April 1, 2025 • 18 mins
What happens when you bring together experience leaders from healthcare and elite sports education? You discover powerful insights that transcend industries and reveal universal truths about creating exceptional experiences.
Meet Heather Brace, Chief People Officer at Intermountain Healthcare with its 68,000 employees across six states, and Mike Milliron, Chief Operating Officer at IMG Academy, the world-renowned training ground for elite athletes. Both leaders share a remarkable commitment to turning feedback into action. Our host, Jeannie Walters, had the privilege of interviewing them at the X4 conference hosted by Qualtrics in Salt Lake City in March of 2025.
Their organizations have rejected traditional annual surveys in favor of frequent, targeted listening programs that capture real-time sentiment. As Heather explains, "What does an employee remember? Probably what happened in the last 30 days." Both have created what they call "closed-loop" feedback systems where they not only collect insights but transparently communicate the actions they'll take as a result.
The most compelling revelation? Their data shows that employee engagement hinges on surprisingly simple human elements. At Intermountain Healthcare, they discovered that employees who stay past the four-year mark typically remain for ten years or more. This insight drove them to map the complete employee journey, identifying critical moments where intervention could improve retention.
Meanwhile, IMG Academy has developed highly personalized approaches that align students, parents and staff around individualized development plans. As Mike powerfully states, "We've found you can do more damage than good if you ask for insights and then just sit on it."
Ready to transform your organization's approach to experience? Listen now and discover how these leaders have built cultures where feedback drives meaningful change, accountability matters, and experiences are designed around authentic human needs.
Follow Heather Brace on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-brace/
Follow Mike Milliron on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-milliron-6a234713/
Resources Mentioned:
Qualtrics -- https://www.qualtrics.com/
Experience Investigators -- https://experienceinvestigators.com
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie on LinkedIn! www.linkedin.com/in/jeanniewalters/)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
MC (00:00):
Experience Action.
Let's stop just talking aboutcustomer experience, employee
experience and the experience ofleaders.
Let's turn ideas into action.
Your host, Jeannie Walters, isan award-winning customer
experience expert, internationalkeynote speaker and founder of
Experience Investigators, astrategic consulting firm
(00:20):
helping companies increase salesand customer retention through
elevated customer experiences.
Ready Set Action
Jeannie Walters (00:28):
Hi everyone and welcome to a special edition of
the Experience Action Podcast.
I had the privilege ofattending the X4 conference
hosted by Qualtrics in Salt LakeCity in March of 2025.
I met tons of people, heardmany, many speakers, saw lots of
(00:52):
exciting technology.
But today, what I'm bringing toyou are two interviews that I
was able to conduct with someinteresting people I think
you'll benefit from knowing.
Now, I had the opportunity totalk to both Heather Brace, who
is the Chief People Officer atIntermountain Health, as well as
Mike Milliron from IMG Academy,where he serves as the Chief
(01:15):
Operating Officer.
Now, they both have uniqueperspectives, so what I wanted
to do was share with you some ofthe different ways that they
looked at things within the samecontext.
I encourage you to sit back,listen to this wisdom and think
about how you can apply to yourorganization.
I'm going to let them introducethemselves and then we'll jump
(01:36):
in.
First up, I got to talk toHeather Brace.
Heather Brace (01:39):
I'm Heather Brace and I am the Chief People
Officer for Intermountain Health.
We are a large integratedhealth system based in Salt Lake
City, Utah.
We have 68,000 employees across600,000 square miles and we
have facilities in six states inthe Intermountain West and I've
been with Intermountain for 25years.
(02:01):
I've wound my way through theorganization from a frontline
leader to Chief People Officer.
Jeannie Walters (02:07):
Next, I had the opportunity to talk to the
Chief Operating Officer at IMGAcademy.
Mike from IMG Academy, tell usa little about your role.
Mike Milliron (02:12):
I'm the Chief Operating Officer for IMG
Academy, for our campus divisionthat we have located in
Bradenton, Florida, and Ioversee our operation as
thousands of campers 10,000youth campers that come to us, a
world-renowned boarding schoolwith over 1,500 student athletes
and what we think of as aone-of-one training destination
(02:34):
for groups and tournaments andprofessional teams from all over
the world.
So it's a vibrant environmentand it's something special for
sure.
