Two new categories added to awards

The young and the healthy. This year’s Best Places to Work in Healthcare program includes two new award categories to spotlight those attributes of the workforces at the winning organizations.

The new categories—the Millennials Award and the Healthiest Award—look at two powerful forces at work in America: the rising influence of the millennial generation that entered adulthood around the turn of the 21st century; and the pressure on employers to provide programs and benefits that will help keep their staffers healthy.

The Millennials Award finalists were determined based on the number of employees of that age (10% of the firm’s workforce, or at least 25, whichever was greater, had to be under age 35), and how engaged they are at the company based on the number of responses to the Best Places to Work employee survey questionnaire.

Criteria for the Healthiest Award included the health insurance eligibility waiting period; types of plans and coverage offered to full-timers and part-timers; availability of fitness facilities; whether the firm pays for health club or fitness/wellness plans; and several other metrics. Programs and activities to help eliminate stress and promote work-life balance also were part of the equation.

The organizations profiled— representing the top finalists in the two categories of providers/insurers and suppliers—take a look at what some individual organizations are doing to keep their workers healthy and keep millennials happy.