First Advantage Transforms Employee Feedback into Meaningful Results with Quantum Workplace

The Company

First Advantage is a leading global provider of technology solutions for screening, verifications, safety, and compliance related to human capital.  They deliver innovative solutions and insights that help customers manage risk and hire the best talent. A small committee was formed to research an engagement solution provider to partner with and after meeting with several companies, First Advantage chose to partner with Quantum Workplace. Quantum was chosen due to its sleek platform, impressive analytics, and suite of additional insight functionality beyond an annual global engagement survey. 

The Challenge

In 2016, First Advantage set out to improve its workplace experience. They were dedicated to beginning an inclusive culture after identifying pockets of siloed cultures that were running throughout the organization from mergers. It was paramount to establish a baseline measurement to identify key areas to enact meaningful change to evolve into a unified culture. The intent for this global organization was to develop a strong culture to drive business success — not just by jumping through hoops to satisfy employees in the short-term but actually changing the workplace. 

The Solution

First Advantage conducted its first employee engagement survey in 2017, receiving a 60.0% favorability rating (responses that were either “Agree” or “Strongly Agree” for all survey questions). That was just the beginning. The organization set that benchmark and made a constructive effort to analyze employee feedback and make meaningful changes. 

Over a five-year period, First Advantage has utilized survey data to make impactful improvements, resulting in a 22.4% increase in their favorability rating.

First Advantage has been able to utilize its survey data to strategically implement changes over time to directly impact employee engagement and improve the workplace. With a healthy mindset around feedback, they have been able to connect the dots by asking the right questions, analyzing the data, making strategic changes, and empowering managers to drive engagement. 

Based on previous feedback, First Advantage has been able to implement organization-wide changes such as diversity and inclusion-focused employee resource groups (ERGs), the SOAR people management training program, increased virtual collaboration through a SharePoint platform named FA Connect, as well as increased work flexibility and internal movement. In February 2022, they launched a global exit survey to better understand why people are voluntarily leaving the organization which will enable them to refine recruiting and retention strategies for each country. 

First Advantage used pulse surveys during the global pandemic to support their employees, launching several targeted listening strategies such as a remote work pulse survey and a work from home survey in India. These surveys allowed the company to ensure that employees had the proper resources and equipment to perform their jobs successfully at home, to address any lack thereof or other issues hampering the new work from home environment, as well as ensure employees felt supported, productive, valued, and safe during the pandemic. 

They utilized a return to the office survey in the UK and other regions to understand how employees were feeling about the potential to return to in-office work and to listen to the future of work preferences of its employees such as in-office, remote, or a hybrid model, as well as any safety or work/life balance concerns employees many have in returning to in-office work. 

One of the biggest successes that was created based on employee feedback from the 2017 global engagement survey was the in-house design and implementation of a five-month management training program named SOAR. 

As part of this program, participants are given two 360-degree feedback surveys, one launched at the very beginning of the program and the second at the end of the five-month program. They also use pulse surveys to gain feedback from participants in their SOAR leadership training program to gauge the effectiveness and make improvements to the module content and delivery.  

Outside of the annual employee engagement survey, the organization continues to foster an inclusive culture as a priority and recently implemented DEI pulse surveys to measure its global efforts for diversity and inclusion. Employee perceptions led the organization to create a global DEI leadership development program and launch two employee resource groups (Women and African, Black, and Caribbean) which are sponsored by key leadership.

Through its employee listening strategy, First Advantage gained honors for top large companies with Comparably’s Best Company for Women and Best Company for Diversity, further proving the organization as a great place to work. 

It’s obvious First Advantage’s employee listening strategy is connected with overall business goals for success. The organization has grown rapidly over the past several years. Since implementing its employee listening strategy for business success, First Advantage became a publicly-traded company and has acquired two other screening solutions to strengthen its offerings.