Case Study: Southern New Hampshire University achieves improved DE&I and employee engagement with Workday Adaptive Planning

Building a strategy that reflects the diversity of SNHU’s learners

Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), a private nonprofit founded in 1932, serves highly nontraditional and diverse learners and needed to transform its talent and DE&I strategy so staff policies, practices, and culture reflected that diversity. The challenge was to understand and improve employee experience and belonging across different identity groups to attract, retain, and develop a workforce that mirrors its student population.

SNHU implemented Workday Peakon Employee Voice to get real‑time, segmentable data on engagement, inclusion, and the employee lifecycle, enabling confidential dialogue and targeted interventions. The platform helped set measurable DE&I goals and guide actions, driving measurable gains: +33 NPS in engagement (2018–2020), +62 NPS in the Freedom of Opinions driver, +40 NPS in Growth, and more than 185,000 employee comments captured since launch.

Southern New Hampshire University