Customer Story: Endeavor Health

Endeavor Health℠ is a Chicagoland-based integrated health system driven by a mission to help everyone in the communities it serves be their best. As Illinois’ third-largest health system and third-largest medical group, Endeavor Health proudly serves an area of more than 4.2 million residents across seven northeast Illinois counties. Our more than 27,000 team members and more than 7,100 physician and advance practice provider partners are the heart of its organization, delivering seamless access to personalized, pioneering, world-class patient care across more than 300 ambulatory locations and nine hospitals, including eight Magnet-recognized acute care hospitals — Edward (Naperville), Elmhurst, Evanston, Glenbrook (Glenview), Highland Park, Northwest Community (Arlington Heights), Skokie and Swedish (Chicago) and Linden Oak Behavioral Health Hospital (Naperville).

Customer Success Snapshot

Listening Use Cases:
- Employee Engagement, Healthcare Safety Culture, Magnet
The Challenge:
- Integrate multiple healthcare entities under one Endeavor Health brand and culture, while driving alignment with the system's mission and vision
- Adapt to rapid organizational changes, including several mergers and a name change – during a global pandemic – while continuing to focus on employee well-being, engagement, and the quality of employee’s day-to-day experience
- Drive accountability for leaders at all levels to take action to improve their teams’ experience and increase engagement
The Solution:
- Selected Perceptyx for its comprehensive, user-friendly platform capable of evolving with Endeavor Health's growth, focusing on engagement surveys and safety culture assessments
- Implemented a holistic survey strategy capable of integrating engagement listening events with more specialized surveys for Nursing Excellence (as part of their Magnet certification journey), and AHRQ’s Culture of Safety and Workplace Safety surveys, tailored to meet specific benchmarks and accreditation needs
- Utilized advanced analytics and benchmarking capabilities to compare Endeavor Health's performance against overall healthcare industry benchmarks
- Employed Perceptyx’s demographic filters to report survey results from their physicians and providers separately, allowing for greater granularity in analysis and actioning
The Impact:
- Introduced the concept of “engagement conversations,” Endeavor Health’s label for post-survey action planning, which resulted in a significant majority of surveyed team members feeling a sense of accomplishment and pride
- Achieved an increase in year-over-year response rate among four healthcare groups and 27,000 employees, despite the challenges of integrating new entities into the system
- Used engagement data to set internal goals as part of the overall company scorecard used by the executive leadership team and the board to measure the health of the system

Why Endeavor Health Chose Perceptyx

An Integration of Healthcare Cultures

Following an active mergers & acquisitions streak that brought nine regional hospitals together, Endeavor Health needed a partner that could help it execute a comprehensive listening and action planning strategy and support the creation of a unified culture.

An Integration of Listening Types

Employee listening can provide significant benefits to organizations seeking insights related to specific industry accreditations. However, they must also be conscious of the time commitment required. Endeavor Health sought a partner that could integrate specialized surveys like Magnet and Culture of Safety within its main engagement survey. By bundling these unique surveys together into one seamless experience, Endeavor Health gained richer insights into employee sentiments while minimizing disruption to critical business and patient care operations.

An Integration of Tech and Consulting Expertise

While Endeavor Health praised the Perceptyx platform for its flexibility and ease of use, the power represented in the people of Perceptyx was equally important. With the support of a dedicated healthcare consultant, Rachel and the entire Endeavor team enjoyed access to industry best practices and benchmarks, personalized guidance, and ongoing support. Rachel Laznowski explained, "The consulting aspect of this has not just been about providing answers but about fostering a deep understanding and alignment with our goals, facilitating a genuine partnership with a consultant who is a true leader in her field.”

Our Partner:

At the heart of Endeavor Health's post-merger journey to increase team member engagement is Rachel Laznowski, Senior Talent Management Specialist. Laznowski's responsibilities span a wide spectrum, from managing survey communications, to diving deep into survey data analytics to facilitating leader enablement training focused on engagement. Her role is central to ensuring that Endeavor Health's leadership can seamlessly access, interpret, and activate the data captured by Perceptyx's People Insights Platform.

Her work is also crucial in aligning Endeavor Health's strategic objectives with actionable listening insights, driving the unified system towards its vision of excellence and setting new standards in healthcare:

Why Perceptyx?

In the words of Rachel Laznowski, Endeavor Health's partnership with Perceptyx “serves as a testament to the healthcare system's commitment to nurturing a culture that values every team member's input.” Laznowski explained that Perceptyx was chosen for its dynamic adaptability and user-friendly interface: “The way Perceptyx is evolving its resources and features is akin to our own dynamic growth trajectory, making it an ideal partner as we blend the cultures of NorthShore University HealthSystem and Edward-Elmhurst Health.”

This partnership underscores a mutual commitment to continuous improvement and development, with a special emphasis on leveraging engagement surveys, safety culture assessments, and exploring new listening channels to ensure continued progress against the benchmarks that define healthcare's best.

