Employee and physician experience action planning pitfalls—and how to overcome them

Coauthored by Brad Pollins, Principal, Strategic Consulting & Transformational Services, Press Ganey. 

Employee and physician experience surveys are powerful tools for understanding your workforce. But many organizations struggle to translate the data they collect into meaningful change. If you're wondering why your organization, team’s engagement score, or other goals aren’t improving despite action planning, it’s likely that you're running into one or more common pitfalls.

By identifying these pitfalls and following best practices, you can equip your organization and leaders to drive change throughout your organization. Empowering leaders is essential: Engagement is 1.2x higher when leaders communicate survey results, involve their team in action planning, and keep them updated on progress.

Common pitfalls when action planning

Even with the best intentions, action planning can lose impact with the wrong approach. Many organizations slip into familiar patterns that limit progress—and keep engagement scores from improving. Knowing, and knowing how to avoid, these pitfalls is the first step toward making action planning meaningful and sustainable.

1. Treating action planning as a one-time task

Action planning should never be treated as a "check-the-box" activity—something done once and forgotten about. But far too often, that’s the case. Organizations will jump to quick fixes after getting feedback, without any follow-through or plan for sustainment.

2. Jumping into action without understanding the problem

Organizations and leaders often rush into solutions without fully understanding the root causes of their problems. This can lead to ineffective or misguided actions that don’t address the underlying issues.

A critical step in action planning is first understanding the “why” behind the survey scores before deciding on a course of action. Begin each action plan with a clearly defined problem statement, which provides clarity for the specific problem being solved.

3. Focusing on numbers, not behaviors

Improving a survey score should not be the sole focus of action planning. A number on a survey is only a reflection of the experiences and behaviors within the organization. To create lasting change, it’s essential to focus on changing the behaviors themselves—at both the leadership and employee levels—rather than merely improving a number.

4. Too many priorities

Don’t try to “boil the ocean.” When leaders try to tackle too many areas at once, the impact of each action can become diluted. Instead of spreading efforts too thin, prioritize the most critical issues and focus on making meaningful improvements in a few key areas. Less is often more when it comes to action planning.

5. Action planning without team involvement

If people on the team aren’t involved in the action planning process, there will likely be little buy-in or enthusiasm for it. When leaders make assumptions about what will work, without consulting the team, they risk taking actions that aren’t aligned with employee needs or experiences.

Best practices when action planning

Effective action planning goes beyond quick fixes. It’s about building habits that have a lasting impact. Use these best practices to focus your efforts.

1. Evolve your thinking beyond metrics

Shift your mindset from improving numbers to improving employee experience. The goal of action planning is not just to make your engagement (or other) scores go up, but to create a culture where employees feel valued, motivated, included, and supported.

By focusing on improving the experience of your team, you’ll naturally see improvements in your metrics over time.

2. Treat the survey as a communication platform

Employee engagement surveys are more than just a tool to track engagement scores. They serve as a communication platform for your employees to share their thoughts and experiences. Use these surveys to listen and act on feedback that can enhance the holistic Human Experience at your organization. Focus less on the numbers, and more on how you can improve employees’ day-to-day work life.

3. Take the time to fully understand the issues

Don’t rush into action planning without fully understanding what’s driving the scores. Take the time to dig into the data and involve your employees in conversations to identify the root causes of the issues.

By engaging your team in the problem-solving process, you’ll not only get better insights, but you’ll also create a sense of ownership and personal investment in the solutions.

4. The 1-2-3 method for action planning

This simple method can help ensure that your action planning is focused and effective: 

1. Choose one key area to focus on for improvement. 
2. Identify two interventions or actions that will have the greatest impact on the issue. Keep in mind how your employee experience actions may impact patient experience as well, to optimize your improvements. 
3. Communicate and follow-up with the team in three different ways (e.g., via email, team meetings, and a company-wide update) to make sure everyone understands and embraces the plan.

5. Involve your team in the action planning process

Your action plan only works if employees are part of it. Involve your team in setting priorities, choosing interventions, and giving feedback to build ownership and collaboration. Share results across the organization and keep teams updated to strengthen alignment and buy-in.

6. Evaluate interventions and provide regular updates

After implementing interventions, it’s important to evaluate their effectiveness. Measure both intended and unintended consequences, and keep the team informed about progress. Regular updates—every 2–4 weeks, for example—help maintain momentum, so the action plan stays on track.

Moving to action quickly

In healthcare, leaders need to move fast. But with many employees working deskless or across multiple shifts and teams, action planning can be challenging.

Press Ganey solutions cut through the friction and accelerate progress—making it easier to turn data into action.

• Effortless presentation tools: Time is limited, but the need to communicate is constant. Our ready-to-go PowerPoint and PDF exports let leaders instantly share results with their teams—highlighting top-performing areas and key opportunities for improvement, without the burden of building presentations from scratch.
• AI-powered comment summaries: Easily synthesize hundreds of comments into clear, actionable summaries that help leaders quickly grasp what matters most to their teams.
• Crowdsourcing: Invite employees to share ideas, vote on suggestions, and collaborate on real-time problem-solving—no meetings required! It’s a powerful way to surface innovation, build ownership, and drive change.
• Targeted action planning tips: Move from insight to impact with targeted action planning tips. Our platform surfaces healthcare-specific recommendations tailored to your team’s priorities and grounded in industry best practices and proven strategies—making it easier to start meaningful conversations and drive change.
• Pulse surveying: Deploy pulse surveys to understand if behavior changes are translating into better outcomes.

Action planning doesn’t have to be overwhelming or a check-the-box activity. By recognizing the common pitfalls and embracing a few best practices, you can create action plans that lead to meaningful improvements in employee and physician experience. Focus on understanding the issues, changing behaviors, and involving your team throughout the process.

With these strategies, you’ll be on your way to building a more engaged, motivated, and committed workforce. To learn more about Press Ganey’s solutions, reach out to our employee experience team.