Most all healthcare organizations use employee engagement surveys to measure issues like leader effectiveness, culture, morale, professional growth opportunities, and more. It’s become an industry best practice for good reason. Employee engagement is directly tied to patient outcomes and all factors that connect to it.
But here’s the caveat: Are you really leveraging your employee engagement data to move the needle on important outcomes? It’s a critical question. At Healthcare Plus Solutions Group® (HPSG) we have seen over and over that when organizations approach their engagement survey data with the gravitas (and the skill-building) it deserves, it fixes other problems they’re grappling with.
The big one, of course, is retention. When you consider how widespread and vexing this issue is (it can feel unsolvable), you’ll realize that alone is a reason to really lean in on how well your leaders are learning from and using engagement scores.
Jennie Stuart Health in Hopkinsville, Kentucky is a great example of how the engagement survey can be a valuable tool for moving the needle on retention.
We’ve worked with this acute care hospital and integrated health system for the past few years. From 2023 to 2024 their employee engagement moved up five percentage points, from 69 to 74. (Yes, they were already doing well, but like all good organizations they always strive to get better.)
Here’s the amazing part: During the same timeframe, Jennie Stuart’s turnover improved by 19.5 percent. Reduced turnover has a significant financial impact. By conservative calculations, Jennie Stuart will realize an annual savings of $520,000 to $780,000, depending on role type and turnover costs. In a time when every penny counts, this kind of ROI is significant.
And here’s something even more impressive: As employee engagement rose, so did patient experience. The health system’s HCAHPS Overall Rating improved 63 percentile points, moving from 3rd to 66th.
It’s deeply rewarding to see client partners like Jennie Stuart improve and grow. But the best part is we learn a lot from their journey that we’re then able to share with others. Here are a few tips and takeaways we’ve learned from this organization and others on leveraging engagement survey results:
Be sure leaders understand the data. Otherwise, they won’t be able to build the right plan. When we coach organizations on Precision Leader Development™ (our method of providing tailored training based on an individual leader’s skill level, needs, learning style, schedule, etc.), we often find leaders don’t know how to read or use the data, so they can’t really leverage survey results. Once they learn, it becomes their North Star! Before they learn, they do things like picking their lowest scoring question to focus on, which might seem logical. The problem is, it’s not always a key driver for the metrics they want to move.
It’s a bit like going to a trainer because you want to strengthen your core, but they show you how to work on your arms because they look the worst. If you’re focused on and building your plan around the wrong issues, it doesn’t matter how hard you work, you’re not going to get the right outcome. Bottom line: Leaders need to understand the data—by organization and by department—and make sure the plan is aligned to their key drivers.
Make sure leaders do an effective rollout of survey results and involve the team in building an action plan. Hold them accountable for rolling out the engagement data to their team. Get specific and intentional. Ask every leader to let you know the date the meeting happened and, of course, to submit a copy of the plan. And don’t let leaders put the plan together in a silo. They need to include their team in building out the plan. It’s how you get buy in.
Think beyond the first quarter. This makes it sustainable. It’s not uncommon for leaders to create a post-engagement action plan for the first quarter only. Then, because there are so many other things to focus on, they get distracted by the latest hot issue and lose steam on that metric. When that happens, they won’t sustain the results. Ask leaders to create an updated plan, one for each of the four quarters. This keeps them focused on advancing these important plans while keeping them accountable to drive performance all year long.
Do a mid-year pulse check. You don’t want to have to wait an entire year for the next annual survey to find out whether what they’re doing is making an impact. Checking in periodically allows leaders to pivot as needed. Jennie Stuart provides a simple one-question mid-year survey designed to help leaders assess progress and ensure they’re moving in the right direction.
“Data is powerful,” says HPSG coach Denise Dwight, who works closely with Jennie Stuart leadership on Precision Leadership Development™ to drive these results. “When leaders know and really understand their data, it becomes incredibly empowering and motivating. Seeing the needle move becomes a really fulfilling experience for all of us!”
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Dan Collard is the cofounder (with Quint Studer) of Healthcare Plus Solutions Group® (HPSG). He is the coauthor (with Quint Studer) of Rewiring Excellence: Hardwired to Rewired and Rewiring Leadership in Post-Acute Healthcare: Equipping Leaders to Succeed. He is currently coauthoring with Dr. Katherine A. Meese the book Genfluence: Igniting Intergenerational Impact (ACHE Learn, Winter 2025). For more information, please visit www.healthcareplussg.com.
