Astra Service Partners: where it began
Astra Service Partners is a private equity–backed management company overseeing 3,500+ employees across a network of independently operating partner companies in the United States and Canada.
The network delivers HVAC, plumbing, electrical, building automation, refrigeration, fire protection, and environmental services to commercial customers.
Astra's operating philosophy is built on local leadership autonomy. Partner companies run their own HR systems, their own processes, and their own cultures. That model is a deliberate strength, but it created a structural problem when leadership needed a clear, consistent view of employee engagement across the whole network.
- Astra runs 3,500+ employees across 20+ independently operated partner companies, each with its own HR systems and no shared engagement data.
- Four years of Microsoft Forms produced sentiment snapshots with no connection to employee records or actionable analytics.
- CultureMonkey connected survey responses to real HR data, delivering manager-level engagement visibility for the first time.
- The Fall 2025 survey recorded a 7.5/10 engagement score and eNPS of 6 across 2,400 responses from 20+ partner companies.
- Bilingual surveys via email and QR codes reached office staff and field technicians without manual HR coordination.
- Astra's next target is 5,000 employees who actively use engagement data, with manager dashboards already live.
Hear it from Astra: building a listening program from scratch
Why Microsoft Forms was no longer enough for 3,500+ employees
Without structured engagement data, Astra faced a compounding risk: leadership was making people decisions across 20+ companies with no reliable view of where sentiment was deteriorating, which managers were losing their teams, or which partner companies needed urgent intervention. The cost was not operational friction; it was decisions made in the dark.
No connection between survey data and employee records
Microsoft Forms delivered eNPS scores and sentiment snapshots at the company level, but with no link to employee records, organizational hierarchy, or manager relationships. Astra's employee engagement survey data stopped at the surface — and leadership had no way to drill into what was driving the numbers.
When we were just using forms, we were limited to just sentiment information and eNPS information across our portfolio of companies. We couldn't really drill down into it beyond the company level.
Lisa Watts, Chief People Officer, Astra Service Partners
Feedback collected, action missing
The harder problem was not collection, it was execution. Without structured engagement analytics, survey data circulated in leadership conversations but did not translate into decisions. Astra was direct about what was happening.
We were having these conversations in the leadership team about how we're actioning survey data. If we're getting all this information every twice a year, we're really not doing anything with it if we're really honest and we look in the mirror.
Lisa Watts, Chief People Officer, Astra Service Partners
A decentralized structure that made connection technically difficult
With 20+ partner companies each running independent HR systems, there was no central employee record to build survey routing from. Connecting responses to organizational structure required a platform and a team willing to work through that complexity rather than around it.
Why CultureMonkey: the team differentiated immediately
Lisa Watts evaluated multiple vendors before making a decision. Platform capabilities mattered — but the deciding factor was something more specific.
Transparency from the first conversation
Most vendors complicated the sales process. CultureMonkey did the opposite, in the first meeting, Lisa understood the model, pricing, and the team's commitment to customers. That directness was rare enough to be decisive.
They differentiated themselves almost immediately by just being very honest, authentic, straightforward. Like I feel like in the first meeting, I understood the model, the software, the pricing, and their commitment to customers really fast.
Lisa Watts, Chief People Officer, Astra Service Partners
A reference delivered before the competition
Lisa asked every vendor for a reference. CultureMonkey provided one immediately before any other vendor responded. That willingness to put a real customer forward early was a meaningful signal of confidence in both product and partnership.
Implementation partnership, not just a software licence
Astra's engagement program was ambitious and moving quickly. The question was not just whether the platform worked — it was whether the team would show up when the complexity of a decentralized network made things difficult. That question was answered consistently throughout the engagement.
It's one of the best software companies I've ever worked with. And the product actually works really well, too. So the two things combined is like a great formula.
Lisa Watts, Chief People Officer, Astra Service Partners
How CultureMonkey built structure across a fragmented network
The engagement program Astra built with CultureMonkey addressed three core problems: reaching a distributed workforce, connecting to real HR data, and making results actionable for leadership and managers.
Bilingual, multi-channel survey access for office and field teams
Surveys in English and Spanish — distributed via email and QR codes — enabled both office staff and field technicians to participate without HR teams managing manual sessions. The self-serve participation model, using employee feedback tools built for distributed workforces, removed the operational burden from site HR and increased accessibility across the network.
Turn employee feedback into decisions your managers can act on
See how CultureMonkey connects survey data to real HR records — giving every manager in your network visibility they can act on.
Book a demoConnected to real HR data, manager-level visibility for the first time
CultureMonkey worked with Astra to connect survey responses to actual employee records across the decentralized network, including organizational hierarchy and manager relationships. That connection delivered what four years of Microsoft Forms could not: engagement visibility at the manager level, enabling targeted action rather than company-wide averages.
Switching to CultureMonkey and connecting to our real HR data has just been a game changer for us. Now I can see engagement information down to the manager level, which is just a completely different world.
