https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgtqnxsjl14

Next month UConn Health employees have an opportunity to provide candid, anonymous feedback about their workplace and its culture.

At the request of Dr. Andrew Agwunobi, CEO and executive vice president for health affairs, UConn Health is partnering with Press Ganey on administering an employee engagement survey annually for the next three years.

“For an organization to really perform well, or to surmount tough challenges, everybody has to be pushing at the same boulder,” Agwunobi says. “It has to be a complete team effort, and everyone has to feel good about that. They have to feel pride in their organization, that they want the organization to succeed.”

The 2016 survey will be open online from May 9 through May 30 to all active, regular payroll employees. Press Ganey will administer and manage the survey independently, with responses going directly to Press Ganey’s database to ensure anonymity. Agwunobi says every employee’s voice is important to him.

“I personally care about the culture here, and I care about the employees,” Agwunobi says. “There’s nothing more important than asking our employees how they feel about UConn Health and how we can make the culture and workplace better for everyone.”

The annual surveys will be compared against a vast collection of Press Ganey benchmark data from organizations nationwide. The collection of three years of data will enable measurement of progress. Agwunobi intends to review the survey results personally.

“It’s important to do it yearly so you can see the improvement,” Agwunobi says. “But if there are things that come through on the survey that we need to fix, we’re not going to wait a year to fix them. We’re going to go ahead and if it’s implementable, we’ll implement it, and then the next year we’ll look to see if we’ve improved.”

If something cannot be solved as requested, because of things like regulations, contracts, or expense, Agwunobi says he would acknowledge the matter and explain what can be done.

“Of course we won’t be able to do everything, but the purpose in the survey is to know what we need to do for that next year to improve the culture and improve the workplace for employees,” Agwunobi says. “Hopefully a lot of that feedback will be telling people things that we are doing. I’d much prefer that. Even if we’re saying ‘We can’t do X, but we can do ABC.’”

This is the latest in a series of efforts by UConn Health under Agwunobi’s leadership to engage employees. He holds regular town hall meetings and earlier this year he started “Dear Dr. Andy,” a forum for the free exchange of ideas. Select questions are published, with Agwunobi’s response, in the Pulse, UConn Health’s weekly employee e-newsletter. Those who submit their name and contact information receive a personal response.

“If I could have a town hall meeting that I knew every employee would come to and that would occur for a whole day, I would do that instead,” Agwunobi says. “I would go and sit down and I would listen to what every single employee has to say. But it’s not possible to do that. That’s why I’m really hoping that people will actually participate in the survey.”

In a video message to employees, Agwunobi emphasizes the importance of participating in the survey, and participating honestly. Employees can also expect regular communication leading up to and during the survey period, including an FAQ section on UConn Health Express.

“I’m in a position to work with other leaders in this organization to change things that need to be changed,” Agwunobi says. “But the only way that I can do that on behalf of employees is if they are willing to tell me how they feel and to give suggestions for how we can improve.”