Growing Non-Profit Healthcare Provider Uses UltiPro Perception to Build Trust, Support Employee Success

Ultimate Software (Nasdaq: ULTI), a leading provider of human capital management (HCM) solutions in the cloud, announced today that Community Bridges, one of Arizona’s largest providers of fully integrated medical and behavioral healthcare, is using UltiPro Perception to address the unique needs of its employee population and react quickly to workplace challenges.

Community Bridges has a 32-year history of providing comprehensive behavioral health programs that include prevention, education, and treatment services using cutting-edge, nationally recognized treatment models. Many Community Bridges employees have passed through the programs themselves and can speak to those currently in treatment with the empathy and compassion that comes from shared experiences. Community Bridges went live with UltiPro in January 2017, and launched UltiPro Perception in September.

"Employees express more emotion at work than you can observe through a traditional survey,” said Maddie Nichols, chief human resources officer of Community Bridges. "Especially in a behavioral health system, where emotion is a dominant player in the workplace, I saw that UltiPro Perception was the ideal tool to help us make our employees successful.”

Due to a shift in funding, Community Bridges is currently undertaking organizational changes. Nichols reports that the organization’s annual employee satisfaction survey uncovered a fear of change among its employees, a theme the organization was never able to capture from traditional surveys. As a result, the organization has moved aggressively on this issue.

"We learned through UltiPro Perception that we needed to communicate more clearly about the positive changes that are taking place at Community Bridges,” said Nichols. "We were able to quickly mobilize group roundtable discussions for our employees, a personal setting that makes them the most comfortable sharing information. Employees do their best work when they feel they can bring their whole selves to work and, to do that, they must feel safe, understood, and be informed about what is happening around them. UltiPro Perception helps us accomplish just that.”

According to Nichols, the UltiPro Perception dashboard delivers immediate results even while the survey is in progress. The organization’s ability to act quickly, rather than wait for a survey’s manual tabulation and analysis, helped the organization react rapidly to employees’ concerns.

"The ability of UltiPro Perception to deliver information immediately is important not only for building employee trust and engagement, but also for addressing the unique needs of Community Bridges’ employee population,” said Nichols. "Many of our employees are in the process of rebuilding their lives, and it is absolutely critical that these individuals, recently released from prison or in recovery, are receiving from us the support they need. With UltiPro Perception, the survey process is quick—creation, completion, and analysis—and we can minimize those triggers in the workplace that could reverse their progress. UltiPro Perception thinks like a human being and gives me eyes and ears into the employee mindset in 30 Community Bridges locations. We can survey all new employees at 90 days, six months, and up to one year to gain invaluable insight into their feelings and motivation.”

According to Nichols, the organization has been pleasantly surprised by the high degree of honesty its employees are sharing through UltiPro Perception, which she attributes to employee trust in the confidentiality of the product, and the way the simple user interface encourages sincere feedback.

"We are using the data from UltiPro Perception to inform the way we communicate with our employees. Our message to them is that, even though their lives have been full of fear, they don’t need to be afraid,” said Nichols. "By offering our employees a voice through UltiPro, we in HR can minimize their fear and give them hope.”

"The ability of UltiPro Perception to detect and report on emotions and feelings is a cutting-edge use of artificial intelligence that can transform workplace culture,” said Chris Phenicie, chief sales officer, mid-market and strategic, at Ultimate. "We are delighted to see how Community Bridges is able to tap into the needs of its employees and respond rapidly to ensure their progress as employees and individuals, while advancing the goals of the organization.”

About Ultimate Software

Ultimate is a leading provider of cloud-based human capital management solutions, with more than 38 million people records in the Ultimate cloud. Ultimate’s award-winning UltiPro delivers HR, payroll, talent, and time and labor management solutions that connect people with the information they need to work more effectively. Founded in 1990, Ultimate is headquartered in Weston, Florida, and employs more than 4,300 professionals. In 2018, Ultimate ranked #3 on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list, its seventh consecutive year in the top 25, and #1 on Fortune’s Best Workplaces in Technology list for the third year in a row. In 2017, Forbes ranked Ultimate #7 on its list of 100 Most Innovative Growth Companies; People magazine ranked Ultimate #2 on its 50 Companies That Care list; and the National Customer Service Association named Ultimate Service Organization of the Year in the Large Business category. Ultimate has more than 4,100 customers with employees in 160 countries, including Bloomin’ Brands, Culligan International, Feeding America, Phoenix Suns, Red Roof Inn, SUBWAY, Texas Roadhouse, and Yamaha Corporation of America. More information on Ultimate’s products and services for people management can be found at www.ultimatesoftware.com.

UltiPro is a registered trademark of The Ultimate Software Group, Inc. All other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners.

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