CHHSM’s Embrace Living Communities Certified as ‘Great Place to Work’

Embrace Living employees celebrate being a “Great Place to Work.”

The Great Place to Work Institute has honored Embrace Living Communities, based in Oak Brook, Ill., with certification as a GREAT PLACE TO WORK®. In May of this year, the employees of ELC overwhelmingly agreed to take part in a survey designed to look into the organizations culture and employee experience. The certification process anonymously considered all employees across all housing communities.

GREAT PLACE TO WORK®, an independent research and consulting firm, evaluated more than 60 elements of team members’ experiences as part of the organization. The survey — which had to be completed in a two-week time frame — looked at employee trust, pride and camaraderie as well as looking for consistency in the work experience in executive team effectiveness, innovation experiences, and financial sustainability. The results were then analyzed and compared to the institute’s “Best Companies Benchmarks.”

Susan Sinderson

“Embrace Living Communities has a very special culture all its own and we are so proud to be recognized for being a Great Place to Work®,” says Susan Sinderson one of the leaders at Embrace Living Communities. “Our rich history of being open and welcoming to all, having a deep passion and understanding of affordable housing as a justice issue, recognizing each one of our employees for their uniqueness, cultivating an understanding of servant leadership, and creating a place where people feel part of a family help make us who we are.”

In its more than 30 years of experience in culture research, the GREAT PLACE TO WORK®’S trust index has become a global gold standard for measuring culture and employee engagement and their “Best Work Lists” are produced and acknowledged in Fortune Magazine.

In all “Five Dimensions of Trust” that make up the survey’s Trust Index Score — Credibility, Respect, Fairness, Pride and Camaraderie — Embrace Living Communities scored higher than the benchmarks, said Sinderson. Two of the highest scoring categories showed that 98 percent of employees take great pride in the work of the organization, and 97 percent reported a “great work atmosphere.”

“The experience of being certified as a GREAT PLACE TO WORK® has been energizing and created an even deeper sense of pride among our employees,” adds Sinderson. “We recently celebrated our certification at our annual all-employee meeting, and the passion, excitement and sense of pride for what we accomplish together was amazing.”