Fortune Names Scripps Health to Its 100 Best Companies List

Scripps’ Work-Life Services program, partnering with Scripps’ Employee Assistance Program (EAP) team, has continued to provide customized help to employees in times of personal crisis. The program provides a personal, hands-on approach to help the whole individual, even away from the job. Every situation is unique, so efforts have ranged from helping arrange pet care to assisting with childcare resources, to providing guidance with completing and filing disability paperwork. 

The Work-Life Services program also manages the Helping Our Peers in Emergencies (HOPE) Fund, a program made possible by employee donations that provides paid time off (PTO) and financial assistance to employees in need. PTO donations not only help employees with income, but also keep their benefits active while on leave of absence. The HOPE Fund has provided support in various situations, such as providing grants to help with funeral expenses, groceries and children’s clothes. From June 2022 through June 2023, 33 employees received more than $56,000 in assistance and 10 employees received 255 hours of PTO.

During the COVID-19 pandemic and continuing today, Scripps has experienced a significant increase in violence and verbal abuse against health care workers. To address this issue and support the Scripps workforce, Van Gorder created a regional hospital workforce violence task force that includes law enforcement agencies and health care organizations from across San Diego County. 

The group held its first meeting in 2023 and is already making progress by increasing awareness of the issue and mapping out goals to prevent, address and prosecute crimes involving violence against hospital workers. Scripps is also supporting efforts to create legislation that would increase penalties for perpetrators of violence against health care workers in California.

Meanwhile, Scripps has continued to offer de-escalation courses to equip its employees with skills to handle potentially dangerous situations and ensure they feel safe. This includes self-defense tactics and situational awareness training.

To foster a strong sense of belonging among all employees, Scripps recently launched a diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging initiative. This includes an employee driven DEIB council that meets monthly to share insights and perceptions about what it personally means to work at Scripps, how they view current DEIB initiatives and where to focus future efforts.  

The council includes more than 30 Scripps employees representing a variety of ethnicities, sexual orientations, disabilities and economic backgrounds. The group distributed a companywide survey to understand what DEIB topics were most important to the overall workforce, and to understand perspectives and viewpoints that could help guide a more inclusive workforce culture at Scripps. 

Two key themes emerged from the employee surveys: LGBTQIA+ and Black/African American issues. The council formed two workforce affinity groups dedicated to those two areas, with the goal of building a community to discuss meaningful topics and prioritize opportunities for improvement. The council also formed two subcommittees: one focused on reviewing companywide policies from a DEIB perspective, and another geared toward educating the overall workforce about DEIB efforts at Scripps, as well as resources for employee celebrations and recognitions.

Early feedback on the program is encouraging, with 93% and 89% of Scripps employees agreeing that people are treated fairly regardless of sexual orientation and race, respectively.

In the fast-paced world of heath care, workers are often focused on their current task and can lose sight of their larger mission. To help reconnect employees back to the purpose that inspired them to become health care providers, Scripps created a special program called Heartwork. 

The program includes a series of two-hour workshops, each focused on a different theme: presence, connection, compassion and empathy. Participants identify ways they can put these principles into practice in their own patient care routines and home lives.

Heartwork began as a pilot program at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas and has since spread to other Scripps facilities.

According to a survey by Great Place to Work, Fortune’s partner, 83% of Scripps employees say it is a great place to work. Additionally, 89% of Scripps employees say they are proud to tell others where they work and 91% feel good about how Scripps Health contributes to the community.

Scripps came in at 100 in the latest version of the highly competitive national Fortune Best Companies to Work For list. Great Place To Work, the global authority on workplace culture, selected the list using rigorous analytics and confidential employee feedback from more than 1.3 million US employees. Companies are only considered for the list if they are Great Place To Work Certified organizations with 1,000 or more employees in the US.

Great Place To Work is the only company culture award in the world that selects winners based on how fairly employees are treated. Companies are assessed on their ability to create a great employee experience that cuts across race, gender, age, disability status, or any aspect of employee identity or job role.

Earning a spot on the list is an important indicator of overall company performance. Companies on the 100 Best list consistently outperform the market and exceed their competitors on key business measures like retention and innovation.

Learn more about Scripps Health, a nonprofit integrated health system in San Diego, Calif.