BAYADA Doubles Response Rate, Hits 92nd Percentile in Engagement Through Frontline-First Strategy
- Response rates increased from 34% to 62%, with field employees rising from 28% to over 50%
- Engagement improved from 77% to 86.4%, reaching the 92nd percentile in Perceptyx benchmarks
- Field employees now represent 80%+ of survey responses, up from being systematically underrepresented
When CEOs talk about cultural compatibility during mergers, it can often be overstated. There are invariably going to be differences in cultures, regardless of similarity.
What Was the Opportunity?
Leading up to 2019, BAYADA's employee listening strategy had become disconnected from the realities of its workforce. Although BAYADA had long invested in annual engagement surveys, the approach no longer fit a rapidly evolving, highly distributed population, particularly the large population of home health field employees — home health aides, nurses, habilitation technicians, and more — who represent the majority of BAYADA's workforce and hours worked.
The turning point came when CEO and senior leadership recognized that BAYADA had collected more granular, actionable feedback during COVID-era pulse efforts than through its legacy census survey. That insight exposed a fundamental problem: the existing approach missed the issues most critical to frontline caregivers taking care of clients every day.
An external assessment quantified opportunities for improvement:
Severe participation gaps, especially among field staff. BAYADA's 2018 enterprise engagement survey achieved only 34% overall participation, with field staff participation at a meager 28%. Because field employees represented most workforce hours, this meant feedback represented only 42% of hours worked — far below the 75-85% response rates typical of well-functioning listening programs.
A listening approach that never reached field employees. The problem wasn't survey fatigue or lack of trust, given that survey credibility actually ran 9% higher than global norms. The issue was structural: most field staff don’t regularly use email, yet that’s how surveys and survey reminders were disseminated.
Annual surveys that couldn't keep pace with workforce dynamics. Once-a-year listening wasn't responsive enough for fast-changing employee needs. Feedback delays made action planning less timely and less relevant. Census surveys also created unnecessary burden by asking questions of groups where they didn't apply.
No clear line of sight to what drove engagement and retention. Although employees shared rich feedback, the survey structure made it difficult to pinpoint what mattered most; there were too many questions without clear prioritization and no strategic use of branched or diagnostic items. This led to leaders investing effort in the wrong areas.
The business case for change was clear: engagement and retention were top predictors of turnover, especially for field staff. Engagement correlated strongly with client service quality. In a tightening healthcare labor market, gaps in understanding the employee experience posed problems for recruitment, retention, and BAYADA's mission.
What Was the Solution?
BAYADA partnered with Perceptyx to rebuild its employee listening strategy from the ground up, executing a multi-year transformation across three phases.
Phase 1: Building the Foundation (2019–2021)
BAYADA moved its engagement work onto the Perceptyx platform and shifted from annual census surveys to continuous quarterly pulses, expanding beyond a single annual score to frequent, actionable insight across practices and roles.
The organization introduced text-based survey delivery, allowing field employees to participate using their mobile phones rather than requiring email access. Simple, consistent communication scripts and reminder templates — both text and email — were created for offices to market and communicate surveys through existing rhythms.
BAYADA also added inclusion as a strategic priority during this phase, partnering with The Diversity Movement and incorporating Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging-related (DEIB) questions into employee experience surveys to understand how different groups experienced belonging, authenticity, and inclusion. The DEIB office was formally created in 2021.
Phase 2: Expanding the Ecosystem (2021–2023)
Guided by listening results, BAYADA used employee feedback to shape COVID-19 protocol, redesign retirement and PTO policies, launch a $5 million investment for employee engagement and development, and stand up the DEIB Office and Employee Resource Councils.
The organization integrated exit, new hire, and candidate surveys to see the employee journey holistically. Leaders and boards were educated to view employee experience as "how we activate our employees to perform at their best," not just a survey outcome.
Enterprise and practice-level action planning became systematic: offices scoring red were required to submit action plans, yellow offices created 1-2 action items, and enterprise functions identified areas of concern and adjusted programs accordingly.
Phase 3: Reaching Top Percentile Performance (2023–2025)
With a mature listening strategy in place, BAYADA refined EX goals and built disciplined action planning and dashboard use into leadership routines. Employee experience insights now connect directly to enterprise priorities, growth and development strategy, and practice-level scorecards.
The organization established a survey ambassador network to encourage completion, especially for the field clinicians and caregivers who are harder to reach through email alone.
BAYADA's six-year transformation produced significant results across participation, engagement, and organizational capability,
Participation rates more than doubled. Overall response rates increased from 34% in 2018 to 62% in Spring 2025 and 60% in Fall 2025. Field employee response rates rose from 28% to over 50%. Field employees now represent more than 80% of survey responses, which represented a complete reversal from the era when leadership couldn't hear from the employees closest to clients.
Engagement reached the 92nd percentile. The engagement index improved from 77% in 2018 to 86.4% in 2025, placing BAYADA in the 92nd percentile of Perceptyx benchmarks.
External recognition validated the transformation. BAYADA's culture and inclusion efforts earned recognition from Newsweek (America's Most Admired Workplaces, Greatest Workplaces for Mental Wellbeing, Greatest Workplaces for Parents and Families, and more), Forbes, the Human Rights Campaign (100 score), and the Disability Equality Index — growing from 2 recognitions in 2018 to more than 10 today.
Enterprise initiatives emerged directly from listening data. Employee feedback informed the $5 million Kermit Dollars development investment, the launch of the BAYADA Celebrates digital recognition platform, expanded retirement and PTO benefits, and the creation of Employee Resource Councils.
