500 or More Employees

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3. Palomar Pomerado Health

Company description: Largest public health network in the state offering comprehensive health services
Number of employees: 3,200 15255 Innovation Drive, San Diego 92128
800-628-2880; pph.org
Highlights: Pension plan is one of the best in Southern California (PPH contributes 6 percent with no employee contribution required; after 15 years, the contribution increases to 6.5 percent); generous personal time off (five and a half weeks per year for a normal five-day workweek); leadership development; Professional Enhancement Program that allows employees to receive annual bonuses of $700-$3,000.

When Michael Covert, president and CEO of Palomar Pomerado Health, first arrived on the scene in January 2003, the sense of employee disenfranchisement was palpable. The largest employer in inland North County, the healthcare provider was structured as a “classic parent-child organization,” says Covert, with minimal input from employees in any decision-making process. He set to work to reverse this dynamic, sitting in focus group after focus group and soliciting employee feedback to create the company’s new vision statement.

“My job very clearly is to work for them; it’s not the other way around,” says Covert, who maintains an opendoor policy, inviting employees to contact him directly with concerns. “We are communicative with our people, we listen to them, our goals are aligned, and we are accountable to them.”

In her two decades at Palomar Pomerado Health, Lorie Shoemaker has worked her way up to chief nursing executive. “PPH teamwork really does live and breathe,” she says. “The leadership is very collaborative and people feel valued and have a say in what happens.” Nurses make decisions related to their practice via councils.

PPH recently received a grant from private foundation The California Endowment to develop a program called CLAS, which stands for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services. “Diversity is very valued in our organization,” says Shoemaker. “We want to make sure we are providing culturally competent care and to speak to patients in a language they can understand. We want to be culturally sensitive to our employees as well.”

The company’s Professional Enhancement Program lets employees earn points, redeemable for cash bonuses, for community involvement, participation on committees and advanced education.

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