6 Key Employee Engagement Benchmarks to Drive Retention

Having engaged employees is no longer an option in today’s competitive business environment. Having engaged employees is a must if you want to drive positive business outcomes and experience long-term success.

The first step is gathering employee engagement survey results based on specific questions you ask your workforce, but just gathering those results isn’t enough. You have to know what they mean if you want to work towards achieving a more engaged organization.

That’s where employee engagement benchmarks come in.

Here are the six essential employee engagement benchmarks you should use to drive performance in your workplace. We have also included various industry benchmarks and strategies to further improve employee engagement in your workplace.

Key Metrics and Benchmarks for Employee Engagement 

It's true that every organization will have different benchmark data to consider that reflects the team’s goals, but there are six employee engagement benchmarks that every business should look at when determining employee engagement.

They include:

• Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)
• Employee turnover rate
• Absenteeism rate
• Job satisfaction scores
• Level of employee recognition
• Employee participation rates

1. Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)

The Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) measures how likely an employee is to recommend working for the company to others. It's a great way to measure loyalty and job satisfaction. You can also compare other data, like work-life balance, to an employee's eNPS.

The scoring system for individual employees includes:

• Promoters give a 9-10 rating
• Passives give a 7-8 rating
• Detractors give a 0-6 rating

Subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters to get an eNPS score. A score of ten is considered average, and a score of between 20 and 30 is good. A score of 30 or greater is considered an excellent rating.

2. Employee turnover rate

The employee turnover rate is the percentage of your workforce that leaves your organization within a certain time period. It's an important employee engagement benchmark to measure because a high turnover rate can indicate widespread job dissatisfaction. Not to mention it can be expensive, as replacing an employee costs 33 percent of that employee's annual salary.

Divide the number of employees who left your organization in a given time period by the average number of employees. Then, multiply the answer by 100. A healthy turnover rate is around 10 percent, but it depends on your specific industry.

3. Absenteeism rate

An absenteeism rate is also sometimes referred to as an absence rate or absence percentage. It reflects the rate of unplanned absences among employees. It's normal for employees to be out for vacation or illness, but an unusually high rate can indicate resistance to come to work due to stress, bullying, and other factors.

To get the best score, only measure unplanned and/or unapproved absences. Then, divide the number of those absences by the number of days in the period of time you're measuring. Multiply it by 100 to get a percentage.

You can do this for individual employees, teams, and the organization as a whole. Absenteeism rates vary, but it's a good rule of thumb to keep it around 1.5%. Any more than that and you should look into the reasons behind those absences.

4. Job satisfaction scores

The employee experience matters too. A job satisfaction score can tell you whether or not employees are satisfied with their role, which can greatly impact engagement.

It’s important to know the difference between employee experience vs engagement when creating a job satisfaction survey. It allows you to break down your survey, if desired. For example, instead of measuring an employee's overall satisfaction, which closely relates to engagement, you might ask questions as they pertain to their experience with different areas of work.

The most straightforward formula to calculate a job satisfaction score is to find the sum of all employees' scores. Then, divide that number by the maximum possible score. Multiple that number by 100 to get a percentage. Anything above 60% is considered acceptable, but what score you strive for will depend on your employees and the goals of your organization.

5. Level of employee recognition 

It’s important to include recognition in your employee engagement benchmarks because those who are recognized regularly are more likely to be engaged. They are more likely to score a higher eNPS too.

You can ask employees more broadly about whether they feel recognized and whether they would like to be recognized more often, but you may want to ask more specifically about whether they feel recognized by peers, by managers, and whether they have received tangible recognition for their efforts in the form of a raise or a bonus.

The specifics will depend on your particular organization and whether or not you have a designated employee recognition program.

A few things you could measure to calculate an employee recognition rate include:

• Time since their last promotion
• Time since their last increase in pay
• Number of goals completed
• Number of tangible recognition received

Instead of shooting for a particular employee engagement benchmark, try improving scores year after year, with the ultimate goal of making sure every employee feels appreciated.

6. Employee participation rates 

Not only do you have to be aware of the difference between employee experience and engagement, you also have to differentiate engagement from participation.

Engagement focuses on the productivity and morale of an employee in regards to how committed they are to helping the organization achieve its goals. Participation focuses on what employees actually do to demonstrate their engagement.

Like measuring employee recognition, measuring participation rates will depend on your particular organization.

