DALLAS — The Human Resources department at Meridian Solutions issued a company-wide memo on Tuesday affirming that employee feedback is "the lifeblood of a healthy workplace culture," followed four hours later by a second memo clarifying that employees should "exercise discretion" before submitting feedback that is "negative in tone, specific in nature, or directed at any person, policy, process, outcome, or condition of employment."

The dual memos arrive ahead of the company's seventh annual employee engagement survey, which HR describes as "a vital listening tool" and which has, in seven years, produced no documented changes to company policy, staffing, compensation, benefits, physical working conditions, or the survey itself.

"We genuinely want to hear from every single employee," said Darcy Wellhausen, Meridian's Director of Engagement Continuity and Survey Lifecycle Management. "What we're asking — and really it's a small ask — is that the feedback people share reflects the collaborative, solutions-oriented spirit of the Meridian brand, rather than, for example, feelings."

"The portal is always open. We simply ask that employees think carefully before using it, and then perhaps decide not to." — Darcy Wellhausen, Director of Engagement Continuity and Survey Lifecycle Management

The second memo, a seven-paragraph document titled "Keeping Our Feedback Culture Positive," outlined several categories of feedback that, while technically submittable, are "discouraged as counterproductive." These include feedback referencing specific incidents, feedback that has been submitted in prior survey cycles, feedback containing salary-related commentary, and feedback that "creates a paper trail of a sensitive nature."

In a supplementary FAQ distributed Thursday, HR confirmed that the feedback portal remains fully operational, that submissions are reviewed quarterly, and that "all insights are taken seriously." When asked to identify a single policy change attributable to a survey submission, Wellhausen directed the inquiry to a page on the internal intranet that has returned a 404 error since 2021.

Employees interviewed for this story asked not to be named, citing concerns that feedback given to a reporter about feedback policy could itself constitute the type of feedback the feedback policy discourages.

Meridian's engagement survey opens Monday and will close Friday. Participation is described as voluntary in the memo and mandatory in the employee handbook. The results will be compiled into a slide deck that will be presented to senior leadership, saved to a shared drive, and opened zero times, according to sources familiar with the shared drive's access logs.

The survey this year includes a new question asking employees to rate, on a scale of one to five, how confident they are that their feedback leads to meaningful change. HR has confirmed that responses to this question will not influence any decisions.