Kathie Mancini had a culture problem that couldn’t be fixed with corporate cash.
It was 2005, and Mancini was the chief operating officer of newly formed Molina Healthcare of Ohio, a subsidiary of giant Molina Healthcare Inc. And though corporate could filter money down for holiday parties and company outings, Mancini realized her people didn’t have the right connection to the community or to the vision at the company that delivers health care services to persons eligible for government-sponsored programs. The success of her growing organization rested not just on retaining top talent but also sparking that talent’s passion.
So Mancini developed the company’s Employee Activity Committee, a front-line employee group charged with handling the internal and external components of the company culture.
Today, Mancini is the plan’s president, and she does almost nothing for the EAC. In fact, employees own it to the point that it has a self-sustaining budget. But even though she wants the committee to take care of itself, she hasn’t lost sight of how important it is to the booming growth at Molina, which posted 2007 premium revenue of $436.2 million.
“It’s key to everything we do here,” she says. “There are a lot of call centers our staff could work in, so the more special we make it here for them, the more they feel like they’re serving a goal or purpose to help people, the more different we are, and they choose to stay. It helps with employee retention; it helps with morale.”
The whole process, Mancini says, was surprisingly achievable. First, she had to personally get involved to get it started, handpicking a few people she knew had a passion for internal and external programs. From there, the leadership team set some basic parameters about what the committee could do and then they simply let go, handing the reins over to passionate employees.
