Centura Health
With over 21,000 incredible caregivers serving patients across the region, Centura Health understands that the key to providing quality care is through associates who use their skills and live their personal missions to provide a holistic approach to treatment. One of the many ways Centura Health, a member of the Prosper CO Leadership Council, does this is by taking a local focus within the communities they serve.
Centura Health’s apprenticeship programs are an example of this work. These programs, which first started in 2017, provide employees with training in positions such as medical lab technicians, pharmacy technicians and medical assistants. The apprentices in the program are offered support through tuition reimbursement, child care and other funding, which allows Centura Health associates to focus their energy on pursuing the technical training necessary for them to do their jobs and continue to grow in their field.
Centura Health also provides one-on-one career training with career mobility consultants that connect internal associates to growth and development opportunities across the ministry, resulting in an 89% retention rate among their associate-level employees.
“Providing opportunities that translate from apprenticeships into different medical career pathways in Centura provides structure. When our employees know how they can move up and into different areas of the company, it broadens the horizon for them, and decreases turnover.”
– Dr. Oswaldo (Ozzie) Grenardo
Centura Health Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer
The human resources department also focuses on diversifying the applicant pool by examining job descriptions and postings and considering whether certain qualifications are necessary for a given position. This effort allows Centura Health to reimagine the norm and open the door to more applicants while still ensuring quality candidates.
Finally, Centura Health is focused on diversifying their procurement. Within such a large system, they are focused on maximizing the diversity of companies they contract with, sourcing locally and further supporting the flourishing communities they serve.
All of these efforts align with Prosper CO’s efforts to move more Coloradans into jobs that pay well and have good benefits and continually work to ensure people can access those jobs, as well as removing the barriers to starting and growing small businesses for women and Black and Latinx Coloradans.
Contact Lorena Zimmer at lorena.zimmer@denverchamber.org if you would like to learn more about how we can help you to diversify your applicant pools, increase retention through upskilling or taking advantage of our procurement portal.