Creative HR takes many forms - human resources - Yoder-Heneman Creative Application Awards

HR Magazine, August, 1994 by Linda Thornburg

The Yoder-Heneman Creative Application Awards recognize creativity in applying management concepts to improve performance, advance the HR profession, and promote better understanding of HR management. The award-winning programs for 1994 take a unique approach to enhancing the workplace and its employees.

Representing Doctors Hospital of Manteca, Terrence Gray won the small organization category for demonstrating that compassion has a valid place in HR management. Through his work, the hospital was able to listen carefully and understand the problems of lower-paid employees who want better paying jobs--and help them reach their goals.

The Wisconsin Power & Light Co.'s Jim Bindl, winner from the medium-sized company category, illustrates that the best ideas are often the simplest. The company's brilliant use of certificates to recognize employees is an elegant, easily implemented and immediately appreciated recognition system.

Household Finance Corp.'s Rose Smith, winner from the large organization category, put forth an ambitious agenda of programs to foster employee development and employee satisfaction that ensures the company will remain competitive. The company's carefully executed programs display the beauty' and intricacy of a well-thought-out HR plan that supports and extends the company's mission and strategies.

Krissy Vickerman is studying to be a radiology technician. Eventually she hopes to move into ultrasonography. Her last pre-requisite to be eligible for the radiology technologist program at Delta College in Stockton, Calif., is physiology, a course only offered during the day. But Krissy works in the Imaging Services Department of Doctors Hospital and the course conflicts with her work schedule. Recently, her employer devised a way for her to take the clay class without losing benefits or salary.

John Waggle, an employee in the housekeeping department of Doctors Hospital, is completing pre-requisites to become a physical therapist. With the hospital's help, he can afford the reference books, otherwise he could not have continued school.

Krissy and John are two of the 14 employees taking advantage of a new program, Partners in Education, for employees who are not managers or licensed professionals at Doctors Hospital, a 73-bed acute care facility with 372 employees in the Northern California town of Manteca (population 40,000). The program was instigated by the hospital's CEO, Rich Robinson, who was bothered by the fact that lower-paid staff weren't using the educational benefits to which they were entitled as employees.

Robinson was convinced that something was keeping them from taking advantage of the rich educational benefits package offered by the hospital. In April 1992, he hired Terrence Gray to be the hospital's director of human resources. Gray came from a facility owned by National Medical Enterprises (NME), which also owns Doctors Hospital. His first assignment was to find out why employees weren't pursuing schooling that could open the door to better paying health-care jobs, then use the information to design a program to encourage employees to get the education required to become professionals.

Here's what Gray found:

A woman with two young children works full time in the hospital's housekeeping department, making $8.00 an hour. During the day, the employee's mother watches the children, but the woman doesn't feel right asking her mother to watch the kids at night too. To go to school, the employee would have to pay $504 for child care over 18 weeks of a course semester. Also, the costs of reference books, supplies, tuition, an I.D. card, parking, health fees and text books would be $263. Most of the costs associated with tuition would be reimbursed when the employee finished the course. But many employees earning $8.00 an hour do not have the money to invest upfront.

Gray formed a committee of 15 nonmanagerial and nonlicensed employees to address the obtacles that prevented employees from seeking education. Not only did employees worry about child-care expenses, but they also were concerned about being able to take courses at convenient times, about not losing their current salary and benefits if they had to work part time and go to school, and about obtaining the information pertinent to their chosen careers.

The Partners In Education program addresses these concerns by providing tuition assistance when employees enroll, loans for child care and information about health-care careers and educational programs available in the area. Each year, a limited number of employees may qualify to attend classes and work part time while maintaining full-time benefits and salary.

A standing committee reviews the program applications, interviews candidates and submits recommendations regarding program acceptance. Gray is ultimately responsible for program administration, but the committee serves as a resource to those who want information on career planning or a specific career path. Employees who are accepted into the partners program must sign promissory notes and provide proof of class enrollment. They agree to pay back the money advanced if they fail to complete the course or program of study, or if they leave the hospital within six months after completing their schooling. All loans, including those for child care, are forgiven upon satisfactory course completion and six months additional service. So far, no one has defaulted on a note.