American Eagle Financial Credit Union (AEFCU) Helps Leaders Take Action on Employee Survey Feedback with WorkTango

American Eagle Financial Credit Union (AEFCU) is a full-service financial services cooperative in Hartford, Connecticut with $2.5 billion in assets and over 180,000 members. With a rich history and a commitment to community, AEFCU provides innovative financial solutions that empower individuals and businesses to thrive. Established in 1935, American Eagle offers savings accounts, checking accounts, credit cards, auto loans, mortgages, business accounts, and much more.

In 2021, American Eagle Financial Credit Union decided that a company culture shift was necessary to become even more purpose-driven and mission-driven. AEFCU’s executives wanted to develop a culture of leadership across the broader organization, as well as focus on listening more closely to both the credit union’s employees and members.

At the time, AEFCU conducted a single annual 80-question employee survey to gather input and feedback from its employees. Once the survey was completed, however, leaders struggled to turn the insights gathered from the survey into specific actions. AEFCU recognized the need for a more proactive and responsive approach to employee feedback to fuel their purpose-driven culture, and sought a modern Surveys & Insights provider who could help them achieve their goals.

AEFCU decided to purchase WorkTango’s Surveys & Insights platform to serve as the foundation for their revamped employee listening program. In early 2022, AEFCU launched its first “Eagle Pulse Survey” using WorkTango.

WorkTango enabled AEFCU to seamlessly shift from a single annual employee survey to a more frequent and focused “employee pulse survey” approach. This shift allowed AEFCU to reduce the length of each survey from 80 questions to just 20 questions instead, which dramatically improved employee survey participation and completion rates. Running numerous pulse surveys through WorkTango also allowed AEFCU to gather valuable feedback in real time from employees, rather than asking them to hold their feedback until a single annual survey each year. AEFCU also was able to quickly and easily create custom survey data views and dashboards within WorkTango so that HR could share both organization-wide results and specific local results with each manager.

Like many organizations do when introducing employee surveys, AEFCU encountered initial hesitancy from team members around the idea of providing honest and open feedback in a company-run employee survey. To address employee concerns about the confidentiality of their survey responses, AEFCU communicated WorkTango’s commitment to confidentiality as a third-party survey software provider, and explained WorkTango’s employee promise.

Some AEFCU employees also questioned the value of company surveys in general, citing the lack of action that followed each of the company’s previous annual surveys. However, AEFCU quickly turned skeptical employees into highly engaged survey takers by demonstrating how WorkTango ensured true confidentiality, as well as by implementing Action Plans: detailed plans housed within WorkTango designed to help leaders and managers make impactful changes as a result of employee feedback and survey data. These Action Plans helped AEFCU leadership and managers take action and remain accountable for actually driving change as a result of their employees’ survey feedback.

After seeing the impact Surveys & Insights from WorkTango had on their company culture, AEFCU decided to also purchase WorkTango’s Recognition & Rewards platform to improve the company’s culture of peer-to-peer appreciation and recognition. The company originally had an Employee of the Month Award program, but no other ongoing recognition practices. Once AEFCU rolled out Recognition & Rewards from WorkTango, employees began giving one another real-time praise, recognition, peer-to-peer feedback and High Fives within the platform. AEFCU’s CEO logged into the platform on day #1 of its use, and has remained an active user ever since, along with the rest of the executive leadership team.

The implementation of WorkTango’s Surveys & Insights platform, the organization’s new Eagle Pulse Survey, and the Recognition & Rewards platform also put into place once surveys were running smoothly all worked together to create a profound positive impact on AEFCU’s culture and employee engagement – within just 12 months.

Between March 2022 and March 2023, the organization’s employee engagement score surged by 12 points to reach 81. After the organization began actually taking action on employee feedback as a result of the WorkTango Eagle Pulse Surveys and their associated Action Plans, AEFCU’s action score rose from 43 to 66, a remarkable 23 point increase. Employee survey participation also rose dramatically.

AEFCU’s favorability score, initially at 62% in March, increased to 67% by December after implementing active employee listening through the Eagle Pulse Survey. After implementing Recognition & Rewards, the favorability score rose yet again to a high of 78%.

AEFCU’s investment in Surveys & Insights and Recognition & Rewards from WorkTango ensured that every employee’s voice was heard, and that their hard work was appreciated.

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