Jeannie Walters (02:46):
So, when it comes to developing both
employee experience and customerexperience, and when thinking
about the many, many layers ofcustomers and those that they
serve at these institutions, Ireally wanted to know what does
engagement look like there?
So here's what they had to tellme.
Heather Brace (03:00):
A couple of years ago we pulled our team and just
began to think about what isthe employee journey.
We noticed in our organizationthat our highest turnover, like
many organizations, is thatfirst year, that we have 30% or
higher in first year turnover.
We also noticed if we can keepsomebody up to four years, you
(03:20):
can keep them to 10.
I mean, that seemed to be themagic number.
Four years.
You can keep them much longer.
So what's going on in the firstfour years?
And we begin to map what thatjourney looked like.
What are things that are reallyimportant to caregivers?
Obviously, the first impressionyou know they're asking
themselves does this job meet myexpectations?
(03:41):
Is it what I thought it wasgoing to be?
Am I reporting to a leader thatI thought I would be reporting
to?
Then you have things like myneeds.
Is my compensation good?
Are my benefits good?
Do I have good well-being?
Can I disconnect from work?
Do I have opportunities here tolearn and grow?
Does someone care about me as aperson?
And that journey goes all theway until the last impression:
(04:03):
somebody leaves, eithervoluntarily or non-voluntarily.
When we measure all thosemoments that matter and we have
survey questions that kind ofguide each of these moments that
matter in the organization, wecan really determine where the
emphasis needs to be placed.
So today, and a large part ofit is because we've gone through
a very big merger so we've hadto lose a lot of cheese around
(04:24):
benefits and pay and titling.
That is an area where our scoreis quite low and, you know, I
think it's a bit of a result ofinflation has gone crazy.
There's some national trendsthat play into this, but there's
also some things that we cancontrol, which is how well do
our caregivers know where we'regoing?
How well do they know abouttheir benefits?
(04:46):
How well do they know about howwe keep a pulse on compensation
?
So it's really helping us dialin and see, on those moments
that matter, where do we needthe most emphasis.
Mike Milliron (04:57):
We anchor back into our purpose.
So our purpose at IMG Academyis simple and it's powerful and
it's to empower student athletesto win their future.
So that kind of serves at thecenter of a lot of our work,
which also then helps us enrichthe lives of those students and
ultimately for our staff as well.
So there's a lot of activityand actions that we've been able
(05:18):
to put in place in that regard.
But in terms of truly enrichingtheir lives, it's how do we
create the best programming inthe best environment with the
best staff to best empower thesestudents to win their future?
And what we have found?
When we're able to do that,we're also enriching the lives
of our staff as well, becauseour staff are very much purpose
driven.
They're there for the studentsand they're there to empower
(05:39):
them.
So by winning for the students,we ultimately end up winning
for the staff.
But we focus on both theirexperiences with as much
intentionality, as muchpersonalization as we can and
with the hope that we do enrichtheir lives and we do empower
them to win their future.
We have students at our core andwe have campers and we have NFL
teams and we have pro tennisplayers.
(06:01):
We have all of that happeningwith an equally complex
operation as well.
So what we try to do as much aspossible to make sure that we
win on all fronts and create thewhat we call an unrivaled
campus experience is what we tryto do is we have a very robust
listening program, so it's veryimportant for us to listen.
We always say it's always on,so we always have a some sort of
(06:23):
listening exercise happening,but it's equally as important to
actually learn from it and thenultimately act and communicate
back with whether it's someoneserving food or whether it's a
professional tennis player whatwe've heard, what we're doing
about it and what they shouldexpect, which is unrivaled
transparency in that regard.
Those are a lot of theactivities that we try to have
in place and we've gotten prettygood at it, but there's always
(06:46):
room for improvement, but we'reproud of where we are today.
Jeannie Walters (06:48):
And, of course, in this work, both on the
employee side and customer side,we rely on feedback.
Feedback from employees throughengagement surveys and other
techniques, as well as, inMike's situation, parents,
students, staff we've got tothink of everybody.
So here's a little discussionabout feedback.
Mike Milliron (07:08):
We went from two and a half years ago where it
was infrequent, questionsweren't necessarily relevant.
People couldn't access theinformation in real time to
really empower them, and
Jeannie Walters (07:18):
By people you mean the staff?
Mike Milliron (07:20):
Yeah.
I'm sorry, our staff and theyweren't able to close the loop.
