By Margery Weinstein
Baylor Health Care System has implemented an employee engagement survey every two years since 2004. The most recent was completed in fiscal year 2012. An external partner conducts the confidential survey using unique identifiers so Baylor can track trends and correlate results. The health-care system also compares the results of each question to the prior survey and to the health-care norm. By integrating other data sets, such as performance, key talent, turnover, finance, productivity, and quality, Baylor can see what the drivers are for key outcomes. For the fiscal year 2012 survey, the health-care system had an 85 percent response rate to the voluntary online survey.
The overall survey results shape Baylor’s formal training offerings, and the local results shape the training that occurs for each department. After each survey, Baylor holds focus groups to determine clarity about the needs and best practices, and then implements a variety of training offerings that range from self-paced to blended to instructor-led. For example, supervisor perception was an area for improvement in 2010, so the organization revised its supervisory curriculum with five learning products supporting the change. It saw an increase in survey results in that dimension in 2012, and its fiscal year 2012 results in that area were 27 points above the health-care norm.
The 2012 survey gave Baylor three areas to support with training, and it generated four to five offerings for each of those three areas in early fiscal year 2012.
Baylor tracks an Engagement Index and an Integrity Index in each survey. The organization’s Engagement Index for fiscal year 2012 was 10 points higher than the health-care norm. In fiscal year 2012, the four drivers of engagement averaged 15 points higher than the health-care norm. The 2010 survey results showed a need for career development, so Baylor implemented a career center with online training. The Career Center contains articles, assessments, and e-learning modules for staff, as well as leaders. Baylor’s 2012 survey score for career development increased by six points, 12 points above the health-care norm. Some 6,429 employees have used the Career Center, and 1,305 of them have taken assessments on it. Baylor’s exit interview data used to show that “lack of career support” was a prominent theme. In fiscal year 2012, that was no longer the case.
The health-care system implemented its new Leadership Journey program in fiscal year 2012 and found an increase of eight points on the question about leadership development. When Baylor sliced that question by key talent, it found that they answered the question 23 points higher than the health-care norm. The organization’s Integrity Index increased by three points after it implemented a mandatory compliance e-learning module about workplace ethics in fiscal year 2012. That score was eight points higher than the health-care norm.
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