As the pandemic’s toll has exacerbated workforce shortages and employee turnover in the sector living and care sector, executives at Louisville, KY-based Trilogy Health Services know that ensuring a great workplace culture is critical to the firm’s success.
The approach helped Trilogy earn a spot on Fortune’s list of Best Workplaces for Aging Services for 2020, released Thursday by Fortune and Great Place to Work. The firm, which boasts 125 locations and more than 12,000 employees, was ranked fourth on the list of large senior living and care employers, behind Baltimore-based Brightview Senior Living, Carlsbad, CA-based Continuing Life and Warminster, PA-based Wesley Enhanced Living. Fortune and Great Place to Work also released a list of the top 20 small and medium-sized organizations and the top 10 at-home care providers.
Taking a people-first approach required some business heroics this year from Trilogy, Fortune noted. In spite of falling revenues and profits, Trilogy spent millions of dollars delivering wage increases to direct-care staff. In addition, the company provided more than 2,000 employees with Walmart gift cards to pay for food, and staff members with children whose schools shut down in the spring received child care assistance.
By putting its employees first, Trilogy has seen nearly 50% lower employee turnover than the industry average. In addition, Trilogy employee scores on the Great Place to Work Trust Index survey dipped just 3% from 2019, with 80% of staffers calling the company a great place to work. Similar long-term care facilities have seen their employee Trust Index scores fall more than 7%.
“This is what we strive for,” Trilogy CEO Leigh Ann Barney, a 2020 McKnight’s Women of Distinction Forum speaker, told Fortune, “to let our employees know that we care about you, we invest in you, and we want to make your life better.”
