Employee Survey Leads to Action, Supports Business Goals

Connecticare Employee Survey

In the challenging HMO business, ConnectiCare of Farmington, CT, aims high. And a recent employee survey places them very high, indeed -- at the top.

Achieving and staying at the top is no accident. As they develop methods for fostering a high performance work culture that demands and anticipates change, an employee survey is helping them by providing critical information, benchmarks and directions.

Douglas Punt, Human Resources Consultant with ConnectiCare, says the survey process focused their attention on employee perspectives. The results have allowed ConnectiCare to reduce a seemingly broad number of vague issues down to a finite number of high priority issues. "We've been able to categorize and quantify most of the needs. It lead to some very actionable steps."

Actions have included a new approach to training for one department, and an overhaul of compensation and benefits in another department. Communications issues surfaced for several departments. A new release of their organization Intranet is directly targeted to the communications needs that surfaced in the survey process.

"From an overall leadership perspective, this has helped us understand the details and intricacies of different departments," says Punt. "We feel as though it's helping us to create a better working environment and still meet business needs." ConnectiCare sets an ambitious business agenda for itself. They aim for high member satisfaction, high quality, high growth in membership and profitability.

ConnectiCare's survey was developed through focus groups, conducted by Performance Programs. The 74-item questionnaire was administered on site, with PPI personnel distributing and collecting the surveys from each group. "The anonymity was appreciated by employees," says Doug Punt.

"It's been a very positive experience for everyone," he concludes. "Performance Programs happily accommodated each and every request with speed that exceeded my expectations."