Adventist Health Reviews

1. Pay rate is far below the average for IT positions. 2. Leadership positions are heavily biased towards church members. The organization recruits from Adventist academies, promising even high school students leadership positions. It is not unheard of for fresh from-college-with-no-work-experience-church-members (with high-ranking church family members) get Director level jobs immediately at Adventist Health. 3. No cost of living increases for rank and file employees. The only "merit" raise that is given is a yearly 2.5% step increase, maximum. However, check the IRS form 990's for Adventist Health... senior leadership gives themselves massive yearly raises, far above the state and national averages for healthcare senior leadership. 4. Putting AH leadership in a room with our main "partner", Cerner, is like putting guppies in a shark tank (AH are the guppies, Cerner is the shark. Turns out you mostly need to earn leadership at Cerner...there's a concept!). Cerner will continue to get whatever they want and give AH products that they don't need and aren't ready for release. 5. Benefits... what benefits? The medical benefits at this organization will cost you more and provide far less than their competitors. 6. Politics are out of control. This organization is very much a cult of personality. It is who you know, not what you know, that counts at AH for the most part. Many of the long-time employees have come to AH straight from an Adventist academy and never worked anywhere else, so have no idea of what the "real" world is like. I could go on and on, but I think all reading this will get the general drift. Please, if you have any talent and knowledge and other opportunities, do yourself a favor and find employment elsewhere. Maybe once AH realizes they aren't going to get and retain talented individuals unless they value ALL employees (and yes, AH, value also means paying them a competitive wage), things will improve. Only when that happens would I recommend this organization as a place to work for any non-Seventh Day Adventist.

Favoritism, nepotism, cronyism—oh no! Experience, talent and skill are less important than being Seventh-day Adventist or a friend of someone with power and influence. The company’s nepotism is rampant: sons, daughters, husbands, wives, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, in-laws, out-laws, second cousins thrice removed, etc. Adventist Health is a hierarchical organization. Translation: If you’re asked to do something that makes no sense, just do it. Don’t ask why. Don’t bother to recommend a different approach. This is unfortunate as there are smart, motivated employees who could make a difference if given the opportunity. Most move on. While there is a lot of talk about innovation, the company is behind the curve. One example: the company is moving to open workspaces. Wow! Now that’s innovative! Except that high-tech firms in Silicon Valley pioneered the model in the 1990s and research shows that open workspaces reduce productivity and job satisfaction, and, gulp, even harm our health. Advice to Adventist Health leaders: Google the 2014 Forbes article, “Why the Open-Concept Office Trend Needs to Die.” Or Inc. magazine’s 2017 story, “Open-Plan Offices Kill Productivity, According to Science.” Actually, the truth is, the leaders don’t need to Google any article. They just need to listen to their employees. If they did, the employee engagement they’re after would be easy to achieve. There are some wonderful people working at this company. Unfortunately, favoritism and a management style that discourages constructive dissent have undermined morale and created a toxic workplace.