Investing in employees is ingrained in the philosophy of Baton Rouge, La.-based FMOL Health, formerly Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System. The system has historically taken a conservative approach to compensation and benefits — but recently undertook a significant shift, embracing a more progressive strategy grounded in financial strength, new processes and its mission-driven goals.
“It was really important that we listened to our workforce to understand what matters most to them,” Jennifer Trahan, FMOL Health’s chief human resources officer, told Becker’s. “With a workforce of 20,000 team members, we have a lot of preferences to manage. So those communication feedback loops are important.”
Compensation and benefits enhancements have been a key part of that effort.
To that end, the system implemented the market-based pay adjustments and the $15 minimum wage increase simultaneously as part of the same compensation initiative. The $38 million investment follows a $14 minimum wage floor introduced at the end of 2024, along with a 4% base pay raise, paid parental leave and other benefits enhancements launched over the past year.
FMOL Health’s executive team positioned the move as both financially sound and mission-aligned.
“We all live in a world of finite resources, but we’ve been blessed with strong financials. We have a strong balance sheet and very strong P&L performance over the last few years. We’ve been able to invest half a billion dollars in capital projects, including technology upgrades,” President and CEO E.J. Kuiper said. “But we believe, fundamentally, we are in the people business — people taking care of people. You can have beautiful hospitals and state-of-the-art technology, like we do, but at the end of the day, it’s the people that make the difference. We feel very strongly about taking care of our workforce.”
The investment was preceded by a rigorous review of compensation data. FMOL Health evaluated 3,406 roles — including some unfilled or used for benchmarking — and moved more than 1,900 positions as a result. In total, more than 80% of the system’s team members received market rate adjustments based on national and regional comparisons.
Ms. Trahan said she took an unusual step before presenting the findings to senior leadership.
“Typically, I’m given a budget every year and asked to stay within it. This year, I took a bold step and asked the team to ignore the budget. I told them: ‘Our job is to identify what needs to move, and it’s the senior executives’ job to decide whether they’ll fund it,’” she said.
The team’s analysis revealed more positions needing market-based adjustments than expected — and leadership responded.
“I was very pleased. I think it demonstrates the senior executive team’s commitment to our team members. I tripled the budget. After a little questioning from our CFO, the approval to invest $38 million was almost immediate and unanimous. I’m very proud of the team and our leadership. It starts at the top — and where you spend dollars shows what’s important to you,” she said.
Mr. Kuiper emphasized that the investment applies to all employees, not just those in clinical or high-level roles. Entry-level workers remain a priority.
“Having great health insurance, PTO and other offerings is important to us, especially for entry-level team members,” he added. “I’m proud this was part of the overall investment, and I anticipate we’ll continue to move the needle on entry-level base pay in the future.”
To evaluate the impact of this investment, FMOL Health will track workforce engagement and retention, among other measures.
“We believe that when the workforce is fully engaged, other metrics — patient satisfaction, quality, brand equity, market share and financials — will follow,” Mr. Kuiper said. “If you focus too much on lagging indicators, you risk losing your people. Every day, we ask how we can create the best place to work and the best place to practice medicine. That’s what we focus on.”
He also encouraged other healthcare leaders to remain focused on the workforce even in tight financial conditions.
“It’s easy to cut back on leadership development or creating the right environment to balance the books, but in the long run, you lose if you lose connection with your people,” he said.
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