Oct 2, 2019
Ensemble Health Partners Response
6yDear accounting clerk (we do not have this title or role within Ensemble),
Although we acknowledge and respect your opinions and as always are open to having a personal conversation with you, we feel compelled to respond to your concerns with facts and data. Because we make the engagement and happiness of our associates one of the single highest priorities in the company and frankly one of the founding principles of the company, we believe that it's important to speak the truth. As leaders and an organization there is always something we can do to improve and we acknowledge and own that.
1.) Promotions are a big deal within Ensemble. This is a mark of the investment we make in developing our associates. In fact, in the last year, we have promoted hundreds of associates across all demographics (in fact, our internal promotion rate is nearly 25% higher than industry benchmarks).
2.) In terms of turnover, our turnover rate of 15% is less than all major benchmarks we track against, including banking & finance (18%), healthcare (20%) and call centers (44%). Also, we just got the results back from our internal Speak Up engagement survey. As an organization, our overall engagement score is 79% compared to IBM WorldNorms benchmarking of 74%. Over the last year, we have been able to increase our engagement score 7% showing we put People First, Last, Always.
3.) We engage a third party to ensure we are offering competitive compensation with annual raises every year since Ensemble’s founding. In addition, we’ve built in a bonus structure so that the entire associates staff can benefit from our successes in the market. Yes, we have entry level positions and we offer market rates for those positions, but we work to quickly develop and advance those with four different training tracks that we offer to ensure that we are able to grow our staff quickly in order to meet the demands of our rapidly expanding client base.
4.) Requesting PTO - Sending requests by email could certainly result in them getting "lost.” When sent that way, managers need to manually check remaining PTO allocations and review departmental calendars to make sure they are appropriately covered/staffed for the requested timeframes. To simplify this and to prevent requests from being lost, we use Kronos to manage PTO requests. There is a “request time off” button near the top of the screen. Click that button, select the dates you are requesting and click “submit”. It takes a couple extra steps for the requester, but it’s the best way to make sure the requests are tracked and approved appropriately.
5.) I’m aligned with you that the current headquarters is straining to keep up with our growth. This is why we are building out a 400,000 sq ft campus in Blue Ash, OH with a fitness center, cafe, cafeteria, day care center, walking paths, pond, event center and state of the art facilities (and yes, new furniture too). We’re doing everything we can to support America’s healthcare providers with strong revenue cycle performance. We believe success in that mission starts with taking care of our people first. Our growth has been a direct result of hiring and growing the strongest talent available. Our capital partner shares our vision…not to bail us out – simply that they invested in us because they believe in our mission, the positive impact we are having on evolving healthcare and because of the success we’ve had in gaining and retaining clients
6.) What you have described here, in your 6th point, is just about the fastest, most sure-fire way to ensure that a company runs itself into the ground. Given that we’ve never lost a client, we out-perform employee engagement and retention best -practice benchmarks, out-scored all our fully scaled competitors on the Klas ratings, have been recognized as a best place to work by both Becker’s and the city of Cincinnati and consistently break records with the donations we make to charitable causes, I see things differently. We are VERY passionate about our mission and we stand by our principles.
Here at Ensemble, communication with each other, our team members, leaders and across the company is imperative to the success of our company and the results that we produce for our clients. Each and every day our associates have the chance to meet with their team and their leader to talk about what’s working, ways to improve and things that are going on around the company. Every week, our senior leadership team sends out communication to all of our associates, no matter their location. We have a newsletter, a company intranet, additional weekly e-mails that are sent to our associates and may other different ways that we communicate across our company. We provide countless opportunities to speak up about ways to improve around our company, and we encourage this each and every day. In addition, the personal cell phone numbers of our senior leadership team are published, and we have an easy way to communicate directly to us via e-mail as well. We encourage our associates and our leaders to share their feedback in the avenues outlined above, but wanted to take the time to respond directly to your post. If you feel that your concerns have not been addressed, have you taken the time to escalate to the next level leader? We want, and encourage, our associates to escalate concerns and feedback, all the way to the senior leadership team if appropriate. As we like to say, “have the courage to have the conversation.”
Sincerely,
Judson Ivy, CEO and Founder, Ensemble Health Partners, Shannon White, President, Ensemble Health Partners and the entire Ensemble Management Team