Employee Satisfaction Survey Case Study – Medical Services

by | Apr 19, 2009 | Employee Satisfaction Survey, Positive Workplace

Medical services provider nearly loses union election, then transforms its employee relations environment in only one year – and the union never returned!

Employee satisfaction surveys really work - these two facilities showed almost 25 percent improvement in one year.

This company suffered about as near a miss as you can – they won a union election by just one vote in a unit of around 150 employees. They hired us to help them after this election.

This organization had a number of serious issues, starting with a challenging relationship between the owner of the company and its top operations manager. One of our primary tasks for the year was working this out or making a change. Ultimately a new leader was selected for the position.

The survey results also showed frustration with pay and benefits and immediate supervision. The company’s growth outpaced many of their employee relations systems and our task over the next year was to catch up. We developed policies and procedures to help ensure consistency across departments (a major complaint).

We were able to implement a number of other communication improvements. Things were really on a roll.

Then disaster struck. About a month before the union could file another petition (which we figured was a near certainty) the company learned that it would be forced to pay nearly 50% more for health insurance. It was able to absorb about half of this increase, but employees would be asked to pay about 25% more for insurance.

We used this very negative development to test how well we had done preparing supervisors for their role as communicators during the year. Each supervisor met individually with his or her direct reports and explained the situation. They went over all the options with employees.

In the end the benefit communication went as well as could be hoped. Employees weren’t entirely happy (which showed up in the survey results) but they were sure that the company was doing everything it could – and they saw tremendous improvement over the last year.

Surprisingly, the union never came back. This was a tremendous accomplishment and a testament to the hard work done by the leadership team of this company.

NOTE: Due to the sensitive nature of these interventions, the company identity is kept confidential. If you would like to learn more, or wish to arrange a discussion with the actual client, please contact Phil Wilson at 800-888-9115.

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