So that's kind of that was ourstarting point, and then what we
were able to do was we wereable to build, really from
scratch, a very robust listeningprogram that has relationship
surveys as a part of it, butthen also has journey-based ones
as well.
So there's always somethingoccurring in the space in that
(07:43):
regard, but we need to make sure, on the other end, our staff is
empowered to act on it andthey're empowered to listen and
they know how to do it, andthat's something I'm super proud
of.
The work that Lauren and herteam have been able to do is to
truly empower that staff toaccess the information in real
time and then to be able to acton it.
Heather Brace (07:59):
We moved to Qualtrics a couple of years ago
through our employee experienceprocesses and it's been a great
way in real time to be able toassess how people are feeling.
Traditionally, I think,organizations have done employee
experience surveys once a year.
We too did that about sevenyears ago and found it largely
(08:21):
unhelpful.
Because what does an employeeremember?
They remember probably whathappened in the last 30 days.
So we're missing 330 days ofthe year of how people felt.
So we started doing employeeengagement surveys more
frequently.
We do three full surveys a yearand then we do micro surveys in
between, taking slices of ourpopulation, because it helps us
(08:45):
keep a pulse on what thesentiment is.
We can see like we make achange in the organization.
Does it increase engagement,does it decrease engagement?
And I always say I think it'sreally sentiment.
I think pulse surveys all alongin the year is how does someone
feel at any given point of time?
And then you take what doesthat look like for the whole
year?
(09:05):
And that to me, is whatengagement is.
Like, how engaged are theemployees, because you can see
them bounce back up and downbased on things that are
happening in the organization.
So that's really how we'relistening.
We're trying to find other waysbesides surveys, through town
halls and open forums androunding, and finding ways to
(09:25):
get in front of people.
And, probably more importantly,just how do you continue to
humanize the roles that areexecutive leaders at the top,
people who largely have grown upin the system but now are a
little further away from thefront line and sometimes we can
feel really distant.
So how do you keep you know,connecting and also making sure
(09:45):
that people know you're relevantand you're a human being as
well?
Jeannie Walters (09:49):
And I thought it was interesting that, no
matter who I talked to, wealways came back to
accountability.
Here's what they had to sayabout that.
Heather Brace (09:57):
At the basic levels of does an employee stay
because their schedule is goodor bad?
Do they like their leader?
Do they want to grow in a waythat we're not supporting them?
That is a frontline leader'sresponsibility and so helping to
define what are theresponsibilities at each level.
Also, how does a leader engagetheir own team?
(10:18):
You know we have this situationwhere we would get engagement
surveys that would just be theleader reading the results,
never having a conversation,never engaging in ideas.
But we try to help leadersunderstand.
This is just.
This is an accelerator to helpyou amplify conversations.
I think most people want atleast three things.
(10:39):
They want clarity.
I want to know what myexpectations are.
(11:03):
I want to understand what myrole is.
Where are my boundaries?
I think they want to feelvalued.
They want to feel heard.
They want to feel listened to.
And they want to be developed.
And those are three areas thatwe focus on alot with leaders.
I use a phrase alot engagementis simple but it's hard.
It's hard because it'sintentional.
It doesn't just happen.
You don't like snap your fingerand say, oh, we're now engaged.
It requires a leader to get toknow their people personally and
professionally.
It requires them to communicate.
It requires them to reiteratemessages.
It requires them to be kind anddirect at the same time.
(11:23):
You can do both of those things.
It requires them to hold peopleaccountable.
People are watching.
So I think most of the thingsaround engagement are just basic
human elements and I justwouldn't overthink it too much,
but monitor, measure and monitorwhat is important to the
(11:44):
organization.
Mike Milliron (11:45):
The leaders need to lead by example, like if the
leaders are going to be on.
If I'm going to be all in onwhat we're doing from
experience, an experiencestandpoint, I need to walk the
walk, so it's important for meto model it for the entire staff
as well.
So I think that's importantwork.
Work to get buy-in fromleadership.
That is massively important andwe are so lucky at IMG Academy
(12:07):
whether you just start, oryou're the CEO, or you're in my
role, we're all in on it.
So that makes the life of kindof our experience team and
others a little bit easier toknow that you have the support.
So really do what you need todo, have the conversations to
get that executive buy-in.
