we had deployed several accessible programs to meet our Care Members where they were as individuals and in their lives.
- Body. We provided financial support for childcare, gift cards to address food insecurity gaps, and provided PPE and supplies. When a Care Member fell ill, we sent care packages containing chicken soup, a ladle, and chocolate chip cookies to their house. The soup was more than just a meal; it was a way for us to show our team how we care about them as people. Our Care Members appreciated the gift, and it allowed us to show them our support as their employer during the most difficult of times.
- Mind. Mental health support has been critical.
- Our CEO, Scott LaRue, held weekly webinars during the height of the pandemic with upwards of 150 family members and Care Members in attendance. The webinars continue to this day and no questions are off limits.
- Each week we host “Meditation Mondays” where 50 staff and family members come together for a 25-minute Zoom meditation.
- Our bereavement counselor leads support groups and offers 1:1 services for those who have lost family, friends and colleagues to the virus.
- Spirit. Leaning on our Catholic foundation, our priests have been available to anyone seeking help. With the daily challenges our staff face, addressing spiritual needs has been incredibly important.
The Great Place to Work journey brought speed and creativity
In the present, healthcare is experiencing a historic staffing crisis. Because of what we’ve learned, we are embracing creativity and speed more than ever. We are meeting people where they are and finding ways to offer exactly what they need.
For example, we have a team recruiting just for shift work. If a nurse wants to pick up two or three shifts per month, we have a way to offer that. We also found challenges hiring certified nursing assistants (CNAs) fast enough, so we started training our own CNAs. We not only pay for training but for the time as well. We are also reworking our onboarding experiences to be more thoughtful, designing them through a GPTW lens.
Our mindset is much different now. We are excited to continue our journey. Each day, we work to ensure that each Care Member knows we will support them – with chicken soup in hand if that is what they need at the time, and so that they, in turn, provide excellent care to those we serve.
Our tagline – “You care for the people, and we will care for you” – has become a true commitment to the body, mind and spirit of our 4,000 Care Members and we are dedicated to maintaining this promise well into the future. To our healthcare heroes, we thank each and every one of you.
Hugo Pizarro is the SVP and Chief Experience Officer at ArchCare.
The opinions expressed in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News guest submissions are the author’s and are not necessarily those of McKnight’s Long-Term Care News or its editors.
