We often get asked this question by clients using our employee survey. We don’t believe it’s the right question to ask.
Here’s why.
No two organisations are the same
When you (try to) benchmark your employee survey results with other companies you are not comparing like with like.
Many things will influence an organisation’s results – from age, maturity and size to location, history and national culture for instance Asia and North America tend to return higher scores than Europe.
Benchmarking will give you a number but it doesn’t tell you what an organisation has done, or not done to achieve that number. It doesn’t tell you what progress they have made; about the challenges they have overcome, or the challenges they face.
Value your difference
For the same reasons, what works in one organisation is unlikely to work in the same way in another organisation. So, even if you manage to learn what’s behind the numbers, it’s very unlikely you will achieve the same outcome.
The purpose of doing an employee survey is to understand what you do well and what you can do better. We don’t want you to use our surveys so you can become like your competitors . We want you to use our surveys to differentiate your products and services so you can attract loyal employees (and customers) and deliver better results.
Celebrate your progress
The value of an employee survey doesn’t come from knowing your ‘score’. It comes from understanding why you have those results and getting your employees ideas and opinions on what and how to improve.
That’s why we advocate you benchmark against yourself – we believe the most useful benchmark you can use is your own progress over time.
Before making any decisions about benchmarking your next employee survey, ask yourself two questions;
1. What/who do you want to benchmark against?
2. How will it help you improve?
We have a unique set of tools, software and knowledge enabling us to provide a framework for boosting engagement and productivity, and the support to take action. Find out more or get in touch to see how we could help you.