Partners HealthCare®

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Testimonials

The following testimonials come from Partners HealthCare employees who work in various departments across the system.

• Cora Cheng-Chong, Research Grants and Contracts Officer, Research Management
• Robert Woltag, Corporate Team Lead II, Project Management, Technical Services and Operations
• Kathryn Ward, Senior Human Resources Representative, Human Resources

Cora Cheng-Chong, Research Management

1. What is your typical day like at Partners?

A typical day at Partners begins with reviewing and responding to sponsors’, Principal Investigators’ (PI), and departmental administrators’ e-mails and questions. Afterwards I focus on employee data changes and equipment requisitions. Following this I devote most of my time to managing, training, mentoring, and coaching my team through day-to-day decision making, grant management, and post-award work. Meeting one-on-one with the staff in my team is also a critical part of my day, as these ensure proper functioning and fulfill Federal requirements. It is extremely important to keep great communication within the department and PI/DA, as well as the funding sponsor. In addition to managing the team, I am also responsible for managing my own assigned portfolio including setting up new funds and renewal through close out of a grant life cycle.

2. What made you decide to work for Partners?

I decided to work for Partners because it is a worldwide leader in medical research programs that seeks to further our current medical knowledge and better the lives of people.  In addition, Partners is a center for great researchers and doctors, which allows for the furthering of medical research.  Not only does Partners have great hospitals for its patients, but its research also assists in curing diseases in third world countries, which are in the greatest need of medical assistance.  By working at Partners in Research Management, I believe that I am able to contribute a small part to this organization in its quest to better the lives of its patients as well as the world.

3. What do you like most about working for Partners?

I have built up a lot of relationships over the years and it is so wonderful to see PIs, who started as Fellows or junior faculty members, now promoted into Sr. PI or Chief positions. Many of them still call me to ask for advice on pre-award issues, even after all these years. Those relationships are very special to me.

I take my job very seriously and I do this work from my heart. I find the job to be very meaningful. I feel that I am contributing in helping improve health care and giving back to society. We have research collaborations and subcontractors all throughout the world. I value the PIs who are here trying to make a difference in the world and promoting global health care; trying to find a cure to the many diseases that are out there. Partners is making an impact on improving health care worldwide and I want to help them promote this. I have seen a lot of progress with developing countries over the years and the impact Partners has made within those countries.

4. What opportunities have you been given, to help develop your skills?

I feel very satisfied with my work here at Partners, since I started at MGH 16 years ago. This is not just a job for me. I have been on the pre- and post-award teams, have been involved in various projects, and have also received promotions during my time here. These opportunities have helped me greatly in my own career as well as in training and coaching the new generation of Grant Administrators.  I enjoy giving back to them and seeing their growth.

 

Robert Woltag, Corporate Team Lead II, Project Management, Technical Services and Operations

1. What is your typical day like at Partners?

The typical day is there is really no typical day. For the most part, one of the things our group is trying to do is we want to embrace change. We’re trying to do different things everyday and challenge ourselves every day to do different things. For example, we mostly used to focus on internal infrastructure projects. More recently we’ve gotten out of that bubble and now we’re helping external groups with their projects and doing some consulting.  We’re also looking at service level management which is a little bit outside of the role of a project manager and challenging our Project Managers to try and do some of that. 

We always try and shake it up a little bit, so everyday we’re just trying to challenge ourselves and do things a little differently. 

2. What made you decide to work for Partners?

One of the things that attracted me was you’re actually helping people, you’re not selling a product. You feel a little bit more value in what you’re doing because you’re not selling a widget. The indirect result of what you do here at work is benefiting patient care and health. It could be your parents or your grandparents out there. You’re just contributing to that, which was one of the things that sold me. 

3. What do you like most about working for Partners?

Partners is a world-wide recognized health care mean.  We have facilities in the Middle East, we have partnerships with all these different hospitals.  So whenever you go to a conference, people typically know Partners and I think we’re definitely looked up to as a leader in the industry so it’s great to be a part of that team.  I think a lot of the people in the organization all have that same shared vision that I mentioned before, where we’re contributing to people’s well being as an end result.  It’s not really a stock ticker.  What drives us is really contributing to that long term benefit to human beings out there.  So I think people having that vision or shared drive definitely.   It’s a great environment to be around people like that. 

