An Employer of Choice

Part of Tanner Health System’s mission includes establishing itself as the region’s healthcare provider of choice. However, Tanner already has made significant steps in cementing its reputation as an employer of choice in the metro Atlanta area, earning regional, state and national accolades from a number of industry-focused publication, including the Atlanta Business Chronicle, Modern Healthcare and Georgia Trend.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

The People Pillar

One of the ways we illustrate our foundational values at Tanner is with pillars.  One such value is People; they are recognized as a key ingredient to our future success.  

In the Human Resources department, the people we deal with are mostly employees and potential employees so those are the folks I want to talk about in this posting.

We are a fairly large organization - consistently a top employer in our area - and poised to continue to grow.  In healthcare, they say that it is easy to lose that "small hospital feel" when you grow.  In other words, it is easy for employees to lose that connectivity with one another when the landscape keeps changing.

Today, I am remembering just a few instances that provide anecdotal evidence that the People Pillar  is still intact at Tanner Health System.

I know of a particular department that has had more than one of their team members to tragically lose family members over the past year.  In each instance, they came together to support the employee, giving of themselves and out of their resources, working extra shifts, making those comforting phone calls, or sending a note now and then.

At the same time, they continued to care for their patients with unfettered diligence; not swayed from the duty of their call.

The same particular department also found time recently to combine their efforts and prepare trays of homemade candies and sweets of all sorts, to send out to other departments! (The Human Resources group happened to be on the receiving end of one of those trays *WOW*.)

In the corner of the cafeteria recently, I watched as a group of employees gathered around a co-worker to celebrate her birthday with a cake and singing.

A couple of employees teamed up to intervene and find resources for a colleague who suddenly found themselves without a home.

When an emergency with an employee's family resulted in one of our hospital's Nutrition Services department being short of staff.  The Director of Nursing stepped in and quickly pulled together a team to help them get through the lunch time rush.  On that particular day - I got wash dishes.

Tanner even has a benevolence program set up that allows employees to contribute to a fund providing assistance to those that encounter setbacks beyond their control.

Ours is a culture built around people and the interdependence of our employees results in a vast improvement in the care we provide for the community.  We are more efficient because we know one another and rely on one another.

The People Pillar: another reason Tanner Health System is a Great Place to Work!


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