Scripps Health Named to FORTUNE Magazine's National "100 Best Companies to Work For" List in 2008

Scripps Health has been named to FORTUNE magazine’s 11th annual list of America’s “100 Best Companies to Work For,” marking the first time a San Diego health care provider has been included on the prestigious ranking of the nation’s leading employers.

Scripps ranked 56th on this year’s list and is only the second San Diego-based company to make the list since the list’s inception in 1998, joining Qualcomm.

“Scripps is proud to be recognized by FORTUNE as one of America’s premier employers,” said Chris Van Gorder, president and CEO of Scripps Health “And this honor is particularly rewarding because it’s based largely on what our own employees have to say about Scripps, through the annual Great Place to Work survey.”

Scripps’ success in creating an attractive work environment stems from listening to its employees’ feedback to set organizational priorities, including compensation, benefits and leadership development. FORTUNE recognized Scripps for increasing its tuition reimbursement by 50 percent; staying competitive on salaries by making biannual marketplace salary adjustments; offering a phased retirement option that allows older employees to work part time with full-time benefits; and paying nearly $8 million in 2007 in success sharing to 9,300 employees for meeting performance objectives.

The list will appear in the Feb. 4 issue of FORTUNE. To select its “100 Best Companies to Work For” list, FORTUNE works with the Great Place to Work Institute to conduct the most extensive employee survey in corporate America. A total of 406 companies participated in this year’s survey and nearly 100,000 employees at those companies responded to a 57-question survey created by the Great Place to Work Institute, a global research and consulting firm.

“Our goal is to create the most attractive work environment possible, to support our staff so they can provide the best patient care, clinical research and graduate medical education in San Diego” said Vic Buzachero, senior vice president of human resources for Scripps Health. “And we’ve seen tremendous gains during the past several years in the way our employees say they feel about Scripps, including the quality of our patient care, the way we give back to the community, our compensation and benefits and the overall sense of pride they feel about working at Scripps.”

Scripps has demonstrated remarkable success with employee retention. Approximately 25 percent of Scripps’ workforce has been with the organization for more than 10 years, and about 10 percent have been with Scripps for more than 20 years. Scripps’ turnover rate for nurses – one of health care’s most competitive employment sectors – stands at 11.7 percent, well below California industry standards.

For the “100 Best Companies to Work For” list, two-thirds of the company’s score is based on results of the 57-question survey, which is sent to a minimum of 400 randomly selected employees from each company. The other one-third of the scoring is based on the company’s responses to the Great Place to Work Institute’s culture audit, which includes questions about pay and benefit programs, hiring practices, internal communications, training and recognition programs, diversity efforts and other areas.

The FORTUNE magazine ranking comes on the heels of two other national accolades Scripps Health has received for workplace excellence. Scripps was ranked No. 4 in the nation in AARP’s 2007 listing of the 50 Best Employers for Workers Over 50. Working Mother magazine named Scripps to its 2007 list of America’s 100 Best Companies for its family-friendly policies.