Because once you have that, ifyou're building the strong
foundation from the bottom,coming from the top, you meet in
(12:29):
the middle and you end up in areally good place and you end up
building momentum which driveschange, which drives culture,
which drives expectations, andthen you can start to have fun.
Jeannie Walters (12:41):
And with that accountability, that means we
have to act.
We have to act on feedback andideas, and so when we are
leading customer experienceinitiatives, when we are trying
to really listen to customers ofcourse it's more than that we
have to tap in to really hearour employees listen to our
customers and then act on thatfeedback.
Mike Milliron (13:02):
We've actually found that you can do more
damage than good if you ask forinsights and you ask for
learnings and you ask for howthe experience was, but then you
just sit on it and that's notwho we are.
That's not what we do.
So we've made a commitment thatif we are going to listen and
we are going to ask for feedback, we want to deliver where we
(13:23):
can on it or we want to reportback that we understand
frustrations in certain areasit's maybe not a priority right
now or give them transparency asto when we will attack it.
We've had breakthroughs inpersonalization of certain
components of the sport andacademic experience.
We've been able to create thesereally cool, innovative I don't
know if anyone else is doing itwhat we call individualized
(13:45):
personal development plans foreach student athlete, and that's
academics, that's athletics,it's what we call athletic and
personal development.
So it's really like a 360 wherewe align the staff, we align
the student and we align theparent on what this plan is for
development moving forward.
So a lot of that has comethrough our listening.
So, as I think of breakthroughsthere's too many, there's a lot
to mention, but those are somereally powerful ones.
Heather Brace (14:08):
So get your survey results, have a
meaningful conversation.
Team, in order for you to givea higher score in this area.
What would it take?
And most people are reallytransparent.
But what caregivers look for,because we've also had people
(14:34):
say how do you not burn out youremployees with so many surveys?
Well, you don't if you followup.
That's right.
If you take action and you close the loops,
because then people go, oh wow,this is how I share information
in the organization, becausepeople are reading it.
So we have actually found verylimited burnout due to surveys
because people know that we willlisten, we will learn from the
data and we will act on it, andthat's really the loop that
we've created in theorganization.
Jeannie Walters (14:53):
And then they probably perpetuate that with
their teams right and make surethat they have.
Heather Brace (14:57):
Really good leaders do.
Jeannie Walters (14:58):
Yes.
So let's talk overall strategy,shall we?
Heather Brace (15:01):
We had this mentality that it's a one size
fits all.
If it's not good for everybody,we can't do it and we've really
backed away from that contentbecause we work in an
environment where 40% of ourcaregivers are non-clinical, 60%
are.
Very different environments.
What works for a professionalemployee in an office most
(15:22):
likely will not work for abedside nurse, in all ways.
So, really letting go of thatone size fits all and what works
for this group really well,versus what works for this group
, and really taking morelocalized approaches of where do
we need to emphasize orde-emphasize?
Jeannie Walters (15:42):
Well, and you all work with vastly different
regions as well geographically,so I imagine that would apply to
some of those cases as well.
Heather Brace (15:50):
Well, you couldn't be any different in
Salt Lake City as you are inDenver, Colorado and Butte,
Montana, Cheyenne, Wyoming.
I mean just even politically,laws that are different.
We're very different, you know.
So one size fits all justdoesn't really work, yeah.
Mike Milliron (16:08):
There's opportunities to understand
where feedback is similar, maybewhere some gaps exist and some
context is needed, like we weretelling a story yesterday.
Sometimes what a teenage boymay tell his parents, who are
maybe halfway around the world,may may be completely different
from what is happening.
So for us we've really tried todouble down on the transparency
(16:31):
to make sure that what we'redelivering on campus is also
shown very clearly to theparents that are maybe not there
.
But then when we look at thedata points, understand where
maybe there's gaps in certainareas and dig a little bit
deeper as to why and what maycome from it.
And what we have found issometimes there's some
opportunity for improvement withcommunication.
You have to have a startingpoint that has a strong
(16:53):
foundation and for us that wasin terms of just defining
customer needs.
So what are the needs of ourstudents, what are the needs of
our parents, what are thejourneys they go through to meet
those needs?
And start with defining that,understand who's responsible for
those, and then you build areally cool listening program
that measures against that.
Now you have a strongfoundation, now you can actually
(17:16):
go and change.
So I would encourage anyone tostart there and just make sure
your foundation is strong.
