JULY 2019HR TECH OUTLOOK8Technology to Improve Employee Engagement at GuideWellAmy Ruth, Sr. Vice President,Human Services Group and Chief Human Resources OfficerByAt GuideWell, our mission is to help people and communities achieve better health. Serving our customers is an integral part of executing our mission and we know that in order to provide an exceptional customer experience, our team members must be fully engaged. We know from research and experience that engaged employees to exhibit a high level of discretionary effort in their roles, they are advocates for the organization and its mission and they intend to stay because they are invested in the organization's success. At GuideWell, engagement is shared accountability across the enterprise from leadership to HR to managers to employees themselves. At the macro level, employee engagement provides a personal aspect to the top-down approach of setting strategy, ensuring the voice, opinions, and preferences of our workforce are represented in decision making. At the micro level, employee feedback helps managers understand their teams, identify areas they need to work on and keep engagement and the employee experience central in day-to-day activities.Technology plays a critical role in gathering and analyzing data to drive improvements. To monitor our progress, we rely on an annual employee engagement survey to collect feedback from employees about their experience at GuideWell. They also have the ability to share their voice by leaving open-ended comments, of which we receive many. Some point us to improvements; others are appreciative in nature. We see these comments as another sign of engagement.The engagement has been a strong part of our culture for decades. Today, we conduct the survey using a third-party administrator to ensure employee confidence that their feedback is anonymous. With strong response rates of nearly 80 percent over the past several years, its clear team members see value in this approach. In turn, we're confident the results we see are representative. Advancements in survey capabilities, technology and analytics allow us to swiftly analyze thousands of data points and quickly answer critical questions such as where to focus our attention, how our engagement efforts are having an impact, and where we have specific opportunities such as development, total rewards and communication. This significantly reduces the time from survey submission to results communication to action planning and execution.Using a third-party allows us more flexibility to analyze results and apply advanced analytics. First, since Amy RuthIn My Opinion
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