Economic Aid: Companies help employees in tight economy

He’s compensated with bright blue $2 vouchers – a form of hospital-specific currency accepted in the cafeteria, co-worker store or the Mercy Mocha coffee bars. Kastner routinely redeems his vouchers for cafeteria lunches, but he still has a balance of more than $100.

“When times get hard, you can’t automatically give everyone a raise, but you can look for other ways to maybe ease the crunch,” said Kastner, a seven-year St. John’s employee who works in the construction projects office.

“If you can get your lunch for free, that’s going to help out. … (St. John’s) seems to be looking for ways to keep us happy, and I respect that. Not a lot of companies – especially large companies – work very hard at that.”

Earlier this year, St. John’s CEO Kim Day appointed a task force to see how the hospital might be able to offer some relief to employees facing higher prices at the gas pump and in grocery store aisles. A voucher program for employees who bike, bus, walk or carpool to work was among the panel’s recommendations, many of which administrators have since implemented.

“The task force basically helped develop strategies and programs that would … attempt to help our co-workers cope with these rising costs,” said Jim Brookhart, senior vice president and chief human resources at St. John’s. “The key thing there is coping. We didn’t create these high prices; we can’t solve them. But certainly – as an employer – we feel an obligation to help people cope.”

Brookhart said he’s hearing plenty of positive feedback about the various hospital programs designed to save employees money. Those programs include 10-hour shift arrangements, discounted bus passes and a special rate on gas sold at Cody’s Convenience Stores.

Healthy living

With 10,250 St. John’s employees commuting an average of 27 miles roundtrip each day, the potential for individual cost savings is definitely there. There’s also a major benefit for St. John’s as an institution, said Brookhart, who cited some salient findings from a 2006 Manpower survey.

About 67 percent of employees polled nationwide by Manpower said higher gas prices were affecting their work-life balance, and 31 percent indicated that they were thinking about finding jobs closer to home to save money on gas, according to the survey.

“That’s a pretty scary statistic when you think of yourself as a regional employer,” Brookhart said. “We’ve been able to track that people work at our facilities because of the attractiveness of pay and benefits, but that equation is changing as commuting costs go up.”

Since the voucher program was launched earlier this year, Brookhart said St. John’s has been giving out 2,000 to 3,000 vouchers – equal to $4,000 to $6,000 – each month.

The hospital won’t be handing them out indefinitely, though Brookhart said the program would at least continue through the rest of the year.

That’s OK by Kastner, who was riding his bike to work well before the hospital starting rewarding employees for using alternative transportation. The computer-aided drafting project manager said the initiative has prompted many of his co-workers to re-evaluate commuting options.

“I know there’s an increasing number of people riding their bikes to work,” he said.

In addition to the voucher program, St. John’s also has partnered with City Utilities to provide employees with discounted bus passes. Brookhart said the passes offer 60 rides for $40, which essentially translates into 20 free rides.

St. John’s also is assisting employees who aren’t able to carpool, bike or ride the bus to work. Through an agreement with Cody’s, the hospital’s 4,000 Springfield employees received Kick-back Loyalty Cards courtesy of the locally owned chain.

Those cards – available for free to all store patrons – provide 1 cent per dollar on purchases, Brookhart said, adding that the hospital also is evaluating a park-and-ride pilot program targeting some 1,400 employees

who live in Christian County.

Pooling resources

St. John’s and other large health care employers in the Ozarks, such as CoxHealth and Missouri Rehabilitation Center in Mt. Vernon, offer intranet sites for employees interested in carpooling. The sites typically include names, phone numbers and hometowns of cost-conscious or environmentally responsible employees seeking like-minded co-workers.

Carol Wilhite, a public information specialist at Missouri Rehabilitation, said several longtime employees who commute from Springfield and Joplin have been carpooling for years.

She said the center’s new intranet site is much more convenient than the bulletin board employees used to coordinate carpools when she started 11 years ago.

“I believe it’s picking up,” Wilhite added. “I’m truly kicking myself that I’m not doing it. … I drive from Springfield, and I figured out how much it’s costing me, and it’s a hunk of change – $15, $20 a day. That’s almost an hour of pay.”

Smaller companies such as Butler, Rosenbury & Partners Inc. architecture firm in downtown Springfield also offer incentives to help their employees find less expensive – and more environmentally friendly – ways to get to work, although principal Geoffrey Butler said many of the young professionals who work there already ride bicycles or scooters.

Butler said the firm has offered to buy bus passes for employees, who also are invited to use two company cars for professional or personal use during business hours. BRP also has handed out big prizes – a night in the company suite at Hammons Field among them – for employees who win the citywide Bike, Bus, Walk Week competition each May.