There is a type of workplace culture that either endures or breaks under pressure somewhere between the quiet administrative offices where staffing decisions are made and the lengthy hallways of a busy hospital wing. The data indicates that Cone Health, a nonprofit healthcare network with its headquarters located in Greensboro, North Carolina, is doing well and has been doing so for some time.
Recently, the company received its sixth Great Place to Work certification, this time for 2026–2027. It is worthwhile to sit with that number, six. Most businesses try to get this kind of recognition once or twice, use it as a marketing opportunity, and move on. Getting it six times indicates that there is more intentional activity taking place within the company, going beyond strategically timed survey preparation or well-crafted internal messaging campaigns.
The certification itself is derived solely from employee responses, not from executive nominations or external panels. Compared to 57% at a typical U.S. company, 77% of Cone Health team members said they work at a great place. You can’t create that twenty-point gap with free parking and a wellness stipend. On a Tuesday afternoon, when the shift is long and the pressure doesn’t let up, it usually reflects how people really feel.
The recognition, according to Michelle Adamolekun, Chief People and Culture Officer at Cone Health, is a reflection of the company’s culture rather than a show for onlookers. Listening to how leadership discusses this gives the impression that the feedback loop between staff members and decision-makers is viewed as genuinely helpful information rather than a formality. The consistency of the certifications does imply that the culture isn’t something that is only activated during survey time, though it is more difficult to confirm whether that is equally true across all departments and all staff levels—these things rarely do.
In practically every way, the healthcare industry is one of the harshest to work in. For many years, staff shortages have been reported nationwide. Medical literature has frequently discussed burnout rates among doctors and nurses long before the pandemic made matters worse. In light of this, creating an environment where almost eight out of ten workers genuinely enjoy showing up carries a weight that a corporate consulting firm’s certification can’t adequately convey.
With more than 13,000 workers and more than 1600 doctors on its medical staff, Cone Health serves the Piedmont Triad region’s Alamance, Forsyth, Guilford, Randolph, Rockingham, and neighboring counties. The aspect of award announcements that is frequently disregarded is the sheer magnitude of upholding a consistent culture across that many individuals, locations, and specializations. On a team of fifty, creating a fantastic culture is simple. It’s a completely different problem when 13,000 people are working rotating shifts in high-stakes situations.
It’s difficult to ignore Cone Health’s recent recognition as one of America’s Greatest Workplaces for Women by Newsweek and as a Best Place to Work in Healthcare for the fourth year in a row by Modern Healthcare. These data points are not unrelated. They recommend a company that has figured out how to make the work feel worthwhile to the employees, at least to a significant extent. It is genuinely unclear if that will endure the upcoming wave of pressure on the healthcare sector, including staffing, costs, and consolidation. However, the foundation seems to be genuine, at least for the time being.
