As all of us at VHA Home HealthCare (VHA) work to meet and exceed the evolving needs of our clients and our wider healthcare community, we’re committed to ensure our workforce always feels heard and supported. VHA’s Worklife Pulse survey, which is distributed annually, is one important tool for staff and service providers to share their experience and perspectives about what it’s like to work at VHA. It’s also a great opportunity for the entire organization to better understand what our strengths and areas for improvements are as a workplace. The Worklife Pulse survey takes place during the last quarter of the year and is open to all staff and service providers. Our 2023 survey had a very strong response rate at 52% (1560 respondents).

We are pleased to share our 2023 Worklife Pulse (WLP) Survey results with you. Some of the very positive results from the 2023 WLP survey are:

• Overall satisfaction rate, measured by “how would rate your organization as a place to work?” once again was 90% for the third year in a row
• Our highest score was on the question, “would you recommend VHA to friends and family who require care?”, 98% agreed, up by 1% from 2022
• 79% indicated that VHA is where they plan on continuing their career, an increase of 5% from 2022
• 86% agree that VHA “takes effective action to prevent violence in the workplace” up by 4% from 2022
• 90% agree ‘my job makes good use of my skills”
• 87% feel “the people I work with treat me with respect”

We also saw some results which indicate there is room for improvement. Some of these are:

• From a wellness perspective, 40% rated their mental health as “excellent”, down from 47% in 2022.
• 54% of staff said their mental health was “okay” and 6% indicated “not so good”.
• Concern over emotional and physical well-being continued to be the top workplace stressors, with 39% indicating an increase in emotional exhaustion over the past month, up by 1% from 2022
• 66% agree they “receive recognition for good work”, down by 4% from last year

Supporting the wellness of our staff and service providers is an important priority at VHA. We are committed to focusing on strategies to improve wellbeing and support mental health.

This year’s WLP survey results show that VHA is a great place to work! But we also know that there is always more we can do to improve our employee and service provider experience and individual team results can vary significantly. To help support our efforts to enhance the work experience for all teams, this year, VHA has made an organization-wide commitment that all VHA supervisors and managers will collaborate with their team(s) to develop a 2024 action plan based on key area(s) identified by the Work Life Pulse survey results and complete at least 75% of the actions in that plan by December 2024. The valuable insights gained from these team discussions will be vital to VHA for prioritizing future actions to further promote a positive work environment, increase engagement and enhance the overall workplace experience. Insights will also inform our organization-wide WLP action plan which will focus on areas for further improvement and to ensure we maintain what makes VHA a great place to work.

We are so grateful for each and every team member who took time to make their voice heard through the 2023 Worklife Pulse survey and help us make VHA an even better place to work. We are proud of our talented team of health care professionals and retaining and attracting top talent is of paramount importance. We look forward to collaborating with colleagues across the organization in 2024 as the Action Plans take flight!