Jeannie Walters (17:21):
Well, I hope you got as much out of these
conversations as I did.
I want to thank Qualtrics forallowing me to participate in
the X4 conference.
I want to thank Heather andMike for participating in these
interviews and sharing all thisincredible wisdom with us.
We'll be back with moreepisodes of Experience Action,
(17:42):
as you expect, but it's fun todo these special episodes every
so often.
If you have great ideas, ofcourse, we want to hear them,
and if you have questions, don'tforget you can leave me yours
at askjeannievip.
Thanks for being here.
See you next time.
Announcement (18:00):
Do you want to create an unforgettable event
experience?
Let's make it happen.
Jeannie Walters brings realworld customer experience
insights, engaging storytellingand actionable strategies to
help your audience thinkdifferently about CX.
Whether it's a keynote,workshop or panel discussion,
we'd love to help make yourevent stand out.
(18:22):
Visitexperienceinvestigatorscom to
learn more and to book Jeanniefor your next event.
Experience Action.
Let's stop just talking aboutcustomer experience, employee
experience and the experience ofleaders.
Let's turn ideas into action.
Your host, Jeannie Walters, isan award-winning customer
experience expert, internationalkeynote speaker and founder of
Experience Investigators, astrategic consulting firm
(00:20):
helping companies increase salesand customer retention through
elevated customer experiences.
Ready Set Action
Jeannie Walters (00:28):
Hi everyone and welcome to a special edition of
the Experience Action Podcast.
I had the privilege ofattending the X4 conference
hosted by Qualtrics in Salt LakeCity in March of 2025.
I met tons of people, heardmany, many speakers, saw lots of
(00:52):
exciting technology.
But today, what I'm bringing toyou are two interviews that I
was able to conduct with someinteresting people I think
you'll benefit from knowing.
Now, I had the opportunity totalk to both Heather Brace, who
is the Chief People Officer atIntermountain Health, as well as
Mike Milliron from IMG Academy,where he serves as the Chief
(01:15):
Operating Officer.
Now, they both have uniqueperspectives, so what I wanted
to do was share with you some ofthe different ways that they
looked at things within the samecontext.
I encourage you to sit back,listen to this wisdom and think
about how you can apply to yourorganization.
I'm going to let them introducethemselves and then we'll jump
(01:36):
in.
First up, I got to talk toHeather Brace.
Heather Brace (01:39):
I'm Heather Brace and I am the Chief People
Officer for Intermountain Health.
We are a large integratedhealth system based in Salt Lake
City, Utah.
We have 68,000 employees across600,000 square miles and we
have facilities in six states inthe Intermountain West and I've
been with Intermountain for 25years.
(02:01):
I've wound my way through theorganization from a frontline
leader to Chief People Officer.
Jeannie Walters (02:07):
Next, I had the opportunity to talk to the
Chief Operating Officer at IMGAcademy.
Mike from IMG Academy, tell usa little about your role.
Mike Milliron (02:12):
I'm the Chief Operating Officer for IMG
Academy, for our campus divisionthat we have located in
Bradenton, Florida, and Ioversee our operation as
thousands of campers 10,000youth campers that come to us, a
world-renowned boarding schoolwith over 1,500 student athletes
and what we think of as aone-of-one training destination
(02:34):
for groups and tournaments andprofessional teams from all over
the world.
So it's a vibrant environmentand it's something special for
sure.
Jeannie Walters (02:46):
So, when it comes to developing both
employee experience and customerexperience, and when thinking
about the many, many layers ofcustomers and those that they
serve at these institutions, Ireally wanted to know what does
engagement look like there?
So here's what they had to tellme.
Heather Brace (03:00):
A couple of years ago we pulled our team and just
began to think about what isthe employee journey.
We noticed in our organizationthat our highest turnover, like
many organizations, is thatfirst year, that we have 30% or
higher in first year turnover.
We also noticed if we can keepsomebody up to four years, you
(03:20):
can keep them to 10.
I mean, that seemed to be themagic number.
Four years.
You can keep them much longer.
So what's going on in the firstfour years?
And we begin to map what thatjourney looked like.
What are things that are reallyimportant to caregivers?
Obviously, the first impressionyou know they're asking
themselves does this job meet myexpectations?
(03:41):
Is it what I thought it wasgoing to be?
Am I reporting to a leader thatI thought I would be reporting
to?
Then you have things like myneeds.
