Key outcomes
Meet WP Engine
Hi, I’m Annette Alexander, the chief people officer at WP Engine.
We are dedicated to listening to employee feedback. I’ve learned that creating a great workplace takes time and effort and is imperative to continued business success.
With 1,300 employees across 10 countries, we partner with Great Place To Work to build a consistently great culture worldwide
Why we partner with Great Place To Work
We started our partnership with Great Place To Work in 2017. At the time, we were looking for ways to survey our employees to gain a better understanding of their feedback on various topics.
Great Place To Work not only met that demand but ensured the feedback would be confidential, which led to higher participation.
In addition, Great Place To Work offered the chance for us to market ourselves as an employer of choice and help us grow our business both from a customer perspective and an employee perspective.
Challenge #1:
Employees didn’t feel aligned with the company
We’ve always prided ourselves on providing our employees a sense of direction on where the company is headed. We know it’s important for employees to feel that alignment, and we thought we offered a lot of communication and transparency.
But then our employees told us via the Trust Index that they didn’t feel like they knew what was going on with the company. They didn’t understand the strategy or how it related to them.
It’s funny how you can have a perception that you’re good at something, that you just rock it. But then you see the data and you’re, like, “Oh, no.”
Solution:
Trust Index Survey analysis
What we realized through the Trust Index is that we hadn’t been transparent enough with some of the changes we were making, and people didn’t understand the “why” behind those changes.
By reviewing the Trust Index data, we realized that we had a problem with cascading information. Senior leaders or executives were not cascading information effectively to middle management, who in turn were not cascading to individual contributors.
This is an insight that could only come from the data collected by the Trust Index. There was a disconnect between how we thought we were performing versus the employees’ actual experience — we needed the data to highlight this gap for us.
Outcome:
More transparent and connected workplace
We immediately pivoted, and said, “Okay, let’s get all our people managers together monthly or twice a month and let’s work on business acumen. Let’s talk about short-term plans, long-term plans for the business, the financials — the good, the bad, and the ugly. Let’s just put it all out there. No sacred cows.”
Then we agreed on the points that needed to cascade to the teams, and how it relates back to their functions. We said, “This is really important, and this is why.” Everyone needs to have a sense of direction.
Challenge #2:
Tackling gaps in our DEI strategy
We champion many DEI efforts across the company — we care deeply about it. Our “justice” scores in the Trust Index have traditionally been good and we’re so proud of that.
But then, we compared our Trust Index data across our global offices. Even though we have done a lot of leadership programs for diverse talent in the U.S., we found gaps. We left out a lot of Europe, especially the UK, and our employees told us we’re not doing a good enough job around gender equity.
Outcome:
Launching a targeted gender equity program
Informed by the global survey findings, we launched a gender equity program at the end of last year. We initially missed this area of opportunity, but the data collected via the Trust Index survey helped us find it and correct it quickly.
The Great Place To Work experience
We are proud to partner with Great Place To Work as part of our strategy to continually improve and succeed as a business.
Once our survey closes:
- A dedicated team at WP Engine analyzes the results.
- We promptly convened meetings with senior executives, key stakeholders, HR, and focus groups to share the data and start crafting action plans.
- We gather all people managers, present the results and action plans, and openly invite their critiques. This collaborative approach ensures we develop a more effective plan that everyone understands and commits to.
I love having access to a Culture Coach
We review our scores with a Great Place To Work Culture Coach, which enhances objectivity. It’s useful to have an external perspective on areas where we need to improve.
This external feedback is crucial. After our managers’ meeting, we conduct a company-wide session. Here, the Culture Coach leads the data review again and we present the action plan. This structured approach helps us significantly.
My advice about staying patient with progress
Improvements take time. You can’t make a change and expect it to be fixed forever, just like you can’t work out for a month and stay in shape for life.
To have a great workplace, you must focus on things for a few years. Be patient and keep using the Trust Index, listen to feedback about what worked and what didn’t work. Stay consistent.
How Great Place To Work Helps Organizations
The Great Place To Work Trust Index collects quantifiable data on your company culture that you can use to set your own strategic action plan. You can measure factors such as gender equity and transparency — and get the support of a Culture Coach for implementing next steps.
