Our Mission for the Next 75 Years of Service
For over 75 years, Easterseals has helped Arkansans with disabilities lead healthier, happier, and more independent lives through therapy, education, employment, and community support services.
Building on our 75-year legacy, our mission is to empower all individuals with disabilities to live, learn, work, and play in their communities. We plan to lead the way to 100% equity, inclusion, and access by enriching education, enhancing health, expanding employment, and elevating community. In fact, we envision a system of care, education, employment, and support, so strong that all individuals with disabilities can reach their full potential of independence, well-being, and contribution.
Easterseals Arkansas Key Metrics, Results, Goals, and Highlights
Employer of Choice
Achieving our mission and vision starts and ends with people. We are in the people business. It is our team of caring and competent people who provide the services and supports to those we exist to serve. It is in those daily interactions where the magic takes place and our mission is delivered.
This requires us to start internally by building a strong foundation – teams dedicated to our mission and passionate about the people we serve. That’s why our first priority is becoming the Employer of Choice for people that wish to be of service to others.
Specifically, this means creating a responsibility-based culture. It means creating good paying jobs, with benefits that support those supporting others. Investing in communication, leadership and training to engage and develop our team and align them to our mission. Asking people to strive to achieve great outcomes and then giving them the tools and resources they need to exceed expectations. That is the key to not only finding the right people, but keeping them for a long time.
| Goals | Key Metrics | FY21 Actual | FY22 Goal | FY22 Actual | FY23 Goal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Become Employer of Choice – by instilling a responsibility-based management culture and improving jobs, pay, benefits, communication, and leadership | Employee NPS | 17 | 30 | 34 | 35 |
| Turnover | 42% | 35% | 41% | 35% |
Employer of Choice Highlights – increased starting minimum wages to $15 per hour (July ‘21); hired full time Recruiter who also relaunched our Employee Appreciation Committee with monthly appreciation events (July ‘21); added short-term disability (Jan. ‘22); increased life insurance to 2x salary up to $250K (Jan. ‘22); stopped Aflac voluntary benefits because not good value (Jan. ‘22); redesigned retirement plan to improve retention and compete with schools with improved match, added Roth option, and autoenrollment into a target retirement date investment (June ‘22); completed culture training on responsibility-based management for all leaders across organization (Mar. ‘22); kept staff safe from covid with 0 deaths
Provider of Choice
Being an Employer of Choice and a great place to work, in turn, allows us to elevate our standard of care, and truly become the Provider of Choice for individuals with developmental disabilities in Arkansas. This means our people deliver exceptional, individualized services and supports and innovate them over time. This helps unlock their potential and those they serve to create undeniable transformation.
| Goals | Key Metrics | FY21 Actual | FY22 Goal | FY22 Actual | FY23 Goal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Become Employer of Choice – by instilling a responsibility-based management culture and improving jobs, pay, benefits, communication, and leadership | Employee NPS | 17 | 30 | 34 | 35 |
| Turnover | 42% | 35% | 41% | 35% |
Provider of Choice Highlights– opened first Roommate Matching and Housing Option home with three women we support living together (Jan. ‘22); launched new applied behavior analysis (ABA) service line (May ‘22); kept people we serve safe from covid with 0 deaths
Charity of Choice
These positive outcomes told through these success stories – what we sometimes call “Mission Moments” – then attract others who need services and support. It also attracts those who want to donate their time, talent, and treasure to support more of this type of success. That is our third objective – to become the Charity of Choice.
| Goals | Key Metrics | FY21 Actual | FY22 Goal | FY22 Actual | FY23 Goal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Become Employer of Choice – by instilling a responsibility-based management culture and improving jobs, pay, benefits, communication, and leadership | Employee NPS | 17 | 30 | 34 | 35 |
| Turnover | 42% | 35% | 41% | 35% |
Charity of Choice Highlights – built and executed comprehensive annual fundraising plan (July ‘21); completed board self-assessment (Aug. ‘21); conducted first survey of donors and volunteers (Apr. ‘22); held well attended board retreat to review board responsibilities and strategic direction (Mar. ‘22); hired consultants for comprehensive capital campaign feasibility (Mar. ‘22)
Financial Sustainability
This creates a sort of flywheel of success. More resources allows us to invest in a better work environment that allows us to attract and retain the people we need to deliver these outcomes which lead to more financial and volunteer resources. The recipe is simple. The more quality people we can hire, the more quality outcomes we can provide, the more capital we can deploy in support of these activities, the more we can improve the lives of those we serve.
| Goals | Key Metrics | FY21 Actual | FY22 Goal | FY22 Actual | FY23 Goal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Become Employer of Choice – by instilling a responsibility-based management culture and improving jobs, pay, benefits, communication, and leadership | Employee NPS | 17 | 30 | 34 | 35 |
| Turnover | 42% | 35% | 41% | 35% |
Financial Sustainability Highlights – developed technology roadmap to replace core systems and improve IT infrastructure (July ’21); secured grant and hired contract lobbyists to focus on rates and program funding (Nov. ’21); conceptualized affiliation model and launched committee to advise (Aug. ’21); secured over $6M from Employee Retention Credits (Dec. ’21)