Trillium Health Centre puts total rewards together for easy access, understanding
Rafael is a registered nurse who enjoys skateboarding in his spare time, according to a poster that shows one-half of him dressed in his scrubs with a stethoscope, the other in casual wear holding a skateboard.
The poster is one of several in Trillium Health Centre’s “Our People Promise” campaign, which launched in October 2009 to communicate how much the Toronto-based organization values employees.
“We launched it really as a catalyst to drive our recruitment, engagement and retention strategy,” says Rhonda Lewis, acting chief human resources officer. “We used it also to drive an awareness of our total rewards program and our total rewards philosophy. It also answers the fundamental question of employees of ‘What’s in it for me?’”
The campaign came about after an annual healthy workplace survey, a survey of management and focus groups with staff revealed employees wanted and needed to know the value of Trillium’s investment in them.
“Within the health-care environment, there’s not much variation in terms of salary and benefits because we are largely a unionized environment,” says Lewis (though Trillium is more of a non-union organization).
“So it really is our focus on retention and engagement that helps us to stand out from the rest and makes people want to come here.”
The next employee survey will be completed this month and Trillium will be tracking responses to the total rewards campaign but the centre is already seeing encouraging results through HR metrics, says Lewis.
The vacancy rate is the lowest it has ever been, at 1.7 per cent, compared to the provincial average of four to six per cent. And the health centre’s turnover rate has stayed steady but low, at 5.7 per cent, compared to the Ontario average of seven per cent, she says.
The campaign builds on one of the themes of the hospital’s three-year strategic plan, which also launched in 2009: Outstanding people.
“Through the strategic plan, we made a promise to care for our patients, so we built upon that plan by promising to care for our staff equally through this initiative,” says Lewis.
The centre took the opportunity to promote its core values — excellence, teamwork, leadership, learning, diversity and integrity — and link the rewards program back to the strategic plan, she says.
As part of the program, Trillium created a people branding statement: “Outstanding people generate outstanding results.” It uses the phrase on every document that talks about people programs, such as job postings.
“That’s a statement that’s really now being used to generate or instill pride in employees,” says Lewis. “It shows how much we value our people and it shows them that Trillium is more than just a place to work, it’s a place where employees can actually grow with the organization.”
The People Promise campaign also has a simple statement: “You matter.”
“That’s kind of a vivid and constant reminder that once again Trillium values its people and considers its people as its most trusted resource,” says Lewis.
The health centre has always had a comprehensive total rewards program but with the People Promise campaign, Trillium made a point of compiling and detailing all of the rewards in one brochure with the headline: “This is the total value of working at Trillium.”
HR distributed this to the 4,300 employees at staff meetings for the various units and also posted it to the intranet portal, says Roula Giannidis, a communications consultant at Trillium.
It’s an ongoing campaign so, every month, the brochure is handed out to new employees. On the intranet portal, there are updates and more people stories.
“We have so many total rewards but all the information was in different sections of the portal. So we’ve packaged it all into one section but we’ve also made it easy for people to access rewards,” she says.
When it launched the People Promise campaign, Trillium gave PowerPoint presentations to managers and presented them with packages of information.
“We wanted to make sure our management team had all the information that they needed to be able to answer all the staff questions,” says Giannidis. “Also, we wanted to partner with them, so they could push the information out to their staff.”
As a next step, the centre is working on personalized total reward statements. The format has been worked out on paper as a spreadsheet and now it’s a matter of incorporating it into the HRIS, so changes to employee pay don’t have to be done manually, says Lewis.
What the hospital offers
Trillium’s 4 quadrants of total rewards
There are four quadrants of total rewards at Trillium Health Centre:
Wages and benefits: In addition to competitive pay and benefits, Trillium offers a shared extended health-care plan with 25 per cent covered by the employee and 75 per cent covered by the health centre. The plan includes 100 per cent reimbursement for prescription drugs as well as coverage for vision care, hospital care, emergency medical expenses outside the province, various medical services and equipment and paramedical services. The dental plan is similar, with 100 per cent coverage for basic services.
Trillium’s vacation entitlement starts at three or four weeks, with two paid float days. Many employees receive paid or unpaid leaves of absence to pursue educational opportunities or other employment opportunities in health-care organizations, the Ministry of Health or the private sector.
Retirement benefits are offered through the Hospitals of Ontario Pension Plan. The plan is mandatory for full-time employees and optional for part-time staff.
Trillium also tops up employment insurance to 84 per cent for 27 weeks for maternity and parental leave. And the health centre provides bereavement leave to employees and their families.
Learning and development: This includes a talent management program, mentorship programs, a leadership and career development program, a management development program and leadership development program.
There are also tuition reimbursements of $1,000 for full-time staff and $500 for part-time employees. Trillium provides an online learning program with mandatory courses for staff and recently opened a state-of-the-art learning centre.
Another valuable learning environment is an annual back-to-school conference that is open to all staff, says Rhonda Lewis, acting chief human resources officer. Up to 2,000 employees have attended the one-day event, which features renowned speakers and in-house faculty.
Trillium recently launched an enhanced performance development program that is technology-based with 360-degree feedback reviews.
Recognition and rewards: For recognition, Trillium gives out annual corporate quality awards, long-service awards, employee referrals and an individual and team recognition award program called “App!ause!” There are also recognition weeks for different groups of employees and an annual staff appreciation barbecue.
Healthy workplace: This includes employee wellness programs such as mini massages, health-club discounts, fitness classes, lunch-and-learns, an employee assistance program, healthy cafeteria options, an attendance awareness and support program, casual Fridays and ergonomic consults.
A newly opened six-storey west wing also encompasses Trillium’s focus on a healthy, ergonomically friendly environment, says Larry Roberts, a media relations consultant at Trillium.
That means equipment is at waist-height, to avoid too much bending, rooms are spacious to allow the beds to be moved easily, there is a centralized care model so staff have to walk less far to retrieve supplies and large windows for plenty of natural light. And each person has a mobile device so patients can call them directly if they have a request, making for a quieter environment with fewer pages on the loud speaker.
“A better work environment, a better physical environment helps people’s whole outlook on their job and complements the whole total rewards program,” says Roberts.