Lisa Watts, Chief People Officer, Astra Service Partners
People Science–backed reporting across 20+ companies
After the Fall 2025 survey, CultureMonkey's People Science team produced custom reports with thematic analysis of open-text responses and benchmark comparisons across all partner companies, segmented separately for office and technician groups. Leadership could see, for the first time, exactly where each company stood and where to focus.
Custom data export for a data-led leadership team
For a leadership team that uses data actively, the ability to export and slice engagement data independently was critical. The engagement analytics platform enabled Lisa to cross-reference engagement driver scores with retention and hiring data, identifying correlations between employee sentiment and attrition patterns across partner populations.
It's our data. We can look at it however we need to, and they'll help us do that — which has been fantastic.
Lisa Watts, Chief People Officer, Astra Service Partners
Fall 2025 survey: Astra's first structured engagement baseline
Astra's Fall 2025 engagement survey — run across the partner network using CultureMonkey — was the first time leadership had structured, HR-data-connected engagement data at the manager level. The results established the baseline from which all future measurements, benchmarking, and action planning will be tracked.
Overall engagement score: 7.5/10. Recorded across 2,400 responses from 20+ partner companies, covering both office staff and field technicians.
The eNPS of 6 reflects the network's starting point — a neutral-to-positive baseline that gives leadership a clear foundation to build from.
Thematic analysis surfaced seven consistent employee themes across open-text responses — with Tools & Processes, Compensation & Recognition, and Communication & Transparency emerging as the three most frequently cited areas for improvement.
Field staff specifically flagged dispatching systems, unclear task tracking, and administrative duplication as friction points affecting daily performance.
Partner-level variation confirmed the value of structured listening. Engagement and eNPS scores varied significantly across the 20+ partner companies, confirming that network-wide averages masked both high-performing companies whose practices could be replicated and companies that needed immediate attention.
See how CultureMonkey's employee listening platform gives distributed teams manager-level engagement visibility from day one.
Book a DemoWhat Astra is building next
Lisa Watts has set a 12-to-18-month target: an organization of 5,000 employees who understand how to use engagement data. Manager-level dashboards are already rolling out, manager training is underway, and the next survey cycle will be used to track movement on the engagement drivers identified in the Fall 2025 baseline.
The program is designed to grow with the network — not to report on it once a year.
Within the next 12 to 18 months, I'm envisioning an organization of 5,000 people that understand how to use engagement data.
Lisa Watts, Chief People Officer, Astra Service Partners
What HR leaders will take from this case study
| Topic | What you'll learn | Applicable to |
|---|---|---|
| Decentralized engagement | How to run a consistent engagement program across independently operating companies with different HR systems | CPO, CHRO, People Ops |
| Moving beyond form-based surveys | What organizations lose when surveys are not connected to HR data and the concrete steps to fix it | CHRO, HR Director |
| Manager-level visibility | How to get engagement data down to the manager level in a fragmented, multi-entity organization | HRBP, People Ops, CPO |
| Distributed workforce access | Using multilingual surveys and QR codes to reach office and field technician populations equally | HR Ops, Field HR teams |
| Engagement-to-retention correlation | How to cross-reference engagement driver scores with hiring and attrition data to identify at-risk populations | CPO, People Analytics |
| Vendor selection | What to evaluate in an engagement platform beyond features and why implementation partnership matters more than sales process | CHRO, HR Director, CPO |
| Building survey trust | How anonymity, consistency, and visible action build employee trust in the listening program across survey cycles | HRBP, HR Generalist, People Ops |
In Lisa's words
"Switching to CultureMonkey and connecting to our real HR data has just been a game changer for us. Now I can see engagement information down to the manager level, which is just a completely different world."
— Lisa Watts, Chief People Officer, Astra Service Partners"Within the next 12 to 18 months, I'm envisioning an organization of 5,000 people that understand how to use engagement data."
— Lisa Watts, Chief People Officer, Astra Service Partners"They've always taken that lift off. In theory I could do a lot of it myself, but they just say don't worry, we'll handle that. I don't think they've ever told me no for anything. We've always figured something out."
— Lisa Watts, Chief People Officer, Astra Service Partners"It's our data. We can look at it however we need to, and they'll help us do that — which has been fantastic."
— Lisa Watts, Chief People Officer, Astra Service PartnersBuild a culture that listens when it matters most
Could you briefly introduce yourself, your role, and share how Astra's partner network operates across its businesses?
My name is Lisa Watts. I'm Chief People Officer at Astra Service Partners. We run a network of nationwide mechanical contracting and service providers across the US and Canada — businesses that deliver HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and building automation services to commercial customers broadly around the US, and now with three locations in Canada.
When evaluating employee engagement survey vendors and employee feedback tools, what differentiated CultureMonkey and made it the right choice for Astra?
When we decided to move away from Microsoft Forms, I started looking really broadly — drawing on tools I'd used before, but opening the search to anything new in the market. I found CultureMonkey alongside others, and I started with open-source information: how were the reviews, was there anything online that looked troubling or exciting? I saw great reviews and wanted to learn more.
