Q&A With CHG Healthcare Employees

A recruiter, my immediate manager, the team I'd work with, my director and vice-president and then another release manager.

Standard job related questions. Combined with trying to gauge how your standards align with the core values. The CEO always says, "you can train for skill, but you can't train for core values."

Below average. The poor culture in IT combined with low wages, and the fact that people can go make 20-30% more isn't doing them any favors.

I would only work 40 hours a week, because I knew if I stayed late, leadership would expect you to do it. They like to pretend they have a flexible schedule, but they don't. The corporate policy is "find a schedule that works for you, your team, the company, and your leadership." But... leadership will always tell you people who they can't see working aren't working. The IT dept has a very fearful vibe. Because leadership rules by fear.

For the most part, the IT team is pretty great. 8 out of 10 people are great people who I've made wonderful friendships and they worry about you on a personal level. But 2 out of 10 people know that the way they will stand out to a dysfunctional leadership is be turning in their fellow employees and making themselves look good. So they will watch what you are doing, and will "tattle" on you if you don't align with their expectations. And leadership values their opinion more than your job performance. They are constantly talking about "it's the perception." So, you could have a great functioning team, very productive, everyone getting a long. But, if 1 person has an opinion it will circulate throughout the company and leadership. Their metric for quality is very dysfunctional.

My immediate manager was fantastic. They lead by fear. It's a very dysfunctional environment and they are losing a lot of people in IT because of bad upper management. We had an employee who had to go to the doctor with their child who had a prosthetic leg to get a new leg and leadership got mad at her for it. They got mad at me for using my PTO for sick time, even though they don't offer sick time. It felt like junior high and they don't trust or respect their employees. If you are looking for a job where they will treat you like a responsible adult, the IT department at CHG is probably not the place for you. There are a lot of stories I could tell, but it would give away who I am and I'd be worried about reprisals.

I had a total of 7 interviews. It got to the point where I started asking them, "is there a problem?" Because it seemed like they had doubts about me. But culturally, they just want the team you'll be working with to be involved.

They have fantastic benefits. An on-site free clinic that your family can use, teledoc services where you can call doctors for free and send them pictures of issues and get prescriptions over the phone, 401k matching, tuition and training costs, a lot of great benefits.

On the surface, great. Underneath, there is a dark underbelly. It's hard to see through the balloons, parties, and activities, but if you do, you'll see leadership that mistrust their employees, won't see past their preconceived notions, are more worried about winning points with senior leadership, and do not "put people first." I have heard mid level leaders openly bad-mouth junior employees in front of other junior employees. I can only imagine what goes on behind close doors.

I love my coworkers I work with on a day-to-day business. However, I find that everyone is FAR too worried about what everyone else is doing. You kind of have to watch your back a little because people will notice what you are and aren't doing and they will go talk to your leadership and create a mountain out of a molehill.

How do you deal with conflict?

I had 6 interviews. They interview for culture more than skills. Because they believe you can train for skill, you can't train for culture. Those core values need to be present in the employee. It just comes across as them having doubts about the candidate and they're trying to lay to rest issues they have about the candidate.

The sales side is growing because people always need doctors placed. The company drastically doesn't understand how to utilize IT in the current market. They don't pay their IT professionals enough. So they can't recruit or retain top talent because they can go somewhere else and make 20%-30% more somewhere else. They have a lot of people within the company who get promoted and have been with the company for 10 to 30 years. And because of that, people in key leadership roles don't understand current industry trends because they've been in CHG's culture for too long. The company has needs to grow in the industry, but the company isn't willing to invest enough into the IT side of things to support that growth. Which is sad because the company is growing a lot.... it could be growing far faster if they had leadership that understands how to leverage technical solutions and work smarter not just harder.

The IT department leadership do not practice "putting people first." It's supposed to drive every decision within the company. They have a strong culture at CHG, but they focus too much on things that don't matter. Is the employee good at their job? Yes. They are. But, they don't come to every culture event, therefore he's bad at their job. Their metrics for success are skewed. They have favorites that can get away with behavior that if someone else were to do the same thing, their reputation would suffer. They also have a core value of "continuous improvement." But they take it too far. If someone makes improvements from step a to b, they don't celebrate the improvements they've made.... they get bugged at the employee for not being at step c.... even though the employee had no idea they needed to get to step c because they haven't gotten honest feedback about the step c being needed.

IF "work life balance" means being able to go to random children's school events, doctors appointments, or randomly take time off for your family. They're horrible. You will be judged for doing that too frequently. If you work over 40 hours a week one week, they won't bat an eye.... but if you work under 40 hours the next week, they will note it and your reputation as an employee will suffer.

The official company policy is that they are okay with "flexible schedules" as long as it works for you, the team, and the company. The corporate policy offers a couple options. However, in the IT department. If you happen to get a flexible schedule approved, they will not be okay with it. Even if they say they are. Your reputation will suffer. It's basically assumed that if you work from home, that you aren't really working. They don't trust their employees to be ethical with their time and feel like they have to babysit you. I know of instances where good employees had promotions delayed for years purely because "they work from home too much." Even though that is clearly acceptable under the official employee handbook policies. They don't offer sick time either. They give you PTO time. So if you are sick one day and don't want to use PTO but don't want to spread germs and work from home, your reputation will suffer because it's assumed that you're not actually working.

In the IT deparment, it's political and based upon preconceived notions of the leadership. If you speak to the employees who work with the candidate... they would tell you how amazing they are. But, if the senior leadership had one preconceived notion about an employee that doesn't sit well with that leader they will hold that promotion hostage. Even if the employees behavior aligns with company policy. If it doesn't pass that leaders litmus test, that employee will not be awarded that employee. They also use promotions as a half-hearted attempt to say, "we're trying to change."

It depends on the department. For the IT department, they have PTO. The company policy is that you can use your PTO for whatever you need. The unspoken IT policy is that you can only use it when IT leadership thinks it's appropriate. If they disagree with how, when, where and why you are using your PTO they will frown upon you and your reputation will be in jeopardy. For example, I personally knew an employee who had to take PTO on a couple consecutive days because her disabled son was having issues getting a prosthetic leg to fit properly. It was "noted by leadership that she was gone too much lately." Even though she had the PTO time to account for the time, or made an effort to make up the hours. I personally, took less than half a day of PTO in order to take care of my kids because my wife was vomiting and we couldn't get a sitter. My reputation suffered because of this. Their core values includes "putting people first" but they do not practice it!