Is my compensation good?
Are my benefits good?
Do I have good well-being?
Can I disconnect from work?
Do I have opportunities here tolearn and grow?
Does someone care about me as aperson?
And that journey goes all theway until the last impression:
(04:03):
somebody leaves, eithervoluntarily or non-voluntarily.
When we measure all thosemoments that matter and we have
survey questions that kind ofguide each of these moments that
matter in the organization, wecan really determine where the
emphasis needs to be placed.
So today, and a large part ofit is because we've gone through
a very big merger so we've hadto lose a lot of cheese around
(04:24):
benefits and pay and titling.
That is an area where our scoreis quite low and, you know, I
think it's a bit of a result ofinflation has gone crazy.
There's some national trendsthat play into this, but there's
also some things that we cancontrol, which is how well do
our caregivers know where we'regoing?
How well do they know abouttheir benefits?
(04:46):
How well do they know about howwe keep a pulse on compensation
?
So it's really helping us dialin and see, on those moments
that matter, where do we needthe most emphasis.
Mike Milliron (04:57):
We anchor back into our purpose.
So our purpose at IMG Academyis simple and it's powerful and
it's to empower student athletesto win their future.
So that kind of serves at thecenter of a lot of our work,
which also then helps us enrichthe lives of those students and
ultimately for our staff as well.
So there's a lot of activityand actions that we've been able
(05:18):
to put in place in that regard.
But in terms of truly enrichingtheir lives, it's how do we
create the best programming inthe best environment with the
best staff to best empower thesestudents to win their future?
And what we have found?
When we're able to do that,we're also enriching the lives
of our staff as well, becauseour staff are very much purpose
driven.
They're there for the studentsand they're there to empower
(05:39):
them.
So by winning for the students,we ultimately end up winning
for the staff.
But we focus on both theirexperiences with as much
intentionality, as muchpersonalization as we can and
with the hope that we do enrichtheir lives and we do empower
them to win their future.
We have students at our core andwe have campers and we have NFL
teams and we have pro tennisplayers.
(06:01):
We have all of that happeningwith an equally complex
operation as well.
So what we try to do as much aspossible to make sure that we
win on all fronts and create thewhat we call an unrivaled
campus experience is what we tryto do is we have a very robust
listening program, so it's veryimportant for us to listen.
We always say it's always on,so we always have a some sort of
(06:23):
listening exercise happening,but it's equally as important to
actually learn from it and thenultimately act and communicate
back with whether it's someoneserving food or whether it's a
professional tennis player whatwe've heard, what we're doing
about it and what they shouldexpect, which is unrivaled
transparency in that regard.
Those are a lot of theactivities that we try to have
in place and we've gotten prettygood at it, but there's always
(06:46):
room for improvement, but we'reproud of where we are today.
Jeannie Walters (06:48):
And, of course, in this work, both on the
employee side and customer side,we rely on feedback.
Feedback from employees throughengagement surveys and other
techniques, as well as, inMike's situation, parents,
students, staff we've got tothink of everybody.
So here's a little discussionabout feedback.
Mike Milliron (07:08):
We went from two and a half years ago where it
was infrequent, questionsweren't necessarily relevant.
People couldn't access theinformation in real time to
really empower them, and
Jeannie Walters (07:18):
By people you mean the staff?
Mike Milliron (07:20):
Yeah.
I'm sorry, our staff and theyweren't able to close the loop.
So that's kind of that was ourstarting point, and then what we
were able to do was we wereable to build, really from
scratch, a very robust listeningprogram that has relationship
surveys as a part of it, butthen also has journey-based ones
as well.
So there's always somethingoccurring in the space in that
(07:43):
regard, but we need to make sure, on the other end, our staff is
empowered to act on it andthey're empowered to listen and
they know how to do it, andthat's something I'm super proud
of.
The work that Lauren and herteam have been able to do is to
truly empower that staff toaccess the information in real
time and then to be able to acton it.
Heather Brace (07:59):
We moved to Qualtrics a couple of years ago
through our employee experienceprocesses and it's been a great
way in real time to be able toassess how people are feeling.
Traditionally, I think,organizations have done employee
experience surveys once a year.
We too did that about sevenyears ago and found it largely
(08:21):
unhelpful.
Because what does an employeeremember?
They remember probably whathappened in the last 30 days.
So we're missing 330 days ofthe year of how people felt.
