Data shows increased participation, retention
At a recent visit to Vantage Plastics in Standish, Michigan, teams from the de Beaumont Foundation and REACH Beyond technical assistance heard firsthand how Project IMPACT — which embeds a community health worker from the Central Michigan District Health Department directly into Vantage to work one-on-one with its employees — is positively impacting lives.
Chad Winters and Nyssha Pike, both Vantage employees, shared with the team how Lindsay, their designated community health worker, has helped them through difficult times in their lives.
Chad emotionally discussed what the support has meant to his family. He said that Lindsay assisted him in navigating the proper way to change his shift at Vantage, thus allowing him to go back to school and work towards obtaining his degree. Lindsay was also able to connect him to the available resources to obtain work boots.
Similarly, Nyssha shared how much she felt cared for and heard. “I didn’t think I’d like working at Vantage, but on day one I found that this place was different — they care about their employees’ wellbeing beyond the walls of the company; they care about them as people and their families,” Nyssha said.
Vantage Plastics Human Resource Director Kari Gushow said that her greatest takeaway from this project has been that this has been the missing piece of the puzzle.
“Recognizing that a gap exists between what company resources are able to provide to employees to make them successful members of the organization, to now having a community health worker on site that specializes in connecting and assisting employees to these resources, has made a tremendous difference,” Gushow said.
Third quarter 2023 data shows that through a revamped new employee orientation process developed earlier this year, which focuses on individuals and enhancing their life skills — as well as a culture of caring from the top down within the organization — that the percentage of newly hired employees asking to be connected to Community Connections program nearly doubled from 38% in the second quarter to 65% in July and 69% in August.
Retention numbers of newly hired individuals, who were actively enrolled in Community Connections has also grown and shown promising results. Vantage experienced a 3% decrease in turnover overall during January-August 2023, compared to the same timeframe in 2022.
“Through public-private partnerships focused on areas of shared interest, we are working to strengthen economic prosperity by advancing public health and equity,” said Dallas Rau, director of program development for the Michigan Health Improvement Alliance. “A common understanding was that together we can do far more than we can do alone.”
Rau said this was reiterated by following the incredible employee stories, touring the facility, and concluding with an open discussion on what this may look like for other organizations.
“A goal of the project is to create a replicable model showing the value of a community health worker in a private organization, thus strengthening the partnership of public health and the private sector,” Rau said.
About Project IMPACT
The Michigan Health Improvement Alliance, Central Michigan District Health Department, local manufacturer Vantage Plastics and its nonprofit outreach arm, The WELL Outreach, have partnered to improve local health and well-being. Their efforts focus on bridging the private sector and public health through an embedded community health worker at Vantage Plastics in Arenac County. The community health worker helps new employees access primary health care and aims to improve preventative care, decrease poverty and increase employee retention. The grant was made possible with funding from the de Beaumont Foundation in Bethesda, Maryland.