Peggy Charris has worked for Children’s Friend for nine years – except for a stint at a city agency.
“I left for more money,” she said, “but came back after eight months.”
She’s not the only one who took that path.
Charris, who works in the human resources department, said she could think of at least eight employees who have left, only to return to the social service agency. Others tried to return, but their positions had been filled.
“I think that speaks volumes,” she said.
And it helps explain why Children’s Friend made the Providence Business News’ 2009 Best Places to Work list. The employees just love it. Plain and simple.
The atmosphere at Children’s Friend may be due, in part, to what it does.
“Our mission is to promote the well-being and healthy development of Rhode Island’s most vulnerable children,” Executive Director David Caprio said.
“We think we offer competitive salary and a great benefits package, but you’re not coming to work at Children’s Friend to get rich,” he added.
The organization works with children in poverty, or volatile family situations – going to homes and offering therapy and other support services. Last year, the nonprofit served more than 17,000 children and their families. This year marks its 175th anniversary.
The organization’s 140 staff members work in a variety of disciplines – they are social workers, educators, nurses, nutritionists and physical, speech and other therapists.
That diversity helps employees learn about fields outside their own, bringing people from different backgrounds together for a common cause.
Even so, employees and executives work together as peers. “We have an open-door policy,” Charris said. “From employees up to the executive director, when you walk in the door, you feel like a family.”
Charris feels the agency takes a genuine interest in her well-being.
“They take a lot of time for employees,” she said. “We get our work done, and we do it well, but the company makes it clear, there’s always time to have fun.”
Charris and other employees know that they do their work well because every year an outside evaluator reviews Children’s Friend’s work.
“So it’s not just me telling you we did good work,” Caprio said. “We can prove it.”
Recognizing success within the organization is a big part of the payback for working at Children’s Friend, Charris said. But the staff only gets what it deserves, Caprio insisted.
“We hire quality and professional people,” he said, “and we treat them as such.”
To that end, Caprio said, employees have flexibility in their scheduling, and are given all of the typical health and wellness benefits, plus four weeks vacation, which goes up to five weeks after four years.
But the benefits are not the main draw for employees at Children’s Friend.
“You’re coming here because of your passion,” Caprio said.
“You’re only going to last at Children’s Friend if you have a passion to make life better for impoverished children.” •
