Australia
Making employee listening easier and more accessible for a largely frontline workforce, so more employees could participate and share their feedback.
EngageRocket BELONG — Employee Engagement Software
Nexus Hospitals is a national network of 22 short-stay and day hospitals across Australia, supported by more than 1,400 employees. Working closely with surgeons, clinicians and healthcare partners, Nexus delivers world-class care and positive patient experiences across its network.
Guided by its vision to be the leading provider of exceptional short stay health care, Nexus is committed to improving quality of life through world-class care. Its success is measured not only through patient outcomes and experiences, but also through employee engagement, sustainable use of resources and strong partnerships.
At the heart of this vision are Nexus’ people. The organisation recognises that exceptional patient care starts with an exceptional employee experience — creating a workplace where people feel valued, supported and empowered to be their best. This is reflected in Nexus’ EVP: The best possible care, The best possible you.
Since 2019, EngageRocket has supported Nexus’s employee engagement programme, helping the organisation stay connected to employee sentiment and strengthen its ongoing focus on culture, engagement and employee experience.
For Nexus, employee listening is essential to understanding how its people experience work. Yet, in a healthcare environment, participation cannot depend on employees being routinely at a desk, checking email, or navigating a complex survey journey.
Around 80% of Nexus employees are nurses, spending their working day focused on patient care rather than at a desk. That meant the practical experience of accessing and completing a survey matters.
Feedback from previous survey cycles highlighted two barriers: accessing the survey involved too many steps, and the questionnaire was longer than employees needed it to be.
Ahead of its latest engagement survey, Nexus had a clear priority: make it easier to participate and hear from more of its workforce.
"Our key driver this year was to increase participation. We wanted to hear from more people so the results would better represent our workforce.”
Jo Farrugia
Chief People and Culture Officer, Nexus Hospitals
Nexus began working with EngageRocket several months before launch to rethink the survey experience from the employee’s point of view.
Together, the teams focused on a simple question: What is getting in the way of employees having their say, and what can we remove?
The first priority was reducing friction. Instead of asking employees to navigate multiple access steps, Nexus and EngageRocket streamlined the journey. Employees could scan a QR code or follow a web link, select their hospital, answer the questions, and submit their responses.
For employees moving between patients and clinical responsibilities, fewer steps made the survey easier to fit into the working day.
"We partnered closely with EngageRocket team to make the whole experience much simpler for our people. It was easier for employees, easier for us to manage, and ultimately helped us hear from more of our workforce.”
Andy Haigh
Communications & Engagement Advisor, Nexus Hospitals
Ease of access was only one part of the experience. Nexus also reviewed the survey itself and removed approximately 25–30 questions, while retaining the core drivers it wanted to measure.
The result was a more focused survey that gave Nexus the insight it needed without asking employees for more time than necessary.
Nexus also changed the way it communicated the survey. Rather than simply launching another annual engagement exercise, the People and Culture team made the improvement itself part of the story: We listened to your feedback. This year, we have made the survey easier.
The team involved leaders, set a consistent reminder rhythm, and focused on one straightforward message: sharing feedback would now take less effort.
It also gave employees visible evidence that Nexus had heard their feedback about the previous experience and acted on it.
The redesigned approach delivered a significant increase in participation. Nexus nearly doubled its survey participation rate in its latest cycle, with more than 800 employees sharing their feedback.
That result was especially meaningful given the makeup of the workforce: around 40% of Nexus employees are casual, meaning many may not be working on a given day or even in a given week.
More participation meant more than a stronger response rate. It gave Nexus a broader base of employee perspectives, providing leaders with a more representative view of the employee experience.
Crucially, Nexus achieved this by reducing complexity rather than adding it. The redesigned process created fewer barriers for employees, reduced the administrative burden on the team, and made results easier to interpret and cascade across the organisation.
For Nexus, one of the strengths of EngageRocket is the ability to shape its listening programme around the needs of its workforce rather than adapt its programme to the platform.
Having worked with a range of employee engagement platforms throughout her HR career, Jo values that flexibility, and the simplicity that comes with it.
"With EngageRocket, we have a partner we trust and a platform that’s easy to use, not overly complex, and adaptable to our needs.”
Jo Farrugia
Chief People and Culture Officer, Nexus Hospitals
The partnership also extends beyond the technology. Having worked with Nexus since 2019, the EngageRocket team understands its hospital environment and works closely with the People and Culture team on survey design, launch and ongoing improvements. That responsiveness has helped Nexus keep its employee listening programme practical, relevant and fit for purpose.
After the success of its latest survey, Nexus renewed its partnership with EngageRocket for another year and is exploring how the platform could support other listening initiatives across the organisation.
The principle guiding that work remains the same: make it easy for employees to have their say, and turn what Nexus hears into meaningful insight for the organisation.
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