This ongoing “endeavor” — Laznowski’s words — to achieve higher engagement levels requires a holistic approach, comparing Endeavor Health's progress not just against its past performance but against the broader healthcare benchmarks that Perceptyx provides. “Working in healthcare offers a unique opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives.”

Engagement Conversations Drive Results

Since 2020, Endeavor Health has witnessed measurable improvements in engagement and response rates, thanks in part to the Perceptyx platform. “Tracking response rates and engagement scores and integrating them into our own scorecards has been a key part of our strategy, allowing us to set ambitious targets based on the insights gathered,” Laznowski shares. This methodical approach to engagement surveys has enabled Endeavor Health to drill down further by rolling out organization-wide engagement conversations directed by its leaders.

Here, significant strides have been made in enhancing team members' sense of accomplishment and pride in the organization via these targeted, leader-led engagement conversations. Laznowski highlighted an “8-point increase in willingness to recommend Endeavor as a place to work between employees who are having conversations with their leaders about the engagement survey and those who are not, which is the sort of insight that’s going to help us come together as one system. And we see a 14-point increase on the item about feeling valued as a team member for people having engagement conversations and those who are not.”

The Power of Integrated Surveys: A Unified Approach

Endeavor Health's strategic decision to integrate specialized surveys like Magnet and Culture of Safety with their main engagement surveys showcases their innovative approach to employee listening. This integration serves as more than just a procedural, check-the-box function; it embodies a commitment to a comprehensive understanding and improvement of the healthcare environment across the entire system.

“Integrating these surveys doesn’t just help us save time and address immediate needs but also embeds a culture of continuous growth and learning,” said Laznowski. “However, the Perceptyx platform is so easy and quick we’ve been able to run one-off surveys in different regions of the system we’ve just brought online, to get the information we need and introduce them to how we do listening." The flexible approach enabled by the Perceptyx platform ensures that initiatives related to safety culture and other important subjects are never siloed but instead remain part of the broader engagement conversation.

Healthcare Consulting Expertise: A Key to Success

The consulting services provided by Perceptyx have further contributed to Endeavor Health's success, with their dedicated senior consultant offering personalized guidance, industry best practices, and unwavering support. Laznowski cannot help but praise the consultative aspect of the partnership, particularly emphasizing its role in ensuring that Endeavor Health remains at the forefront of healthcare innovation and strategic planning: "The consulting aspect of this has not just been about providing answers but about fostering a deep understanding and alignment with our goals, facilitating a genuine partnership with a consultant who is a true leader in her field. Not only does she know the ins and outs of surveying in this sector, she always has a resource for me, whether it’s an article or a playbook about surveying, regardless of the topic. It’s wonderful."

Key Takeaways for Listening-Focused Healthcare Systems

For healthcare systems embarking on a similar transformative journey related to mergers or other expansion efforts, Laznowski underscored the importance of transparent communication and the strategic use of survey results to effect tangible improvements. “Empowering our team members by genuinely listening to and acting on their feedback is the cornerstone of our strategy,” she affirmed. This approach requires a leadership model that is responsive, adaptable, and always centered on the well-being and engagement of employees. By prioritizing employee insights, healthcare systems can catalyze positive changes that resonate at every level of the organization, enhancing employee engagement and, ultimately, patient experience.

The importance of action planning and the engagement conversation process cannot be overstated in Endeavor’s strategy for meaningful change. These processes are designed to be dynamic and reflective of the organization's shifting needs, emphasizing the necessity of regular check-ins and adjustments to ensure that initiatives remain relevant and impactful. “Action planning and engagement conversations are ongoing efforts. They're not confined to a set schedule but are integrated into our daily operations, ensuring that we're continuously responsive to our team members' feedback and evolving needs,” Laznowski said.

In terms of employee engagement, Endeavor Health's dedication to creating a workplace of choice is evident in Laznowski's description of how the organization utilizes listening programs to shape its environment: “By letting the voice of our people guide our efforts, we create an environment where everyone can thrive. Our engagement conversations and action planning post-survey are foundational to building on the insights provided by our team members, ensuring their voices are not just heard but acted upon — and the data supports this.”

Perceptyx: A Progressive Partner

The technology and support provided by Perceptyx are lauded by Laznowski for their user-friendliness and adaptability, critical attributes in an industry as dynamic as healthcare. Cutting-edge updates to the platform continue to minimize stress for frontline clinical staff, ensuring that technological features enhance rather than complicate the user experience: “The platform's ease of use and the comprehensive support available ensure that technological updates do not become stressors but rather active and easily implemented facilitators of our engagement efforts.”

In short, Laznowski describes Perceptyx as “progressive,” a reflection of the platform's commitment to innovation, support, and adaptability. Her accolades for Perceptyx underline the platform's role in not only responding to Endeavor Health's needs but also anticipating and shaping the future direction of healthcare engagement and culture: “Perceptyx's progressive stance mirrors our own aspirations to redefine healthcare standards and ensure our system is a place where every voice matters.”