I've mentioned the good culture side of NH in the pros section, but you can also work for teams where there is a bad culture, understaffed, overworked, micro-managed, and feel unappreciated. In 2023, NH went through a high number of layoffs and reorganization. They targeted C-suite, VPs, directors all the way down to keep from impacting clinical services, which is always their core focus. Non-clinical teams are always at risk. It isn't over, as in Dec 2023, NH announced more Digital Products and Services (DPS) jobs will be outsourced to WiPro in India by May 2024. People are viewed as resources, despite them renaming HR to People & Culture. Resources (people) are quick to be chopped when they want to purchase more hospitals and get their operational margins down to a percentage that will help them win the bids and offers on these takeovers and mergers.
Since all the layoffs, morale is low and people are being very careful, taking no risks, and many projects have been abandoned, frozen or are moving at a snails pace. DPS projects were always slow, but this is on a whole new level I never thought possible. While they started out laying off mostly contractors, it quickly turned to permanent employees. Most non-clinical hirings right now are contractor positions, so they won't get to experience the great benefits here, as there is often a hiring freeze, even when there aren't any layoffs. DPS has introduced a lot of red tape to getting work done. Everything is heavily scrutinized, and most likely won't gain approval to move forward. While we have made progress in some areas, we have paused progress in so many other areas. It feels like everyone in DPS as a whole have become paralyzed, and that doesn't feel like a healthy culture.
For the most part, I have always enjoyed working at NH and proud to tell people where I work, but that is slowly changing and fading. I believe things will get better, as all companies operate on cycles, but some of these changes have brought in a new culture that also feels like it is here to stay. The old NH is gone, and I believe that was the intention. They wanted to bring about change, and they have succeeded.