So we started doing employeeengagement surveys more
frequently.
We do three full surveys a yearand then we do micro surveys in
between, taking slices of ourpopulation, because it helps us
(08:45):
keep a pulse on what thesentiment is.
We can see like we make achange in the organization.
Does it increase engagement,does it decrease engagement?
And I always say I think it'sreally sentiment.
I think pulse surveys all alongin the year is how does someone
feel at any given point of time?
And then you take what doesthat look like for the whole
year?
(09:05):
And that to me, is whatengagement is.
Like, how engaged are theemployees, because you can see
them bounce back up and downbased on things that are
happening in the organization.
So that's really how we'relistening.
We're trying to find other waysbesides surveys, through town
halls and open forums androunding, and finding ways to
(09:25):
get in front of people.
And, probably more importantly,just how do you continue to
humanize the roles that areexecutive leaders at the top,
people who largely have grown upin the system but now are a
little further away from thefront line and sometimes we can
feel really distant.
So how do you keep you know,connecting and also making sure
(09:45):
that people know you're relevantand you're a human being as
well?
Jeannie Walters (09:49):
And I thought it was interesting that, no
matter who I talked to, wealways came back to
accountability.
Here's what they had to sayabout that.
Heather Brace (09:57):
At the basic levels of does an employee stay
because their schedule is goodor bad?
Do they like their leader?
Do they want to grow in a waythat we're not supporting them?
That is a frontline leader'sresponsibility and so helping to
define what are theresponsibilities at each level.
Also, how does a leader engagetheir own team?
(10:18):
You know we have this situationwhere we would get engagement
surveys that would just be theleader reading the results,
never having a conversation,never engaging in ideas.
But we try to help leadersunderstand.
This is just.
This is an accelerator to helpyou amplify conversations.
I think most people want atleast three things.
(10:39):
They want clarity.
I want to know what myexpectations are.
(11:03):
I want to understand what myrole is.
Where are my boundaries?
I think they want to feelvalued.
They want to feel heard.
They want to feel listened to.
And they want to be developed.
And those are three areas thatwe focus on alot with leaders.
I use a phrase alot engagementis simple but it's hard.
It's hard because it'sintentional.
It doesn't just happen.
You don't like snap your fingerand say, oh, we're now engaged.
It requires a leader to get toknow their people personally and
professionally.
It requires them to communicate.
It requires them to reiteratemessages.
It requires them to be kind anddirect at the same time.
(11:23):
You can do both of those things.
It requires them to hold peopleaccountable.
People are watching.
So I think most of the thingsaround engagement are just basic
human elements and I justwouldn't overthink it too much,
but monitor, measure and monitorwhat is important to the
(11:44):
organization.
Mike Milliron (11:45):
The leaders need to lead by example, like if the
leaders are going to be on.
If I'm going to be all in onwhat we're doing from
experience, an experiencestandpoint, I need to walk the
walk, so it's important for meto model it for the entire staff
as well.
So I think that's importantwork.
Work to get buy-in fromleadership.
That is massively important andwe are so lucky at IMG Academy
(12:07):
whether you just start, oryou're the CEO, or you're in my
role, we're all in on it.
So that makes the life of kindof our experience team and
others a little bit easier toknow that you have the support.
So really do what you need todo, have the conversations to
get that executive buy-in.
Because once you have that, ifyou're building the strong
foundation from the bottom,coming from the top, you meet in
(12:29):
the middle and you end up in areally good place and you end up
building momentum which driveschange, which drives culture,
which drives expectations, andthen you can start to have fun.
Jeannie Walters (12:41):
And with that accountability, that means we
have to act.
We have to act on feedback andideas, and so when we are
leading customer experienceinitiatives, when we are trying
to really listen to customers ofcourse it's more than that we
have to tap in to really hearour employees listen to our
customers and then act on thatfeedback.
Mike Milliron (13:02):
We've actually found that you can do more
damage than good if you ask forinsights and you ask for
learnings and you ask for howthe experience was, but then you
just sit on it and that's notwho we are.
That's not what we do.
So we've made a commitment thatif we are going to listen and
we are going to ask for feedback, we want to deliver where we
(13:23):
can on it or we want to reportback that we understand
frustrations in certain areasit's maybe not a priority right
now or give them transparency asto when we will attack it.
