Circle Health Group

Circle Health Group is the UK’s largest private healthcare provider, offering a network of 50+ private hospitals and employing more than 8,000 permanent employees. In 2020 a merger between BMI Healthcare and Circle Health took place, creating Circle Health Group. This merger brought big changes and challenges, including the merging of two established workforces, practices, principles, policies and cultures. 

The objective of the initiative was to merge the two companies, resulting in a single, cohesive organisation with a shared purpose and set of values and principles that were representative of the business and the people who worked there. According to an engagement survey conducted by Circle Health Group, employees felt leaders needed to provide a clear direction for the organisation with increased transparency of plans. The survey also revealed that 52 per cent of the workforce felt uncertain and enthusiastic about the direction the organisation was taking, and 49 per cent of respondents said they lacked confidence in the newly formed leadership team.

With this in mind, Circle Health Group set a strategic goal to unify the 11,580 employees of the company behind a single purpose and set of common values and principles that would become known as the CHG Philosophy. To foster a strong relationship between the workers and the newly formed leadership team, the entire staff was given a sense of collective belonging.

The judges felt the human impact was consistently emphasised throughout, which featured proof and data as well as the voices of individuals who were affected. They also liked the linking of all activity to the philosophy and were impressed by the strong data and examples of improvement as a consequence of the philosophy across the employee journey.