Objectives Systematically measuring the work environment of healthcare employees is key to continuously improving the quality of care and addressing staff shortages. In this study, we systematically analyse the responses to the one open-ended question posed in the Dutch version of the Culture of Care Barometer (CoCB-NL) to examine (1) if the responses offered new insights into healthcare employees’ perceptions of their work environment and (2) if the original CoCB had any themes missing. Design Retrospective text analysis using Rigorous and Accelerated Data Reduction technique. Setting University hospital in the Netherlands using the CoCB-NL as part of the annual employee survey. Participants All hospital employees were invited to participate in the study (N=14 671). In total, 2287 employees responded to the open-ended question. Results 2287 comments were analysed. Comments that contained more than one topic were split according to topic, adding to the total (n=2915). Of this total, 372 comments were excluded because they lacked content or respondents indicated they had nothing to add. Subsequently, 2543 comments were allocated to 33 themes. Most comments (n=2113) addressed the 24 themes related to the close-ended questions in the CoCB-NL. The themes most commented on concerned questions on ‘organisational support’. The remaining 430 comments covered nine additional themes that addressed concerns about work environment factors (team connectedness, team effectiveness, corporate vision, administrative burden and performance pressure) and themes (diversity and inclusion, legal frameworks and collective bargaining, resilience and work–life balance, and personal matters). Conclusions Analysing responses to the open-ended question in the CoCB-NL led to new insights into relevant elements of the work environment and missing themes in the COCB-NL. Moreover, the analysis revealed important themes that not only require attention from healthcare organisations to ensure adequate improvements in their employees’ work ...