We've had breakthroughs inpersonalization of certain
components of the sport andacademic experience.
We've been able to create thesereally cool, innovative I don't
know if anyone else is doing itwhat we call individualized
(13:45):
personal development plans foreach student athlete, and that's
academics, that's athletics,it's what we call athletic and
personal development.
So it's really like a 360 wherewe align the staff, we align
the student and we align theparent on what this plan is for
development moving forward.
So a lot of that has comethrough our listening.
So, as I think of breakthroughsthere's too many, there's a lot
to mention, but those are somereally powerful ones.
Heather Brace (14:08):
So get your survey results, have a
meaningful conversation.
Team, in order for you to givea higher score in this area.
What would it take?
And most people are reallytransparent.
But what caregivers look for,because we've also had people
(14:34):
say how do you not burn out youremployees with so many surveys?
Well, you don't if you followup.
That's right.
If you take action and you close the loops,
because then people go, oh wow,this is how I share information
in the organization, becausepeople are reading it.
So we have actually found verylimited burnout due to surveys
because people know that we willlisten, we will learn from the
data and we will act on it, andthat's really the loop that
we've created in theorganization.
Jeannie Walters (14:53):
And then they probably perpetuate that with
their teams right and make surethat they have.
Heather Brace (14:57):
Really good leaders do.
Jeannie Walters (14:58):
Yes.
So let's talk overall strategy,shall we?
Heather Brace (15:01):
We had this mentality that it's a one size
fits all.
If it's not good for everybody,we can't do it and we've really
backed away from that contentbecause we work in an
environment where 40% of ourcaregivers are non-clinical, 60%
are.
Very different environments.
What works for a professionalemployee in an office most
(15:22):
likely will not work for abedside nurse, in all ways.
So, really letting go of thatone size fits all and what works
for this group really well,versus what works for this group
, and really taking morelocalized approaches of where do
we need to emphasize orde-emphasize?
Jeannie Walters (15:42):
Well, and you all work with vastly different
regions as well geographically,so I imagine that would apply to
some of those cases as well.
Heather Brace (15:50):
Well, you couldn't be any different in
Salt Lake City as you are inDenver, Colorado and Butte,
Montana, Cheyenne, Wyoming.
I mean just even politically,laws that are different.
We're very different, you know.
So one size fits all justdoesn't really work, yeah.
Mike Milliron (16:08):
There's opportunities to understand
where feedback is similar, maybewhere some gaps exist and some
context is needed, like we weretelling a story yesterday.
Sometimes what a teenage boymay tell his parents, who are
maybe halfway around the world,may may be completely different
from what is happening.
So for us we've really tried todouble down on the transparency
(16:31):
to make sure that what we'redelivering on campus is also
shown very clearly to theparents that are maybe not there
.
But then when we look at thedata points, understand where
maybe there's gaps in certainareas and dig a little bit
deeper as to why and what maycome from it.
And what we have found issometimes there's some
opportunity for improvement withcommunication.
You have to have a startingpoint that has a strong
(16:53):
foundation and for us that wasin terms of just defining
customer needs.
So what are the needs of ourstudents, what are the needs of
our parents, what are thejourneys they go through to meet
those needs?
And start with defining that,understand who's responsible for
those, and then you build areally cool listening program
that measures against that.
Now you have a strongfoundation, now you can actually
(17:16):
go and change.
So I would encourage anyone tostart there and just make sure
your foundation is strong.
Jeannie Walters (17:21):
Well, I hope you got as much out of these
conversations as I did.
I want to thank Qualtrics forallowing me to participate in
the X4 conference.
I want to thank Heather andMike for participating in these
interviews and sharing all thisincredible wisdom with us.
We'll be back with moreepisodes of Experience Action,
(17:42):
as you expect, but it's fun todo these special episodes every
so often.
If you have great ideas, ofcourse, we want to hear them,
and if you have questions, don'tforget you can leave me yours
at askjeannievip.
Thanks for being here.
See you next time.
Announcement (18:00):
Do you want to create an unforgettable event
experience?
Let's make it happen.
Jeannie Walters brings realworld customer experience
insights, engaging storytellingand actionable strategies to
help your audience thinkdifferently about CX.
Whether it's a keynote,workshop or panel discussion,
we'd love to help make yourevent stand out.
(18:22):
Visitexperienceinvestigatorscom to
learn more and to book Jeanniefor your next event.
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