As I worked through the vendor conversations, I was really impressed with the team. They differentiated themselves almost immediately by being honest, authentic, and straightforward. In the first meeting, I understood the model, the software, the pricing, and their commitment to customers — whereas other vendors tended to overcomplicate that initial conversation and drag it out across multiple calls. I was moving quickly, so that directness mattered a lot.
I asked all vendors for a reference. CultureMonkey was the first to provide one almost immediately — someone relevant to my work — and I had a great conversation with her. It really came down to the team: not just the sales team, but the implementation team. There were a couple of moments in the sales process where I asked questions and CultureMonkey's answers just stood out. They were clearly trying to earn our business and deliver a great product, not just sell something and leave us to figure it out for three years. I've felt great about that decision ever since.
I've worked with a lot of software vendors in my career and I'm a little skeptical out of the gate — these can be expensive decisions. This team has been one of the best software companies I've ever worked with. And the product actually works really well too. The two things combined is a great formula.
Prior to CultureMonkey, surveys were conducted through forms. What limitations did that create, and how did CultureMonkey improve analytics, reporting, and leadership visibility?
For the first four years we used Microsoft Forms. It got us sentiment and eNPS information, but we couldn't drill down beyond the company level. We also had a very decentralized business model — separate entities across the US, each running their own HR systems with a lot of autonomy. So connecting with those companies technically was difficult.
We were having honest conversations in the leadership team about whether we were actually doing anything meaningful with the data. We were trying, but the impact was limited. Switching to CultureMonkey and connecting to our real HR data — employee records, org hierarchy — has been a game changer. It's been a lot of work on our side because we don't have a central HR system, but CultureMonkey went above and beyond to make it work within our own systems.
Now I can see engagement information down to the manager level, which is a completely different world for us. My ambition within the next 12 to 18 months is an organisation of 5,000 people who genuinely understand how to use engagement data. We've started training managers, and it's a real conversation now — how are your eNPS results, how is your engagement going? The platform is just the first step in that process.
How easy was adoption for managers and employees, especially across distributed and frontline teams?
With the second survey cycle, we're really starting to see trust in the platform climb. People are saying, "this is interesting, this is pretty cool what I can see here." We're working from the top of the organisation downward to build confidence in using the data for actionable decisions at the team member level all the way through.
Two things have to be true for that trust to grow: employees need to trust the platform itself, and they need to see their managers actually acting on the results. CultureMonkey gives us the first — nobody has to worry we're doing anything in the background, the anonymity is built in. The second part is on us. The more that happens, the more it'll become part of our operating rhythm.
The team has also gone above and beyond with manager engagement directly. When managers have questions, Karthik from Customer Success will interact with them directly, help them figure out what they need, and send custom reports or data. It means I don't have to have all the answers myself — we can just go to CultureMonkey, which is fantastic.
What insights from the Fall 2025 engagement survey stood out most to leadership, and how have those translated into concrete actions across your network?
Because we're still in the early stages and we've been doing engagement surveys for five years, most results haven't felt earth-shattering yet. But what's really exciting is that we're now able to compare survey data against our internal data. As CPO, I can look at retention data, hiring data, and actually search for correlations with what I'm seeing in CultureMonkey.
For example, which parts of our population are reporting the most concern around recognition — and is there hard data showing we're actually losing that population faster than others? We're finding directionally interesting things. We don't have enough trend data to be certain yet, but it's giving us the ability to say: this particular group is asking for this, so what can we do? How do we move the needle and improve their experience?
It's really the ability to look at trends, connect them to other parts of the business, ask really important questions, and now actually have hope that we can answer them — something we've never been able to do before.
How did the custom reports and deeper analytics support more informed decision-making?
I think of custom reports in a couple of categories. The post-survey custom report CultureMonkey produces for us is really easy to digest — the sentiment and comment analysis, the major themes — something I can share quickly with the whole leadership team. That's powerful on its own.
But the bigger improvement has been data exportability. We're a data-heavy team for a non-technology company — we believe data drives decisions. The ability to now slice and dice our engagement data however we need to has been a major step forward in just the six months we've been on the platform. I can look at team-level data cut by experience level, by employee type, whatever dimension I need, and just export it directly.
A lot of platforms hold your data and won't let you look at it the way you want. CultureMonkey's approach is the opposite — it's our data, we can look at it however we need to, and the team will help us do that. The ability to run custom questions, get custom outputs, it's been fantastic.
If you were recommending CultureMonkey to another organization, what problem would you say it solves best?
I would recommend CultureMonkey — absolutely. The problem it solves best is providing a user-friendly interface to conduct engagement surveys that works for both employees taking the survey and managers reviewing the results. The system is just simple. It works well. And it lets you go as deep as you want with your data.
As long as you have the data in your system, you can slice it however you need to and view it however makes sense for you. You can go really deep if this is critical to you. Or if it's a quicker exercise, you can run the reports and customise everything without overcomplicating it. It creates this environment where you send out a visually appealing, consistent survey, and then you can build whatever experience you need on the back end for managers.
Just give it a try. It's a great team to work with, a great platform to use, and it's intuitive for users — which is really, really important.