If you know me and you know Mission Health, you know how important the Mission Experience is to us as an organization. What we do and how we do it means we make a point of living our CARES values of Character, Attitude, Respect, Excellence, and Service in everything we do. My philosophy, and one which we embrace broadly, is that when our employees are committed to the Mission Experience, they’re more engaged and able to do their best job.

But I can think that all I want. How do I know Mission Health employees are engaged in the work they do, and invested in us as an organization? Especially given the staggering difficulties we’ve faced this past year, especially within the skilled nursing profession, we would understandably expect to see employees feeling less satisfied and less engaged across the workforce. And so we went into our survey process with modest expectations and eagerness over what areas of opportunity we would discover. I think that’s a key piece for fellow employers to keep in mind as well: if you’re looking to do employee surveys right now, go into it with an improvement mindset.

I am pleased to share that at the Mission Health Home Office, our employee engagement scores ranked us as a Tampa Bay Top Workplace of 2021. I don’t say this to imply that everything is perfect, because if you think you’re perfect, you stop trying to improve, and we would never do that at Mission! But I do feel it’s essential to brag on the Mission employees who created a workplace that by and large, their co-workers are actively invested in the organization! That’s huge, especially following the difficulties that 2020 threw at us and our profession. By each person taking accountability for their role in the Mission Experience, we create a work environment that ranks among the best in the Tampa Bay area.

CONGRATULATIONS! To the whole Mission Health Team, you made this happen, and we look forward to continuing to improve on the Mission Experience over the course of the year. [Click here for video announcement]

So, what did we learn from the Tampa Bay Times Top Workplace survey? Besides that we have amazing employees, of course! Well, our top takeaway is that employees who understand and fully embrace their work as meaningful are happier, more engaged, and more satisfied with their workplace experience than those who don’t. Let me say that again, employees who feel the work they do is meaningful, are more likely to be invested in an organization.

When we say it like that, it’s pretty obvious, right? Of course someone who finds value in what they do is going to be more enthusiastic about their work, because it means more to them to deliver outstanding outcomes.

While we are still celebrating Mission Health’s ranking as a Top Workplace, we are already starting to do the work—the important work—of building meaningfulness into our everyday. For us, that means many things. It means building language that supports and emphasizes meaningfulness into our daily language. It means providing employees with the mental prompts to reflect on the importance of the work they do. It means asking ourselves how we help build value together as an organization. And of course, it means continuing to ask our employees for feedback, so that we can re-evaluate benchmarks and see where we can do the most good.

The number one takeaway from our experience participating in the Tampa Bay Top Workplace survey? That we have amazing employees who care about the future of the company, and that we can always, always do better. And I hope that’s the takeaway that anyone reading this will have too. Whether you are a business owner, a supervisor, or an employee asking yourself what aspect of your job you find the most value in, I hope you’ll keep in mind that you can start small with simply assessing where you are now, and then deciding to take small steps toward a more meaningful workplace experience. Thank you all for joining me for another Mission Health Blog: Straight from the Heart. I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to pause and reflect on this topic. I hope it added value to your day!