Days before the Chicago Marathon, physical therapist Omer Aguilar was digging his fingers into a patient’s leg, pressing his elbow into her hip flexors, and giving her balancing and strengthening challenges to prepare her muscles for the 26.2-mile haul.
Marathon season is one of the busiest periods for Aguilar, the manager of the NovaCare Rehabilitation clinic in Wicker Park. But it barely feels like work, he said.
A runner himself, Aguilar encouraged his employer to open the Wicker Park clinic last year and to focus on endurance athletes, and he enjoyed the company’s support the whole way.
“I feel like I’m being part of bigger community, and it’s because of NovaCare’s support to help me do what I like doing, what I’m passionate about,” Aguilar said.
NovaCare Rehabilitation, owned by Mechanicsburg, Pa.-based Select Medical, is part of a sprawling network of physical therapy providers with more than 1,100 clinics across the country. But the 33 NovaCare clinics in the Chicago market, each with two to eight employees, are run more like small businesses, said Kristin Burda, regional director of operations in Chicago.
Center managers get individual mentorship and the tools they want to run their clinics, helping make the corporate model feel personal, she said.
“My motto is: If you can justify it, you can do it,” Burda said.
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NovaCare Rehabilitation, which has 176 employees in its Chicago-area outpatient locations, ranked 11th among small companies in the Tribune’s list of top workplaces, as analyzed by Exton, Pa.-based consultancy WorkplaceDynamics. It also saw a significant bump in its positivity score, up 6 percent from last year, based on questions employees were asked about how they feel at the company.
Burda pointed to a few developments that might have boosted people’s spirits.
The Chicago Fire soccer team this year made NovaCare its official physical therapy and athletic training facility, the company’s largest partnership in the region since it came to the Chicago market 20 years ago. Some trainers got to travel with the team internationally, and the whole company was invited to a tailgate and a soccer match. Employees now get discounted tickets to games.
NovaCare, which has partnered with the Chicago Area Runners Association for more than a decade, this year also started offering employees free membership to the running club and free entry into the races they sponsor together, Burda said.
Another change this year is how the company communicates, Burda said. It avoids mass mandates over conference calls, opting instead for individual calls and meetings with center managers to explain changes or expectations.
For Aguilar, easy access to his leaders as well as peers at other centers helps create a collaborative environment even though everyone is spread out, he said.
He feels more positive at work because, after he struggled in previous jobs to implement his ideas, NovaCare was eager to help him realize his goals.
Aguilar, who joined NovaCare 2 1/2 years ago, was working at the company’s Loop location when he asked about opening a clinic in Wicker Park, a neighborhood that would allow him to work closer to his Logan Square home and offer a population of athletic young people with the strains, sprains, neck-to-toe pains and other stress injuries caused by endurance sports.
NovaCare encouraged him to pick a location. Aguilar also offered input on the design of the clinic, from the lighting to the floors to the mirrors. His request for a Pilates reformer machine was granted. His idea for a wall showcasing his patients’ race bibs came to be.
The clinic at 1751 W. Division St. opened in September 2014.
“I feel that my voice is heard,” Aguilar said.
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