Quest Diagnostics Empowers Employees With Enhanced Education Assistance and Career Growth Programs, Achieving Record Engagement in 2023
Originally published in Quest Diagnostics' 2023 Corporate Responsibility Report
Our employees don’t just hold jobs—they build careers. In 2023, we continued to focus on the hire-to-retire journey for our workforce. Learning and development programs, education assistance, and opportunities to improve our organizational culture make Quest a place to grow and advance.
MY QUEST FOR EDUCATION
Education provides a foundation for our employees to build the careers they want, and we’re supporting them in pursuing their goals. Through our education assistance program, My Quest for Education, we offer up to $5,250 annually in reimbursement for career-related learning, courses, and degrees and up to $8,000 a year to pursue a business-critical degree such as medical laboratory science. Some programs offer eligible employees the opportunity to obtain a degree at little to no out-of-pocket cost.
In 2023, we redesigned the program to improve access and ease of use, leading to over 1,000 employees enrolling—our highest rate of engagement over the last 5 years. My Quest for Education also allows us to more readily promote from within as employees build the skills that match their career interests while meeting the talent needs of the organization. From 2019 through 2023, ~64% of participants in My Quest for Education have made at least 1 career move within our organization, and ~50% have received at least 1 promotion.
Supporting our employees’ career journeys
From their first days of onboarding to leading at the executive level, we invest in our people.
New hires
90-Day Employee Experience Pilot: Comprehensive toolset for managers, including enhanced support for new hires, to onboard employees over a 90-day period. Our pilot with Frontline Logistics resulted in a 13% reduction in voluntary turnover in year 1.
Frontline employees
Patient Services Group Lead Role Development: Program built specifically for frontline group leads to develop peer-to-peer leadership skills and serve as a resource and role model for their colleagues. Piloted in 2023, with an expansion planned in 2024.
Supervisors and managers
Stay Interviews: Retention and trust-building touchpoint for people leaders. In 2023, Quest trained 600 people leaders in conducting Stay Interviews and held 6,000 conversations. This is in addition to 1,500 people leaders trained and 13,000 interviews conducted in 2022.
LeadingQuest Supervisor and Manager Core: Year-long program for supervisors and managers to build critical capabilities and skills, including emotional intelligence, cross-functional relationships, inclusive leadership, and leading change. In 2023, more than 500 new supervisors and managers participated in this training—with approximately 1,250 active frontline leaders developed since 2020.
Mid-level leaders
LeadingQuest for Business Impact: Leadership training specific to the needs of director-level leaders, focused on emotional intelligence, communication, cross-functional relationships, strategic thinking, and inclusion. Launched in 2023, 35 leaders have participated.
Elevate: High-potential program for future executives that includes classroom learning, team-based project work, and executive sponsorship. Piloted in 2023, 24 high-potential leaders have participated.
Executive leadership
Financial Acumen for Business Leaders: Program focused on honing financial skillsets for new and future general managers. To date, over 11% of our senior leadership team have participated.
Executive Coaching: Coaching is used to hone leadership skills and improve effectiveness for executive leaders to assimilate into new or expanded roles. The program is tailored to the individual’s needs and development priorities based on 360-degree feedback.
HOW WE WORK
Equity and health access Governance and ethics Our 5Cs—Customer first, Care, Collaboration, Continuous improvement, and Curiosity—exemplify our culture and are increasingly woven into our leadership development, peer recognition, and performance assessment practices. We frame employee accomplishments and opportunities for growth using the 5Cs and, starting in 2024, will use them to inform employee goals and objectives.
LISTENING TO OUR EMPLOYEES
One of the ways we implement our 5Cs is by listening to our employees and acting on their feedback. We conduct regular pulse surveys that allow us to capture employee sentiment in real time. We’ve also set up an automated reminder system for managers to examine their results and collaboratively put an action plan in place with their team. These pulse surveys allow us to measure our Employee Engagement Index Score, which was above the healthcare industry average in 2023. We have exceeded the healthcare industry benchmark since launching our Employee Insights survey in 2020. In 2024, we will expand our listening strategy to include a new culture survey. This additional enterprise-wide assessment will help us continue to refine how we implement The Quest Way and our 5Cs across the organization.
The impact of the 5Cs extends beyond our team. Read more about how the 5Cs set Quest apart in the experience and care we provide for our patients. To learn about career opportunities at Quest, visit the Career page.
