Employee Listening Is a Prescription for Great Business Outcomes

Renown Health is a locally-governed, not-for-profit integrated healthcare network serving northern Nevada, Lake Tahoe, and northeast California. As the region's largest, locally-owned healthcare network, Renown includes four hospitals, 100 medical group practice sites, urgent care, and Hometown Health insurance company. The organization is focused on developing innovative models of care that improve the health of the people and communities it serves. With a workforce of more than 7,500 employees and over 900 healthcare providers, Renown is one of northern Nevada's largest private employers and is dedicated to fostering a culture of excellence, inclusion, and compassion.

Customer Success Snapshot

Listening Use Cases:

Employee Engagement, Pulse Surveys, Employee Lifecycle
Our Partner:
- Nicole Petersen, M.A. | Director of People Development
The Challenge:
- Navigate significant organizational changes and maintain employee engagement during and after the global pandemic.
- Ensure employees understand and feel connected to the organization's strategic direction.
- Maintain high survey participation rates across a diverse workforce.
- Identify and address skill gaps to support long-term growth and employee development.
- Foster interdepartmental cooperation and a sense of belonging among employees.
The Solution:
- Implemented a comprehensive listening strategy using the Perceptyx platform, including annual surveys and bi-annual pulse checks.
- Leveraged advanced analytics to identify gaps in understanding and implemented targeted communication strategies, including monthly CEO-led town halls, to reinforce the importance of feedback.
- Established a "Culture Crew" focused on employee-driven initiatives, informed by insights from Perceptyx-hosted listening events.
- Developed and executed targeted learning and development programs, directly addressing skill gaps identified through employee feedback.
The Impact:
- Achieved a 6-point increase in overall engagement scores, reversing a previous trend.
- Increased employee understanding of strategic direction from 72% to 78% in just one year.
- Consistently achieved high participation rates, including a 84% response rate for the annual engagement survey.
- Improved scores in interdepartmental cooperation and employees' sense of belonging, contributing to overall engagement increases.

Why Renown Chose Perceptyx

A Powerful Platform for Comprehensive Employee Listening

Emerging from the global pandemic, Renown Health sought to strengthen its employee engagement strategy. In 2021, the organization partnered with Perceptyx to implement a comprehensive listening program. This collaboration equipped Renown with the tools to navigate change, align its diverse workforce, and reinforce its commitment to a people-first culture.

Actionable Insights Drive Alignment to Strategic Direction

Renown makes full use of Perceptyx's analytics capabilities to gain deep insights into employee sentiment and organizational alignment. Nicole Petersen emphasized this point: "Understanding the strategic direction of the organization has been one of our key drivers of engagement."

Flexibility Enables Continuous Feedback

The Perceptyx platform's flexibility allows Renown to conduct both comprehensive annual surveys and targeted pulse surveys, ensuring a continuous feedback loop. "We do a pulse survey in December to ensure we're getting feedback every six months," Petersen said.

Integrated Action Planning

Renown appreciates the action planning features integrated into the Perceptyx platform. Petersen: "We love that action plans are in the system, and that as you're action planning, we can give relevant resources to our leaders and team members."

A True Partnership

As Petersen put it, "We have a really strong partner team that can help us with data questions, or that are just there to help support us as we're interpreting the data."

A People-First Foundation for Success

As Renown Health continues to strengthen its market-leading position in Northern Nevada, its partnership with Perceptyx remains a cornerstone of the organization’s employee engagement strategy. The insights gained from the platform have empowered Renown to make data-driven decisions that positively impact both employee engagement and patient care outcomes.

Nicole Petersen, Renown’s Director of People Development, emphasized the impact of employee listening as a way of balancing the needs of their people and the organization: "We have really focused on creating a people-first culture. When we say 'people first,' it makes a difference in how employees view the organization. We're in constant communication with them through multiple channels. A people-first culture begins with listening. It all starts with listening."

Employee Insights Guide Change Management

Renown Health's partnership with Perceptyx began in 2021, amidst the challenges of the global pandemic. This timing proved crucial as the healthcare industry faced unprecedented barriers to performance. "Like all healthcare organizations, we went through the global pandemic and that really changed how we worked overnight," recalled Petersen.

The partnership with Perceptyx provided Renown with the ability to navigate these changes effectively. The People Insights Platform’s robust analytics and action planning capabilities allowed the organization to gain deep insights into employee sentiment and take targeted action to address concerns.

One of the key challenges Renown faced was maintaining employee engagement during a period of significant organizational change. "We saw a dip in our engagement data, especially in 2022," Petersen noted. However, the insights gained from the Perceptyx platform enabled Renown to implement targeted strategies that led to a remarkable turnaround: "We've since increased by six points as an organization."

