Advocate Health Transforms Employee Feedback: 80% Question Reduction Drives 86,000 Employee Responses

The Opportunity

Following a major organizational integration, Advocate Health faced a significant challenge in their employee feedback system. Their existing approach had become unwieldy, with multiple separate surveys covering everything from Culture of Safety to DEI and Compliance. This fragmentation resulted in teammates having to answer up to 250 questions across various platforms, while leaders struggled to manage up to five different action plans.

The complexity wasn't just creating survey fatigue — it was actively hindering the organization's ability to derive meaningful insights. With data scattered across different platforms and legacy systems from joining two legacy organizations, getting a clear picture of employee sentiment was nearly impossible. The organization needed a way to streamline their feedback process while maintaining the depth and quality of insights necessary for effective decision-making.

The Solution

Advocate Health embarked on an ambitious transformation of their feedback system, creating a unified "Culture of Safety and Work Environment survey." This consolidated approach brought together previously separate surveys into a single, streamlined platform powered by Perceptyx. The transformation was remarkable in both its scope and efficiency — what typically takes organizations years to achieve was accomplished in just 18 months.

The organization took a thoughtful approach to implementation, focusing on both technical consolidation and cultural integration. They created a Leader Roundtable on Psychological Safety, helping leaders understand and implement the four pillars of psychologically safe cultures. To support this initiative, they launched an on-demand training program called Psychological Safety 101, ensuring leaders had the resources they needed to create supportive team environments.

The new action planning process was designed with leader workload in mind. Instead of managing multiple plans, leaders now focus on just two key areas: an enterprise-wide focus on psychological safety (pre-populated in the system) and a team-specific focus area chosen in collaboration with their teams. This streamlined approach includes suggested actions and built-in follow-up dates, making it easier for leaders to drive meaningful change.

The Impact

The transformation of Advocate Health's feedback system delivered impressive results across multiple dimensions. The reduction from 250 to 49 survey questions represented an 80% decrease in survey burden, while maintaining the depth of insights needed for effective decision-making. The streamlined process attracted participation from 86,000 teammates, providing a comprehensive view of employee sentiment across the organization.

Leadership engagement was equally impressive, with 6,000 leaders completing action plan training. The simplified approach — reducing up to five action plans to just one — allowed leaders to focus their energy on implementing meaningful changes rather than managing multiple improvement tracks.

The unified platform achieved what had eluded many organizations: true data integration across all verticals. This comprehensive view enabled more informed strategic decision-making and helped bridge cultural gaps between different parts of the organization. The success of this integration was particularly noteworthy given that it represented the first comprehensive survey covering both regions in about two years.

Advocate Health's transformation demonstrates how thoughtful consolidation of feedback systems can drive both efficiency and effectiveness. By streamlining their approach while maintaining focus on critical areas like psychological safety, they created a more responsive and unified organization better equipped to support both their teammates and their mission of delivering exceptional healthcare.