Teaching its employees to aim high is the secret to success for this Virginia-based health-care system. At least three times per year, its leaders are trained on how best to manage and advance hourly workers, and high-potential employees are encouraged to apply to the on-site School at Work program, which prepares them for nursing and other medical careers. “It inspired me,” says recent valedictorian Bernadette Johnson, a food service worker and mom of four who has since enrolled in a college medical assistance program. All employees cheered last summer when the system’s higher-education reimbursements were raised to $5,000 from $3,500 for full-time hourly workers (those who put in at least 32 hours each week) and to $2,500 from $1,750 for part-timers. Anyone earning less than $11 per hour gets tuition and books paid for up front and qualifies for 50% tuition discounts at three on-site child-care centers. Alternative schedules ease stress, with 65% of full-time hourly workers adjusting their hours, 35% compressing their workweeks and 18% sharing jobs. As a result, turnover is plummeting among new employees and—among hourly staffers in environmentalservices—even drops as low as zero.

Hourly workers 82% 

CEO Peter Bernard

Administrative Director, Work & Family Services Dawn Trivette

Female hourly workers 85%

Work hours required for family health insurance 16

Job skills training during work hours for hourly workers Yes

Encourage breaks so nursing moms can breast-pump Yes

Average annual paid time off taken by hourly workers 30 days

Minimum job-guaranteed maternity leave offered to hourly workers 16 weeks

Minimum paid maternity leave offered to hourly workers 7 weeks at partial pay