Always-on Listening Drives Strategic Alignment

One standout feature of Renown's employee engagement strategy is its focus on continuous listening. The organization conducts a comprehensive annual survey in June, followed by a pulse survey in December. This approach ensures that Renown stays in touch with employee sentiment year-round.

"The survey allows us to have intentional and meaningful pauses and conversations," Petersen said. "It allows us to be intentional about hearing from our team members about what's important to them."

This continuous listening approach has been particularly valuable in addressing one of Renown's key challenges: ensuring employees understand and feel connected to the organization's strategic direction. In 2022, only 72% of employees felt they understood the strategic direction. Through targeted communication efforts and leadership initiatives, this number increased to 78% in just one year.

To achieve this improvement, Renown implemented several specific actions:

Monthly CEO-led town halls: "Our CEO, Dr. Brian Erling, leads a monthly town hall where he speaks to team members and answers questions in real-time," Petersen shared. This direct communication from top leadership has been crucial in helping employees feel connected to the organization's direction.
Transparent communication about strategic planning: Even as Renown continues to develop its long-term strategy, leadership has been open about the process. "We're still fleshing out our strategic direction for the next five years, but our team members already feel connected to it," Petersen noted.
Multi-channel communication strategy: "We leverage a daily email, our app, and bulletin boards to keep employees informed and engaged," said Petersen. This multi-pronged approach ensures that messages reach employees across different roles and locations.
Culture Crew initiatives: Renown established a "Culture Crew," an organic group focused on culture and employee initiatives, further fostering a sense of connection and belonging among staff.
Listening and acting: The organization has also focused on empowering leaders at all levels to drive engagement. "We encourage our leaders to take responsibility for action planning," explained Petersen. "This approach ensures that insights gained from surveys translate into tangible improvements across our organization."

What makes this improvement particularly impressive is its contrast to industry trends. Not only is this double-digit improvement remarkable, but it also comes at a time when Perceptyx’s own State of Healthcare Employee Experience data found that understanding of future vision is among the EX factors declining the most nationally across healthcare systems.

Data Insights Help Foster a Culture of Development

Renown's commitment to employee development has been a key driver of its high engagement scores. The organization offers a wide range of development programs, including high-potential programs, leadership training, career advising, and skill workshops.

"We have a high-potential program designed to retain and engage our high-performing employees," Petersen said. "These initiatives are complemented by tuition reimbursement and student loan payment programs, which we believe show a commitment to long-term employee growth."

The Perceptyx platform has played a significant role in shaping these development initiatives. By providing detailed insights into skill gaps and development needs, the platform has enabled Renown to tailor its programs to meet the evolving needs of its workforce.

Opportunities for Growth

While Renown has seen significant improvements in employee engagement, the organization continues to focus on growth opportunities. One such opportunity is manager relationships, which saw a slight dip in recent surveys.

"We're doubling down on leadership development initiatives," Petersen said. "We're investing more in developing tools for leaders to support their teams." This focus on leadership development will strengthen manager-employee relationships and further boost employee engagement.

Looking ahead, Renown is also developing strategies to better utilize onboarding and exit data. "We're starting to develop a strategy on how to use onboarding and exit data differently," shared Petersen. This initiative aims to improve the employee experience from day one and provide valuable insights into future retention strategies.

A Partnership Built on Continuous Improvement

Renown's partnership with Perceptyx has been characterized by continuous improvement and innovation. The organization has leveraged the platform's ever-evolving capabilities to enhance its employee listening strategy over time.

"We've been able to trend our data and see that apples-to-apples comparison to say, 'How are we doing?'" Petersen noted. This ability to track progress over time has been crucial in demonstrating the impact of Renown's engagement initiatives.

Moreover, the support provided by the Perceptyx team has been invaluable, explained Petersen: "We have a really strong partnership team that can help us with data questions, or that are just there to help support us as we're interpreting the data."

Tangible Business Outcomes

The improvements in employee engagement have translated into tangible business outcomes for Renown. Petersen confirmed that the organization has seen improvements in its financial position correlated with the increases in engagement scores.

Furthermore, Renown has maintained consistently high employee participation rates in its surveys, with the annual engagement survey achieving a 84% response rate. This high participation rate not only provides more comprehensive data but also reflects a workforce that feels heard and valued.

Business outcomes like these drive home the power of Renown's comprehensive approach to employee listening and engagement. By focusing on transparent communication, leadership visibility, and meaningful action planning, Renown has partnered with Perceptyx to navigate change while maintaining strong employee engagement. This commitment to turning feedback into action has positioned Renown to keep building on its success, ensuring both organizational resilience and continuous improvement.