WISE & Healthy Aging is the result of the 2007 merger of WISE Senior Services and the Center for Healthy Aging. With a combined 70 years’ experience serving older adults, the nonprofit organization brings together a synergy of services, information, programs and support for seniors, those who care for them and the professionals who work with them.
In addition to In-Home Care Management Services, WISE & Healthy Aging administers the City and County of Los Angeles Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program to protect the rights of seniors and dependent adults in the more than 1,800 licensed skilled and assisted living facilities throughout LA County. They also provide county-wide Elder Abuse Prevention Services; an Adult Day Service Center for isolated and frail elderly on the Los Angeles Westside, including supportive services for caregivers; a Mental Health Services Program with individual and group therapy, physician-supervised medication and senior-to-senior Peer Counseling; a Nutrition Services Program that serves hot meals through three congregate meal sites in Santa Monica, collaborations with other agencies for legal, financial and mediation clinics, including Medicare counseling and tax preparation; Club 1527 for active older adults seeking social, recreational and enriching programs. and a Transportation & Mobility Program offering information, education, driver safety classes and transportation, including door-through-door, services.
WISE & Healthy Aging is one of only two nonprofit, community-based organizations in California to be certified as a great workplace by independent analysts at Great Place to Work, a global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures.
WISE & Healthy Aging’s employees participated in the voluntary, anonymous and confidential survey this summer. In the extensive survey, employees were asked to share their opinions in a number of key areas ranging from workplace respect, fairness, diversity and camaraderie to pay scale, employee benefits, management and interactions with co-workers and supervisors. Ninety percent of those surveyed rated the organization as excellent.
Long recognized for the outstanding services it provides to older adults in Los Angeles County, WISE & Healthy Aging, with a current employee force of 74 staff, initiated the self-evaluation as part of the its commitment to also meeting the needs of its staff – empowering them and fostering a workplace culture of collegiality and trust.
“We are honored and humbled at the results of the survey,” said Grace Cheng Braun, president and CEO. “To have our employees rate us overwhelmingly as a great place to work is gratifying and speaks to the caliber of the women and men who comprise our WISE & Healthy Aging family and their trust in leadership to do right by them.”
The areas in which WISE & Healthy Aging ranked the highest related to how employees feel about the work they do and the environment in which they do it. All respondents said they are proud of the agency’s accomplishments and feel good about the services they provide to the community.
The survey results, deemed statistically significant, exceeded national averages in several areas, including:
- 100 percent of respondents feel a sense of pride in what they accomplish.
- 100 percent said they feel good about the ways they contribute to the community.
- 98 percent are proud to tell others where they work.
- 98 percent said they are able to take time off from work when necessary.
- 98 percent said “My work has special meaning. This is not just a job.”
- 96 percent said management shows appreciation for good work and extra effort.
- 96 percent said management has a clear view of where the organization is going and how to get there.
Another area of strength noted by WISE & Healthy Aging employees was the supportive and empowering work environment, with several specifically mentioning the organization’s healthy racial/ethnic balance and a sense of family.
Great Place to Work provides the benchmarks, framework and expertise needed to create, sustain and recognize outstanding workplace cultures. It produces the annual Fortune “100 Best Companies to Work For” list and a series of specialized best workplaces lists including ones for millennia’s, women, diversity, small and medium companies and others.
- Submitted by Sandy Van, Communications Specialist
