DTE Energy at a glance
- Detroit-based energy company that started as a small gas plant in 1849. DTE Energy grew to include both electric and gas companies and serves 3.6 million customers
- More than 11,000 employees (73% male population) across 60+ locations with 7 unions
- Focused on wellness since 1938 when they began offering employees access to a health club and small clinic
Goal
To achieve a best-in-class culture of health and wellbeing and to be the healthiest and most wellbeing-supportive organization.
To accomplish this goal, DTE Energy focused on leveraging best practices and turning them into next practices.
Challenge
DTE’s diverse population, inclusive of field, remote and in-office workers, made it challenging to reach their 60+ locations throughout 21 states to consistently align to their organizational goals and priorities.
They sought a solution to unify their organization across its dispersed workforce to both align to their goals and enhance their company’s culture of health and wellbeing.
Solution
As a data-driven organization, DTE partnered with Personify Health to incorporate Personify Health’s Culture Check into their wellbeing strategy as one of the leading indicator metrics. This externally validated, evidence-based assessment and metric allows them to:
- Align the organization to their goals and commitments
- Help measure progress
- Create a plan and annual targets, and define a path to best-in-class company culture
Results & Impact
After implementing Culture Check, DTE Energy became more aligned and intentional organization-wide. “The progress we’ve made between 2018 and today is tremendous. It shows in all the other metrics we’re tracking, making Culture Check an important metric to drive the improvement.” said Karen Personett, Manager of Wellness and Health Promotion at DTE. The Leadership Interviews are an important component of the Culture Check Assessment. They supplement the information that comes from the online assessment.
Created sense of accountability
DTE’s executive leadership value having a metric to measure their culture.
DTE utilized Culture Check to create location-specific project plans that enabled them to compare their progress against best practices and outline areas for improvement. Onsite Health and Wellbeing Specialists used these plans as guides on achieving specific goals.
This created a sense of accountability for leaders and established action plans for improving their company culture and wellbeing programs. DTE made improvements that respected employee boundaries and inspired healthy competition while supporting the entire population.
Results & Impact
Strategic onsite health and wellbeing presence
To support employees’ health and wellbeing, DTE incorporates Onsite Health & Wellbeing Specialists to further support their wellbeing strategy and company culture. These Specialists are an integral part of DTE’s success.
Culture Check further highlighted their value, especially to local leaders. Specialists help to support Health and Safety meetings and are key to infusing health and wellbeing into daily routines.
They provide personalized support facilitating access to resources. They manage initiatives, such as location wellness zones, mini grants, gym upgrades, and vendor partner integrations. The Health and Wellbeing Specialists execute the enterprise wellbeing strategy and simultaneously support local strategies.
Enhanced nutrition support
Ahead of Culture Check, DTE knew healthy eating was a challenge among their population. While plans were underway to enhance resources, Culture Check identified specific areas of opportunity, highlighted gaps, and engaged leaders.
Specifically, DTE noted that convenience, time, and available options impacted employees’ choices. For example, common fare provided at Health & Safety meetings was largely unhealthy. Out of convenience and time, field workers opted for fast food options instead of bringing balanced lunches to work.
DTE implemented a variety of changes that transformed the culture, including healthier, more balanced onsite food options, having Nutrition Manager and dietitians on staff, meal/lunch idea cards at Wellness Zones, and promotion of resources on the Personify Health platform. Leaders were also given resources to easily shift to healthier options. Additionally, DTE hosted nutrition support on the company intranet, including:
- Catering resources (guidelines & tips)
- Cholesterol/ Diabetes
- Information & tips
- Company cookbook
- Healthy snacking
- Quick and easy meals
- Tips on staying hydrated
- Eating healthy on a budget
Results by the numbers
DTE continues to keep employee wellbeing as a top priority. Through their initial successes, expansion to additional locations, and reassessments, DTE drives improvement in supporting and encouraging employees and their families to take care of their health, safety, and wellbeing.
DTE’s appetite and prioritization for health and wellbeing changed dramatically thanks to the DTE Wellbeing Executive Leadership Committee who defined metrics, goals, and systematic tracking of activities and outcomes. This enabled DTE to address the needs of each site, including establishing location-specific Wellbeing Committees, enhancing the workplace environment with a path to best-in-class nutritional support, leader training modules for mindset alignment, and incorporting health-supportive behaviors as management responsibilities.
“Since implementing Culture Check, we’ve made improvements every year, we’ve hit or exceeded our annual goals, and overall, we’re above the 80 Culture Check score. Most importantly, we are closing the gap and mitigating the disparity, allowing our locations to become more supportive of employee health. Using the information, we have been able to be more effective and strategic. Locations are making tremendous progress. I’m really excited, pleased, and proud of the work we’ve done.”