SMH one of just 62 organizations worldwide to receive recognition for employee engagement
Sarasota Memorial Hospital (SMH) has won Gallup’s Exceptional Workplace Award for 2025, “a prestigious honor recognizing organizations that have attained world-class performance by putting employees first and setting benchmarks for excellence in the work environment,” Sarasota Memorial has announced.
A four-time winner of the Gallup recognition, Sarasota Memorial is one “of only 62 organizations worldwide to win the Exceptional Workplace Award for engagement in 2025, a news release points out. Gallup explains that the award “honors the health system’s ongoing commitment to employee engagement — a measure reflecting SMH staff involvement in and enthusiasm for their workplace and culture,” the release adds.
David Verinder, CEO of Sarasota Memorial, said in the release that providing a workplace where people can thrive fosters professional growth and learning, which leads to safer, high-quality care for patients.
“Our staff are our greatest asset, and we prioritize investing in their well-being — because when our team thrives, so do our patients,” Verinder pointed out in the release.
An internationally known research and polling organization, Gallup “reports that highly engaged organizations significantly outperform their peers on important outcomes, including quality, safety incidents, customer ratings, turnover, productivity, absenteeism, well-being and organizational citizenship,” the release notes.
“Gallup conducts an employee survey for Sarasota Memorial every three years,” the release says. “SMH also won Gallup workplace honors in 2015, 2018 and 2022. Despite changes and challenges in a rapidly evolving workplace,” the release adds, “Gallup found that Sarasota Memorial continued to support and develop its staff in innovative ways, setting new benchmarks for workplace excellence.”
“Your commitment to creating an environment where employees feel valued, heard and empowered to do their best work is truly remarkable,” Gallup CEO Jon Clifton said in his congratulations to SMH and the other winning organizations. “By prioritizing both people and performance, you are shaping the future of work and proving that exceptional workplaces drive real results,” Clifton added.
“Sarasota Memorial is the region’s largest employer, with 10,500 employees committed to delivering top-quality care at two hospitals, a network of ambulatory locations and physician offices, a skilled nursing facility and behavioral health hospital,” the release points out.
About 96% of SMH’s workforce staff completed the Gallup employee survey in 2024, the release notes. “The survey, which contains key questions to measure staff’s engagement, has been administered to organizations around the world,” the release says. It “is based on decades of research across multiple industries.”