Benchmarking.
It’s a bit of a buzzword when it comes to employee engagement scores and survey data – so it can be confusing whether to know if it’s worth doing for your organisation.
We’ll show you how to implement benchmarking in a meaningful way, so you can gather more insights around your employee engagement surveys, see how you stack up against other organisations (without getting too caught up in comparisons), and understand where you might need to refocus your strategies.
As the name itself implies, a benchmarked question in an employee engagement survey is one where the responses are compared against a standard or average from a larger group – such as industry expectation or past performance data.
The aim of benchmarking question scores and data is to help you understand how you are performing relative to others and identify areas for improvement.
Your benchmarked score will tell you how you measure up in comparison with our expansive data set – made up of publicly available data from industries all around the UK.
Stribe benchmarking survey questions cover all areas of employee engagement, so when it comes to improving your employees’ experience, your benchmarked score will give you the context you need to understand what’s working- all within one simple graph!
With just a quick glance, you’ll be able to see if you’re on track or need to refocus.
How to ask a benchmarked question 📊
✅ Identifies your strengths and weaknesses
Benchmarking helps you identify areas where you are excelling, and where you need to improve. improvement. For example, if your company scores higher than the industry average on employee satisfaction, it indicates effective practices worth maintaining. On the flip side, lower scores can signal the need for policy changes.
✅ Motivates a culture of improvement
Comparing your scores to industry standards can motivate your organisation to strive for better results. Knowing that your industry competitors have higher engagement scores can drive initiatives to improve workplace culture and performance.
In fact, according to Gallup, organisations with higher employee engagement experience 21% higher profitability.
✅ Gives you context for your findings
Benchmarked data provides context to your survey results, making it easier to interpret your findings. Without benchmarks, it’s challenging to know if a 70% satisfaction rate is good or bad. Benchmarks give you a frame of reference, showing whether you’re leading or lagging in key areas.
❌ Doesn’t reflect unique circumstances
Benchmarks are based on averages and might not take into account your organisation’s unique context. What works for your company might not work for others, due to differences in culture, size, or industry.
So it’s always important to consider not comparing yourself TOO harshly compared to the benchmarks.
❌ Can lead to complacency
Contrary to our point on motivation, benchmarking can also lead to complacency within organisations.
By meeting or slightly exceeding industry benchmarks, organisations might settle for being average instead of pushing for excellence. For example, if the industry average for employee engagement is 60% and you score 62% – don’t overlook further improvements that could drive higher employee happiness.
❌ Too much focus on external metrics
Relying too heavily on benchmarks can shift your focus on internal goals and priorities, to external metrics that aren’t always as meaningful.
Don’t let benchmark scores take over addressing internal issues that matter more to your employees. Rather, think about making your organisation’s engagement results better than they have been in previous years – rather than beating others who are dealing with their own challenges.
Think of benchmarking like going to the gym – everyone is on their own unique and personal journey to bettering themselves, so don’t get caught up in comparing yourself!
Think of benchmarking like going to the gym – everyone is on their own unique and personal journey to bettering themselves, so don’t get caught up in comparing yourself! 
Considering the pros and cons, it’s clear that there’s a time and a place for benchmarking. So when is it the right time?
You should use benchmark questions when you want to gain a clear understanding of how your organization stacks up against industry standards and identify areas for improvement.
This could potentially be when you’re surveying a particular area for the first time, or you don’t have past data within your organisation to compare to.
Benchmarking is also useful for setting realistic goals. However, as we mentioned previously – avoid over-relying on benchmarks if your organisation has unique circumstances or already has its own past data to compare to.
Balancing benchmark data with your own internal metrics is a well-rounded approach to employee engagement.
Stribe’s benchmarked scores will tell you how you measure up in comparison with our expansive data set – made up of data from industries all around the UK.
That’s it! Watch the demo guide below to see it in action.
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You might be thinking, what is a good example of a benchmark question? At Stribe we have a number of different questions that relate to employee engagement that you can ask your team. These include:
Stribe is the best place to build employee surveys.