4. What opportunities have you had to develop your skills?

I’ve been through all the Partners Management training and I got my certificate. I was in the first graduating class so that was exciting. I’ve also gotten my Project Management Professional certification with Partners’ help.  They helped me, they paid for the classes, they gave me time to take those classes and supported me for that. To maintain the PMP credential, you have to maintain a certain number of hours every three years, I think it’s 40 hours of training over the three year span. So I go to conferences, I do online training and some of it unfortunately you have to pay for and Partners makes that commitment to help me maintain that credential.  It does benefit them as well as myself. So the continued learning is always accepted and encouraged by Partners.

 

Kathryn Ward, Senior Human Resources Representative

1. What is your typical day like at Partners?

Core responsibilities include new hire coordination and support so when new employees come in I’m sort of their first meet and greet if you will.  We do paperwork have a conversation, go over benefits, answer any questions that they may have regarding orientation regarding the process as it was left off from the Staffing Specialist.  A large part of what I do is orientation so I facilitate the orientations and coordinate that.  I do a bit of recruitment for a couple of groups mainly human resources and I have some analyst duties so I query a lot of HR data for various reports.

Some projects I have been on New Hire Satisfaction survey that was recently piloted in August.  We did about a year and a half of work prior to the pilot surrounding employee engagement and satisfaction at various anniversary dates.  I worked on creating a SharePoint site for new employees as a central hub of resources such for links and paperwork and the evaluation or orientation.

Typical day is answering a lot of emails, various phone calls.  Because a lot of employees have me as their first contact I am usually the first person that pops in to their mind whether it be two weeks later of two months later so I do a bit of triaging for the HR Generalists and employee relations.  I do a bit of data entry because everything is electronic in our Applicant Tracking System.

2. What made you decide to work for Partners?

I think it’s an intermingling of many factors.  My mother worked for MGH for 20 years.  She started doing research in college and then she worked there off and on for most of my childhood so I was always familiar with Partners.  I feel very strongly about working in health care.  There is nothing more fascinating than the human body and being able to help people with their wellness.  I was attracted to the company because it is a non-profit.  Bottom line the work they do.  I also volunteered many years at MGH so I had the exposure to the company that way as well.

3. What do you like about working for Partners?

There are a number of things.  Part of what I like about doing orientation on a regular basis is the fact that I get to share the mission with new employees on a regular basis.  This helps remind me of the important work that we are doing because I don’t necessarily have direct patient contact, research or training of medical professionals but it helps remind me that those that I support do have this contact and bring value to the company.  I think it’s important to be in line with the mission of your company and I am very proud of the work that we do here.  I think it also makes me proud that we do innovative research and ground breaking work in terms of medical care for patients and the opportunity to teach the best in brightest in terms of research and care.

My particular group is very supportive and works collaboratively.  There is a lot of opportunity for growth in my career between internal support through classes, as well as opportunities to learn outside the company. Opportunity for tuition reimbursement is very nice as well.  They are very supportive of work life balance.  It’s important in HR but also throughout the company.

One of the biggest things is on a personal basis is the opportunity for growth for learning.  I like my job because I feel like I can come in and do different things.  I’m not doing the same thing from day to day.  There is opportunity to do different projects and serve on different committees to learn different aspects of not only my function but other functions within HR so that aspect I like.  It’s not just the same thing from day to day.  There is lots of variety and support for growth.

4. What opportunities have you experienced to develop your skills?

Well Partners offers a lot of classes on the technical side and the career side.  I have taken part in many of these classes.  I’ve taken time management to project management to interpersonal effectiveness to behavioral interviewing to coaching.  We also have classes through IS.  I’ve done sharepoint and skill enhancement for excel and access.  They are all offered during the day so you can go during work hours at various locations.  There is also training on the job by peers.  I’ve worked with HRIS on various systems we use and employee and labor relations on regulations pertaining to employment law.