Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH) recently embarked on a journey to address issues facing its industry, including the flight of talented caregivers, increasing levels of burnout and the subsequent impact on both the patient experience and business outcomes for its hospitals. This was compounded by the fact that they are based in New Jersey, a highly competitive market with some of the highest population density in the country, where patients and caregivers have plenty of choices of where to seek care and where to be employed, respectively.
HMH is composed of 18 hospitals and over 500 outpatient clinics and physician offices in multi-specialty health and wellness centers, all dedicated to compassionate, collaborative care for patients.
The leadership team at HMH agreed that their path to bunk these issues laid in the hands of their frontline leaders. There was only so much that senior leadership could do to create the ideal environment for humans to care for other humans. To truly differentiate its system from others, HMH felt that culture was key to creating the type of place that caregivers would want to work in and feel empowered to deliver the type of care that inspired them to choose the profession in the first place.
HMH spent a couple of years creating a foundation within their People and Culture strategy that placed the team leader at the center. They designated their leaders as “committed coaches,” emphasizing the importance of the coach in the success of the team. In 2022, HR leadership developed tools and strategies that focused on a team-centric, strengths-based approach to leadership. The idea was simple: Building a culture is an all-in proposition, and the key to its success is to strengthen engagement in a team leader-focused way. They established HMH as a strengths-based organization, declaring that it was a place where every individual would be celebrated for their strengths and encouraged to volunteer in service of others. This was supported by a strengths assessment that provided technology-enabled coaching and insights that could inform conversations and self-reflection.
They followed this effort with initiatives focused on emphasizing the importance of attention. If team leaders could find the time to check in with each of their team members once a week, they felt this would shape their experience at work, help the leaders be more connected with their people and drive productivity into the system by addressing their needs in real time.
So how did HMH’s efforts work out?
In 2025, 89% of HMH’s 37,000+ team members had taken the strengths assessment. Team member engagement increased by 19%. Team members that engaged in the check-in with their leaders every week saw an average of 51% higher engagement than those that didn’t. These engaged teams were also six times more likely to consider HMH a Great Place to Work. Needless to say, this approach had an impact on how team members perceived their workplace.
HMH’s turnover also decreased by 25% to under 10% in 2024, making them the standard for healthcare not just in New Jersey, but across the entire country.
There is so much that goes into making an organization a great place to work. Some involve complex strategies, tools and training. Yet there are some straight forward strategies that could be leveraged to help folks rediscover their passion for their chosen profession. Putting a focus on helping individuals understand their strengths, how to contribute them and gain attention is a winning formula that is starting to pay more and more dividends in healthcare systems across the country.
