Each year, faculty and staff at WMU Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine (WMed) participate in a voluntary survey to measure overall engagement and satisfaction with the work they do for the institution, its stakeholders, and the community.
Since 2022, that information has been compiled using the Gallup Q12 survey, a tool that uses a dozen questions to measure employee needs in four categories – basic needs, individual contribution, teamwork, and growth – and predicts overall team performance.
At WMed, the workplace culture is one “where people feel developed, valued for their strengths, and empowered to do their best work,” according to the latest Q12 survey results for 2025.
“Since the Q12 was first launched, our rate of engagement has increased each year so something is going right,” said Surangi Pradhan, MBA, SPHR, vice president for People and Culture at WMed. “We are continuing to build a strong, positive culture at the medical school. All organizations will have ups and downs and no workplace is perfect all the time but this survey – along with previous surveys – shows clear, meaningful progress in the right direction.”
Overall, the rate of employee engagement at WMed has jumped more than 30 percent since 2022 and the percentage of engaged employees – 62 percent – far outpaces national numbers that show only 31 percent of employees consider themselves engaged in their workplace and the daily work they do. The medical school also boasts an engagement ratio of 12.4 to 1 meaning that for every one employee who is actively disengaged, 12.4 are engaged.
Additionally, in recent years, as part of the action planning process, employees come up with at least one action item to complete as a team during the fiscal year. That practice has led to an increase in employee engagement, as well.
“The action planning has a ripple effect that is multi-faceted,” said Rich Daudert, manager of Organizational Development at WMed. “It fosters increased communication and increased trust, and employees feel connected to their supervisors and also feel like their supervisor has their back.”
Employee engagement plays a key role in overall institutional success. According to Gallup, engaged employees are:
- 70 percent less likely to feel burned out at work very often or always
- 61 percent more likely to be thriving in life
- 48 percent less likely to be watching for or actively seeking a new job
- 36 percent less likely to say they experienced worry during a lot of the previous day
- 30 percent less likely to say they experienced stress during a lot of the previous day
- 5.9 times as likely to strongly agree they would recommend their organization as a great place to work.
According to Gallup, the percentage of engaged, not engaged, and actively disengaged employees at organizations that are exercising best practices around employee engagement stands at 70 percent, 25 percent, and 5 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, nationally, the overall percentages in those three categories are lacking at 31 percent, 51 percent, and 18 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, at WMed, 62 percent of employees are engaged, 33 percent are not engaged, and only 5 percent are actively disengaged. Those numbers place the medical school in the 86th percentile overall and the 95th percentile among academic hospitals and higher education “reflecting a workplace where people feel valued and aligned to mission,” according to the Q12 survey results.
Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, Pradhan and Daudert said WMed leaders will continue to focus on action planning among teams as a way to sustain momentum for an even more engaged workforce at the medical school. There are also plans for a deeper focus on professional and leadership development offerings, as well as employee recognition and the launch of a new culture and well-being initiative known as PATH (People-Centered, Alignment with Purpose, Thriving Environment, Holistic Integration).
“The bottom line is that Q12 scores go up when employees’ day-to-day experiences at work genuinely improve in ways they can see and feel,” Pradhan said. “Employees trust one another, trust their leaders, and know their voices matter. We are seeing clear signs that WMed is building and sustaining that kind of culture.”