Outside Opinion: Athletico Physical Therapy

won't let down its guard

April 27, 2014|By Mark Kaufman

Every year, the Tribune names its 100 Top Workplaces in Chicago. As we get ready to publish
another workplace report this year, we have asked last year's top companies to share the secrets
to their success:

After being named one of Chicago's Top Workplaces, Athletico Physical Therapy looks back not
only with pride, but with a reminder to never let our guard down. It's not that we fear losing our
ranking, but we don't want to lose the edge that made us a worthy company in the first place.

It's the same attitude that allowed us to grow so rapidly. We weren't after growth for growth's
sake, just as we weren't after an award just for the sake of winning. We built a business based
on a commitment to patient satisfaction, accountability, continuous improvement and teamwork.
That philosophy expanded us from one Chicago facility in 1991 to 80-plus locations that today
employ 1,400 people in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

It starts with the people we employ. Candidates know that we hire people who want to build a
career, not just do a job. Once they are on staff, we give them support. We require an intensive
three to six months of clinical mentoring; offer classes at Athletico University; and reimburse
tuition for advanced clinical training and business degrees.

Employees realize our company culture is the right choice. Andrea Reineke Hueschen, for
example, joined us in 2000 as a rehabilitation aide and continued to work with Athletico through
grad school. She became a clinician in 2007 and was named one of our facility managers in
2013. "It's been great to see the growth of the company from the ground up, and I appreciate
Athletico's investment in me personally," Hueschen said. "It's been a fun journey."

Athletico also is committed to community involvement and that culture continues, with
employees not only participating in, but also directing, the decisions about the company's
charitable giving.

Awards are wonderful. They generate pride among employees, boost confidence among clients
and validate our business. But an award's real value is in how it pushes us to improve.

Kaufman is president and founder of Athletico Physical Therapy. The Oak Brook-based company
provides physical therapy, occupational therapy and athletic training. It was the Tribune's top
large workplace for 2013.
Disabilities Act Creates Jobs In Physical
Therapy
June 25, 1995|By Carol Kleiman.

Letters, I get letters-and phone calls and faxes and e-mail-from people eager to know what's
happening in the world of work.
Q-I want to work in rehabilitation as a physical therapist-to help patients recover from
illnesses or accidents and disabled people improve their skills sufficiently to be able to get a
job. Has the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (which took effect in 1992) increased
job opportunities in rehab?

A-Though progress has been slow, passage of the ADA, which among other things outlaws
discrimination in hiring, has enabled some disabled people to get jobs that previously they
weren't considered for. A ripple effect of the act has been to create more jobs for caring
people like you, who want to help disabled job-seekers and those employed improve their
capabilities.
"(As a result of the passage of the ADA), I believe there are more opportunities in
rehabilitation for physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists," said
Kathleen C. Yosko, president and CEO of Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital and Care Network
in Chicago. "The cost benefits of rehabilitation are more recognized today, and it also
improves people's lives, which means there's more demand for services and more positions
created."
Yosko, a registered nurse who also has an MBA, says there is a great shortage of physical
therapists.
Q-Please tell me about the field of pharmaceuticals. Are there jobs and how do you prepare
for them?
Q-Will you send me a list of all vocational schools in the U.S. and the subjects they teach?
Q-I'm interested in marketing. Will you tell me everything you know about it?
Q-I'm a sophomore in college, majoring in business administration. I want to be a corporate
executive. What should I do?
Q-What is the future for someone who wants to go into management? Does it pay well?
A-Do you notice a similarity in these queries?
I get scores of questions like these every week. What they have in common is that they come
from people with beginning interests in a new career but who want someone else to do the
hard work of collecting and transmitting all the data they need.
These kinds of queries are in the same category as the ones students often send, trying to get
easy information for their term papers.
Though I answer every letter I get, including queries such as these (albeit not as fully as the
writer would like), I always add a sentence that I hope is more of a help than a lecture:
Do your homework.
I urge these job seekers to go to their public libraries, read newspapers, access online
information networks, join professional organizations, visit their college placement center,
talk to school department heads in their field, seek counseling from their local community
college and serve internships.
Doing your homework is not just a pretty phrase. By adding a little perspiration to your
inspiration, you get not only the information you seek but also direct and indirect contact
with the profession you're researching and the people in it.
Q-I am concerned about the fact that diversity training is replacing affirmative action efforts
in many corporations. Companies find it much easier to talk about the value of having a
diverse work force if there's no one telling them they must stop discriminating against
women and minorities.

I'm not against diversity training, because we need to understand each other's differences so
that we can effectively work together. But I feel that most workplaces would still be made up
only of white men if there weren't affirmative action laws in place.
A-Diversity programs are replacing affirmative action efforts in corporate America. And
without affirmative action, women and minorities would be excluded from hiring and
promotion opportunities. And, affirmative action is essential because it also has the force of
legal requirements and remedies.
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Carol Kleiman's columns appear in the Tribune on Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday.