Perceptyx’s Healthcare EX Consortium brings together forward-thinking healthcare organizations committed to elevating employee experience through shared learning and evidence-based practices. The HEX Consortium’s Spring Summit, hosted last month, saw healthcare HR and employee experience (EX) leaders gathered at Chicago's Venue SIX10. This half-day, invitation-only event provided a platform for candid conversations, collaborative problem-solving, and strategic insights aimed at transforming the healthcare workforce experience.
The Spring Summit opened with a grounding overview of the major trends shaping healthcare employee experience today. Stephanie Schloemer, Ph.D., presented compelling data on the evolving healthcare landscape, recent trends in change management and leadership perceptions, and research connecting employee engagement to quality, advocacy, and financial performance in healthcare settings. Her analysis demonstrated that hospitals with stronger employee engagement consistently avoid low Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ratings, reduce turnover, and build reputations that patients and caregivers trust, proving that a strong workplace culture isn't just a nice-to-have, it's a strategic imperative.
A panel of Perceptyx advisors, including Stephanie Murphy, Ph.D., David Gill, Ph.D., and Israa Khan, M.A., shared firsthand experiences from health systems, offering insights on how these trends manifest in real-world practice.
Attendees then participated in their first breakout session, collaborating to unpack the top emerging challenges facing healthcare organizations. This interactive format encouraged honest discussion, shared learning, and candid reflection on what's working — and what isn't.
Rock Anderson, MSW, CHRO of Emory Healthcare, delivered guidance on leading through change, emphasizing the human side of transformation and the role of trust in navigating disruption. He highlighted innovation as a key driver, sharing how their organization continues to challenge the limits of what's possible.
A forward-thinking panel discussion followed, featuring Conrad Kresge from Norton Healthcare, Emily Fedele from UW Health, and Jessica Patton from Advocate Health. They explored evolving listening strategies for deeper, more actionable insights, discussing how to prove ROI with listening initiatives, secure stakeholder buy-in when implementing changes, and play the long game for sustainable culture evolutions.
The final breakout focused on how EX leaders can assume more strategic roles in driving measurable business outcomes. The summit concluded with an open Q&A and networking reception, giving attendees time to connect and exchange ideas before the broader INSIGHTS 2025 event.
Building on Perceptyx's research showing the direct link between employee experience and patient experience, summit participants emphasized the importance of integrating EX data with clinical and operational metrics. Integrating operational metrics with employee experience data empowers senior leadership with actionable insights that connect workforce experience to business outcomes, enabling more strategic, data-informed decisions that drive performance and engagement.
Healthcare organizations are moving beyond annual surveys to create integrated listening strategies that capture employee sentiment at critical moments. This shift reflects the unique challenges healthcare faced during and after the pandemic, where traditional listening methods failed to keep pace with rapidly changing workforce needs.
Consistent with Perceptyx's healthcare trends analysis, summit participants identified manager effectiveness as crucial for improving engagement. Organizations are investing in equipping frontline leaders with data, tools, and confidence to have meaningful conversations with their teams, while also investing in personalized learning opportunities embedded within the work context to develop the skills needed now and in the future. This dual approach recognizes that sustainable improvement requires both immediate action capabilities and ongoing management development beyond simply responding to feedback
Throughout the day's breakout sessions, healthcare leaders delved into practical strategies for transforming the employee experience. Three key themes emerged, each offering a roadmap for organizations ready to move from insight to action.
The first breakout session revealed that successful healthcare organizations are rethinking how they connect EX data to existing business rhythms. Rather than treating employee feedback as a standalone HR initiative, leading organizations are aligning EX insights with monthly patient safety reviews, finance meetings, and operational huddles. This integration ensures that employee experience remains front and center in leadership discussions.
Participants emphasized the importance of moving beyond annual surveys to more agile listening approaches. Many organizations are deploying short, targeted pulse surveys triggered by low engagement scores, enabling rapid follow-up with struggling teams. These focused check-ins provide real-time insights without overwhelming already busy healthcare workers.
The conversation turned to the unique challenges of engaging different workforce segments. Healthcare leaders noted that Gen Z employees, who now represent a growing portion of the workforce, have distinct expectations around career development and feedback. Similarly, high-turnover units and specific clinical roles require tailored engagement strategies that acknowledge their unique pressures and motivations.
Building leader readiness emerged as another critical theme. Organizations shared success stories about equipping managers with conversation scripts and data dashboards, ensuring they feel confident addressing team concerns. Several participants described pairing struggling leaders with "EX champions" — high-performing peers who provide mentorship and micro-coaching. This peer-to-peer approach has proven especially effective in healthcare settings where traditional training time is limited.
The power of ambassador programs, like the one successfully implemented at Prisma Health, sparked considerable discussion. These ambassadors serve as more than survey promoters; they facilitate team-level follow-ups and help translate insights into action. By connecting ambassador roles to career development opportunities (including mentorship programs, stretch assignments, and leadership pipeline initiatives), organizations create a win-win that advances both individual careers and organizational goals.
To further support manager development at scale, some organizations have turned to Perceptyx's Grow solution, which uses AI-powered coaching to deliver personalized leadership development based on team feedback. This approach ensures that busy healthcare managers receive relevant, actionable guidance in the flow of their work.
The second breakout focused on innovative approaches to listening and action. Participants agreed that traditional annual surveys alone miss critical moments that matter in the employee lifecycle. Healthcare organizations are now implementing check-ins at the 30-, 60-, and 90-day marks of onboarding, with direct supervisor accountability built into the process. These early touchpoints help identify and address issues before they lead to early turnover.
Beyond onboarding, organizations are adding listening checkpoints at other career transitions — promotions, role changes, returns from leave — recognizing that these moments significantly impact engagement and retention. Some have created micro-feedback tools for staff rounding, DEIB-related touchpoints, and benefit enrollment periods, ensuring they capture employee sentiment when it matters most.
During the summit, Advocate Health shared an innovative approach using anniversary surveys, which has proven particularly effective in healthcare settings. Perceptyx recently launched a Continuous Listening & Action solution that directly addresses this insight: work anniversaries create a natural moment for reflection that yields deeper, more meaningful feedback. This approach is especially valuable for reaching healthcare's often hard-to-reach populations (night shift nurses, rotating clinical staff, and field-based teams) who can anticipate and prepare for their annual feedback opportunity rather than being randomly selected throughout the year.
What some call “survey fatigue” also remains a real concern in healthcare, where staff already face numerous administrative burdens. To combat this, organizations are simplifying their approach with template libraries of one-click action plans, conversation starters, and SMART goals.
By offering menu-based action items that allow teams to choose their top priorities, they're making it easier for managers to act on feedback without becoming overwhelmed. Perceptyx's Activate solution addresses this challenge directly by turning insight into impact through AI-powered nudges and personalized action plans that help managers take meaningful action in the flow of work. Data shows that 66% of managers engage with these nudges, and nudged teams improve scores by as much as 10 points in as little as 6 months.
Visual management tools, including dashboards with intuitive color coding, help managers quickly identify pain points and track progress. This approach respects the time constraints of healthcare leaders while ensuring accountability for improvement.
The group also discussed reframing leader expectations from "fix it" to "coach it," particularly for middle managers. This shift acknowledges that sustainable change comes through developing people, not just solving immediate problems. Organizations are clustering low-engagement units to provide group-based support and targeted interventions, creating economies of scale in their improvement efforts.
The final breakout explored cutting-edge approaches to employee listening. Healthcare organizations are embracing creative technology solutions, from QR codes in break rooms that enable quick sentiment snapshots to mobile apps with branching logic that increase participation among deskless workers. Many are exploring AI-enabled platforms for sentiment analysis, which can identify emerging issues before they become systemic problems.
Making EX visible and ongoing requires more than technology. It also demands a cultural shift. Organizations shared strategies for tracking and celebrating leadership behaviors that build trust, such as consistent follow-up communications, regular rounding, and transparent updates about action taken based on feedback. Progress boards displaying "you spoke, we acted" messages help reinforce that employee input drives real change.
The session concluded with a discussion about celebrating quick wins publicly and connecting them to broader recognition initiatives. By highlighting how employee feedback has led to tangible improvements, whether in scheduling practices, resource allocation, or workplace safety, organizations create a virtuous cycle that encourages continued participation and engagement.
The consistent message that emerged across all breakout groups was unequivocal: engagement must shift from an episodic effort to operational discipline. Healthcare organizations can no longer afford to treat employee experience as a once-a-year survey event followed by sporadic action planning.
To achieve sustainable change, participants agreed that employee experience must be treated with the same rigor as clinical metrics: routinely measured, reviewed, and acted upon at every level of the organization. Just as patient safety scores and quality indicators are tracked continuously, EX metrics need to become part of the regular operational dashboard that leaders review and discuss.
This transformation requires embedding EX accountability into leadership competencies and daily routines. Progressive healthcare organizations are making employee experience a core leadership responsibility by looking at how effectively leaders listen to their teams, act on feedback, and create environments where talent can thrive. Rather than focusing solely on engagement scores, these organizations can then determine whether leaders regularly conduct team conversations about survey results, implement action plans based on employee input, and demonstrate behaviors that foster psychological safety and growth. This approach ensures that developing and retaining talent becomes as integral to leadership success as meeting clinical and financial targets.
Most importantly, EX efforts must be explicitly tied to the outcomes that matter most in healthcare: staff retention, patient safety, and quality of care. When leaders can see the direct connection between engaged teams and better patient outcomes, employee experience moves from a "nice to have" to a strategic imperative that drives organizational success.
The Healthcare EX Consortium Spring Summit served as a catalyst for continued innovation and collaboration in the healthcare industry. Attendees left equipped with actionable strategies to enhance employee experience and drive organizational success.
For those interested in exploring these themes further, the conversation continued at INSIGHTS 2025. This broader event offers additional perspectives on employee experience across industries, providing opportunities for cross-sector learning and networking.
And stay connected to the HEX Consortium on LinkedIn for details of our upcoming Well-being Summer Virtual Summit, bringing together thought leaders to explore the critical intersection of employee well-being and organizational performance. This virtual event will feature Jessie McClure, M.A. and Emma Fain, M.A., from Hogan, Thomas Ayers, Ph.D., from Children's Mercy, and Ellen Lovell Ph.D., from Perceptyx.
The insights from our Healthcare EX Consortium Spring Summit demonstrate that when organizations combine continuous listening with sustained action, they unlock higher engagement, stronger retention, and measurable improvements in patient care quality. Perceptyx's People Insights Platform brings together comprehensive listening capabilities with features like Activate, our behavioral science-powered solution that transforms feedback into organization-wide change.
Ready to move beyond episodic surveys to create a culture of continuous improvement? Schedule a demo with our healthcare experts to discover how leading health systems like Prisma Health and Norton Healthcare are using Perceptyx to drive measurably superior business outcomes for employees and patients.
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