Launching Monday, March 9, the Brigham Experience: Employee Engagement Survey will invite all Brigham Health staff to provide confidential feedback about our workplace and culture.

In this Q&A with Brigham Bulletin, Paula Squires, MBA, SHRM-SCP, SPHR, senior vice president of Human Resources, and Tim Ewing, PhD, vice president of Employee Diversity, Inclusion and Experience, share more about this survey and the importance of staff participation.

Why are we conducting another Brigham Experience Survey?

PS: Two years ago, staff provided candid input through the Brigham Experience: Culture, Diversity & Inclusion Assessment that identified opportunities to build a more transparent, diverse, inclusive and innovative culture. As a result, we introduced new values and guiding principles, and launched numerous programs designed to support our entire community in establishing a more collaborative and inclusive culture.

As we continue to evolve, we need to understand the current state of our workplace and culture. This new survey will supply us with critical information to guide the next phase of our culture journey.

What is employee engagement, anyway?

TE: Employee engagement is the extent to which an employee has an emotional connection to their job, colleagues and organization. High rates of engagement are correlated with high job performance and patient satisfaction. In other words, engaged employees demonstrate extraordinary effort to help their organization succeed.

How is this survey different from the previous assessment?

PS: Our initial survey provided a first look at the state of our culture. For this engagement survey, we are asking staff to share their assessment of our progress over the last two years and help identify our next set of priorities.

Why should staff participate?

TE: Your voice matters. We have over 20,000 members in our community, each of whom brings a valuable, unique perspective. To obtain the most accurate, comprehensive view of what is going well and where we need to focus our efforts, we need a large percentage of staff to complete the survey.

To make the survey as accessible as possible, it will be available in English, Haitian Creole, Portuguese and Spanish. We will also provide assistance for staff members who need language support or access to a device on which to take the survey. More details about this will be communicated in the coming week.

Is this survey really confidential?

PS: Yes. Hospital leadership will not know which staff members have completed the survey. We are working with Press Ganey — a third-party, external vendor — to conduct the survey. They will send each staff member an individual link to participate in the survey, and they will receive your responses directly.

After the survey closes, Press Ganey will provide aggregated reporting so that hospital leadership will be able to see summaries, trends and group results when five or more employees in a group participate. Individual responses will not be shared.

Where can staff find more information?

TE: Speak with your manager or visit PikeNotes for additional resources.