Employees from Cincinnati Children’s volunteer at the local zoo’s Urban Learning Garden across the street from the hospital.
Cincinnati Children’s
Across the nation, the turnover statistics for healthcare professionals are staggering. An NSI Nursing Solutions report pegged last year’s hospital staff turnover rate at 18.3% and registered nurse turnover at 16.4%. In another report, published by healthcare analytics and solutions company Press Ganey, 29% of physicians and 28% of advanced practice providers (AAPs)—which includes nurse practitioners, certified registered nurse anesthetists, clinical nurse specialists and physician assistants—said they are thinking of leaving their organizations within the next three years.
Why? The Press Ganey report cites a host of reasons, including inadequate staffing, lack of time to provide quality care, frustrations with electronic medical record features, tenuous connections with leadership, overwork, reduced employee engagement and burnout. No healthcare employer is completely immune to these challenges. But the best employers work hard to curb turnover by providing strong leadership, career growth opportunities and programs that directly benefit employees.
One such organization is Cincinnati Children’s where the turnover rate for physicians is 3.8%, and for nurses, 9.3%—well below the average turnover rate at pediatric health systems, says Peter Adebi, chief human resources officer and senior vice president at the medical center. The organization’s retention rate, he adds, is just below 90%. “When people come here, they stay.”
It’s no surprise, then, that Cincinnati Children’s earned the No. 5 spot on Forbes’ inaugural list of America’s Best Employers for Healthcare Professionals.
To produce this new list, Forbes, in partnership with Statista, surveyed more than 17,000 employees working for healthcare and social services providers employing at least 1,000 people within the United States. Participants were asked how likely they were to recommend their current employer to others and to rate it based on criteria including wages, working conditions and schedules, career advancement opportunities and safety. Survey respondents were also asked how likely they were to recommend a previous employer (within the last two years) and other healthcare organizations they knew through industry experience or through friends and family who had worked there. The responses were then analyzed and incorporated into a scoring system that also factored in data from the past three years of employer surveys at a lesser weight. Ultimately, the 250 healthcare organizations with the highest scores made the final list.
Ranking at No. 8 was FirstHealth of the Carolinas, which created an entire center devoted to improving the wellbeing of the FirstHealth staff and community members. Established in 2023, the Reid Center for Well-Being, in Pinehurst, North Carolina, offers services such as counseling, leadership development and stress relief programs—including therapy dog visits—to address healthcare worker burnout. “We help our staff remain energized and connected to the purpose that drew them to healthcare in the first place,” says FirstHealth CEO Mickey Foster.
Also important for top-ranking hospitals: providing employees with routes toward advancement, which keeps them engaged, says Sheldon Arora, CEO of StaffDNA, a marketplace for healthcare careers. “Top talent seeks employers who value their career development,” Arora says.
For example, Cincinnati Children’s offers career pathways so employees can grow with the organization, enabling people in entry-level roles, like nursing aides, to progress through nursing levels to become a nursing director. “Give them opportunities to grow and advance,” says Adebi, of Cincinnati Children’s. “Because if you’re not doing that, you’re going to lose them.”
At St. Luke’s University Health Network, which ranked at No. 7, it’s critical that leadership listen to what employees say they need, whether it’s conveyed through open lines of communication or yearly surveys, says Evan Ochs, senior vice president and chief human resources officer at the Pennsylvania-based organization. The key, she adds, is not only to gather feedback, but to act upon it.
“We do not go through the motions,” says Ochs, referring to how St. Luke’s responds to employees. “We put their feedback into action and ensure that their voice is heard because their opinions and suggestions matter.” As a result of employee suggestions, St. Luke’s started waiving copays for employees’ and their families’ initial physical therapy visits, added fertility benefits in medical plans and increased tuition benefits.
The annual Bike to Work Day at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital encourages employee wellness and health while bringing staff together.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, No. 2, also took action recently to meet employees’ needs by opening a childcare center one mile from its Memphis, Tennessee campus. This provided employees with a safe childcare option that allowed them to be close to their children. “The center was near full subscription not long after opening,” says Maria Megdal, executive vice president and chief administrative officer at St. Jude.
Recently-added benefits from some of our other listees have also been well received. For instance, Houston Methodist, No. 10, offers employees an emergency savings match program where the hospital matches employee contributions to their savings account up to a certain point. And that benefit was born from Houston Methodist’s annual employee survey, according to Michael Brown, senior vice president and chief human resources officer at the hospital.
Cincinnati Children’s has also recently switched its tuition program from a reimbursement model to a system that pays institutions directly. The result: “a huge lift” in the number of employees participating in the offering, Adebi says. And over the last year, FirstHealth has upped its offerings by adding free fitness memberships, same-day pay, improved retirement vesting and matching, and increased merit pay.
Of course, providing generous benefits and increased pay is not easy, says Ochs at St. Luke’s. Costs for benefits continue to rise, “forcing employers into difficult choices,” she says. In fact, among healthcare employers, benefits comprise 30% of total compensation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And this percentage may soon rise as employers across industries brace for the largest cost increase of health benefits in 15 years.
And yet, pay and benefits remain top factors in how employees pick their next employer—and whether they stick with their current one.
Leading healthcare employers, however, remain willing to invest in their talent because they recognize that employees are the lifeblood of their organizations. As Adebi sees it, supporting and investing in employees directly fits into Cincinnati Children’s philosophy: to be the place where everyone can reach their full potential.
To find more healthcare organizations that take care of their employees, invest in their staff and offer an engaging work environment, check out our full list of America’s Best Employers For Healthcare Professionals here.
Methodology
To produce America’s Best Employers for Healthcare Professionals 2025, Forbes, in partnership with market research firm Statista, surveyed more than 17,000 employees working for healthcare and social services providers employing at least 1,000 people within the United States. Participants were asked how likely they were to recommend their current employer to others and to rate it based on criteria including wages, working conditions and schedules, career advancement opportunities and safety. Survey respondents were also asked how likely they were to recommend a previous employer (within the last two years) and other healthcare organizations they knew through industry experience or through friends and family who had worked there. The responses were then analyzed and incorporated into a scoring system that also factored in data from the past three years of employer surveys at a lesser weight. Ultimately, the 250 healthcare organizations with the highest scores made our inaugural list.
As with all Forbes lists, companies pay no fee to participate or be selected. To read more about how we make these lists, click here. For questions about this list, please email listdesk [at] forbes.com.