As Bridgett (BT) Tabor, a leader in BAYADA's employee experience work, reflected: "The biggest lesson for me has been that when we simply meet our people where they are and genuinely ask for their voice, it changes them and it changes us. I'll never forget a nurse who said, 'Thank you for asking. It means something that you're trying to make this better for us.' In that moment, I saw the real impact: when our caregivers feel heard, supported, and able to bring their whole selves to work, they can give their best to the clients who depend on them."
What Is the Business Impact?
BAYADA's employee experience transformation coincided with significant business milestones:
Revenue growth. BAYADA reached $2 billion in annual revenue, a milestone the organization attributes in part to its culture and workforce investments.
Workforce stability in a challenging market. In an industry facing severe staffing shortages (home care turnover rates exceed 75% nationally), BAYADA's engagement gains helped the organization maintain workforce stability and continue expanding, opening 11 new offices in 2024 alone.
Reduced cost of disengagement. Research indicates that each percentage point of engagement improvement in healthcare reduces turnover costs and improves productivity. For a 33,000-employee organization, BAYADA's 9.4-point engagement gain represents substantial savings and operational efficiency improvements.
Employee experience is now embedded in BAYADA's balanced business scorecard as a “people” metric, alongside service, quality, growth, and financial performance. Each practice and office is held accountable for EX results at the same cadence and depth as other core business outcomes.
By employing a listening strategy and leveraging a platform that gives you objective data, it’s invaluable to informing your people strategy,” says Miller.
The Impact
Improvements in employee engagement, retention, and leadership support
The employee listening strategy delivered significant benefits:
Discovery of Engagement Hotspots: The data revealed previously unanticipated issues across different business units that leadership had assumed would be more insulated from M&A activity. “We thought our people challenges, such as retention, were only in our wholesale banks, but the reality is they were in our frontline and branches as well,” notes Miller. This insight allowed for more targeted action planning and interventions.
Identification of Cultural Misalignments: The surveys exposed important differences in how each organization interpreted the bank’s core values. While both banks considered themselves people-centric, their practical approaches differed significantly. “[Some of the people from American National Bank] perceived us to be more process-oriented... they really didn’t understand why we had all these ‘hoops’ to jump through,” explains Miller. “They saw that as an example of, ‘Hey, we can be flexible and nimble when we need to service a customer.’ But for us, it was like, ‘Wow, that’s a really risky proposition.’ We leveraged the data and insights to then go and have conversations with those leaders and action plan around it.” Subsequent surveying showed that this “values gap” had indeed narrowed.
Acceleration of Technology Investments: Insights from the survey revealed significant technology gaps that negatively impacted productivity and employee experience. For example, American National Bank, the acquired institution, had implemented innovative tools like DocuSign to streamline loan administration. However, these capabilities were lost during the transition to Atlantic Union Bank, creating frustration among employees. “For your job to be easy, and then to come to Atlantic Union Bank and have the thing that makes it easy go away... that degrades the experience all the more,” explains Miller. This degradation in the employee experience also risked reduced productivity and retention.
Recognizing this as an acute pain point, Atlantic Union Bank acted swiftly. They worked cross-functionally with their technology and operations teams to reprioritize the DocuSign project within their existing roadmap. This decision was driven by the understanding that reinstating such tools was essential for retaining talent and improving engagement. The initiative had a meaningful impact on teammate work experience, engagement, and retention. “The most powerful thing we heard is, ‘You listened. You leveraged this information and did something with it. That reaffirmed the commitment to the combined organization and retention in the long term,’” says Miller.
Expansion of Leadership Visibility: Listening data showed that new markets without an existing Atlantic Union leadership presence struggled more during the transition. “It felt like the blind were leading the blind,” says Miller. This led to a strategic change in their integration approach, ensuring the physical presence and accessibility of legacy leadership in new markets.
Lessons for the Future
Improvements in employee engagement, retention, and leadership support
The insights gained have now become part of Atlantic Union Bank’s M&A playbook, directly informing their approach to future growth. “The lessons learned from our listening strategy have literally been written into our playbook for future state M&A,” Miller explains.
The impact extends beyond immediate integration concerns. The data now informs executive goal-setting and accountability measures as well, with leaders being evaluated on their contribution to successful integration outcomes. “Senior and executive leadership has a responsibility to support the success of the integration,” says Miller. “Thanks to Perceptyx’s platform, we can measure engagement, where we see hotspots, where we’re seeing risk to retention, and where we’re seeing far-reaching positive impacts.”
Senior and executive leadership has a responsibility to support the success of the integration,” says Miller. “Thanks to Perceptyx’s platform, we can measure engagement, where we see hotspots, where we’re seeing risk to retention, and where we’re seeing far-reaching positive impacts.
Looking ahead, Atlantic Union Bank continues to refine its employee listening strategy, particularly as it manages the challenges of back-to-back acquisitions. “Merger fatigue is real,” acknowledges Miller. “We have to prioritize our investment in time to ensure that we are not losing momentum around teammate engagement and actioning on the insights we had, amid a lot of different distractions. In the instance of back-to-back mergers, we have to be mindful of the future integration but also continue attending to the teammates who have joined in the not-so-distant past.”
Objective data has been instrumental in helping the company interpret feedback and insights, explains Miller: “It is imperative to run pulse surveys during a merger and respond to that data before going into the next merger.” This approach provides valuable lessons learned as they prepare for their next acquisition. Another focus area for Atlantic Union Bank moving forward is leveraging features that support action planning: “[Perceptyx has] made [action planning] so easy, it’s so seamless.”