In the Jungle

by Sharon Parker

Sharon Parker, Senior Survey Consultant for the Foresight Group, continues her discussion on benchmarking below…

In an earlier blog, we talked about the use of external benchmarks or norms as a way to understand your survey results.  Internal benchmarks can be just as helpful, if not more so, in understanding and interpreting your organization’s results.  Internal benchmarks such as historical comparisons, best-in-class groups and total company aggregate scores can shed light where external benchmarks often fail.  Here are some examples of how organizations have used internal benchmarks to improve their interpretation and understanding.

1. One client organization created a best-in-class benchmark that was the aggregate of the top 10 percent of all workgroups in the organization based on the overall engagement score.  All work groups were ranked from high to low on the overall engagement score.  The top 10 percent of workgroups were selected and this group’s scores were aggregated on each survey dimension/category and item to create the Best-In-Class score.  This internal benchmark was set as a stretch goal for all other workgroups in the organization.  The best-in-class groups were also interviewed to find out how they were driving engagement.  Best practice stories were then shared with others across the organization.  The Best-In-Class benchmark can be segmented by region or business group to provide greater focus and clarity and to “normalize” for local cultures.
2. A second client organization created a total organization score for every survey dimension and item and included this score on each manager report.  As a decentralized organization, managers had not had the ability to benchmark their scores with others in the organization.  This new internal total company score provided a comparison point from which to measure their employee survey results compared to others in the organization.  Managers were now able to see if they were above the norm or below the norm on employee engagement and set action plans accordingly.
3. A third client included multiple years of historical trending on their survey results to highlight opportunities for improvement.  Year-over-year change was measured in both actual change (percent favorable scores) as well as difference scores.  A special report was created to show the year-over-year change in an easy to use “snapshot”.  Color coding was added to indicate significant positive change (green), little to no change (yellow) and significant negative change (red).  This stoplight approach quickly enabled managers to spot the significant changes, both positive and negative.  At a glance, managers could tell whether or not their efforts had any effect on the survey results. 

Normative data provides a way for managers to interpret results, set goals and priorities, define strengths and opportunities, and create action plans.  Both internal and external benchmarks create comparisons that are useful if you understand how the benchmarks were calculated and how the data will be used to make comparisons to your organization.

 For more information, contact Sharon Parker at sparker@foresightint.com.