A few things you could measure to determine participation rates include:

• Serving on a committee or task force
• Participation in team-building and brainstorming exercises
• Proposing new projects
• Participating in training programs

Coming up with an external employee engagement benchmark for participation can be tricky because there are so many different things to measure. Instead, come up with internal benchmarks that support your organization’s goals.

Industry-Specific Employee Engagement Benchmarks

In addition to the key employee engagement benchmarks listed above, there is also specific benchmarking data you may want to collect, depending on your particular industry. Gathering this data can paint a more accurate picture of employee engagement in your particular work environment.

A few industries with their own employee engagement benchmarks include:

• Technology
• Healthcare
• Retail
• Manufacturing

Technology

Innovation and adaptability are effective metrics for engagement when you work in a tech-heavy industry. You might measure the number of new ideas an employee has within a certain timeframe or pay attention to the number of times they have pivoted or taken on a new project.

It’s a good idea to ask employees to rate their stress levels too. You might discover employees who are the least innovative and adaptable are also the most stressed.

Healthcare 

Feeling burnt out is common among healthcare workers, and those feelings often lead to disengagement. You can help eliminate feelings of burnout and increase engagement by measuring how employees feel about their workload and work-life balance.

You can ask employees to rate their work-life balance. You can also ask more general questions that get to the heart of the matter, like rating their stress levels and asking if they are satisfied with their workload.

Retail

Collecting customer service scores can be hugely helpful if you work in retail. Surveys can be sent by email, text message, or over the phone. Ask questions about how satisfied customers are with their experience and rate the friendliness of the employee who helped them.

Then, link those scores to employee engagement levels. It will help you create a more holistic view of engagement in your workplace.

Manufacturing

Measuring operational efficiency in a manufacturing setting can help you determine each employee’s engagement level. You could count the average number of units completed during a period of time, for example.

Just make sure you balance this metric with employee safety data. After all, more units manufactured isn't better if employees are getting injured. By regularly measuring safety data, you can spot trends over time.

Global vs Regional Employee Engagement Benchmarks

Having a single benchmark keeps things simple, but it is important to step back and take a look at the bigger picture. That's because there are differences in benchmarking data.

In today's global economy, it's a good idea to compare your survey responses to global benchmarks. That's especially true if your company size is relatively large, and especially if you operate in more than one country.

Things like local economies, labor laws, and cultural expectations can impact survey responses, so it’s a good idea to dig into regional employee engagement benchmarks too.

Use both sets of data to fine-tune engagement strategies if you’re a global company that operates in different locations. For example, you might discover the level of employee recognition is more important in one location than another due to cultural differences. You would only have to work on employee recognition at the location where it's impacting engagement.

How to Measure Employee Engagement With PerformYard

Gathering employee engagement scores can be messy. It can be even messier to organize the data so you can compare it to both internal and external benchmarks. You can make the entire process simpler, faster, and more effective with the right employee engagement software.

PerformYard supports the creation of anonymous engagement surveys that can be completely customized for your organization. All of the gathered information is automatically uploaded into a real-time data analysis dashboard that gives you quick visual insights into the factors that are influencing your company's overall engagement score.

Not only can you look at company-wide data, you can also splice the data based on different employee cohorts. See how different groups of employees feel about different engagement factors and track changes to their answers over time.

Data is specifically organized and displayed in intuitive, actionable ways. You can see exactly what’s impacting engagement so you can make meaningful, targeted changes that lead to real improvements.

Strategies to Improve Employee Engagement 

Having the data isn’t enough. You have to use that data to make changes in your organization, whether you make a small tweak to an existing process or you decide to try out a new employee engagement model.

A few strategies to improve employee engagement include:

• Implement regular feedback loops with employees
• Foster a culture of recognition and appreciation
• Develop personalized employee development plans
• Utilize data-driven insights to address engagement gaps

Implement regular feedback loops with employees

Continuous feedback and open communication are extremely important to employee engagement. It gives employees the ability to discuss challenges and come up with solutions in real-time instead of waiting until an annual review to make changes. It improves morale, and it improves engagement. According to one poll, 80 percent of employees who have received meaningful feedback in the past week report being fully engaged in the workplace.

Implementing regular feedback loops doesn’t have to be time-consuming. Performance review software that enables pulse surveys gives you the ability to quickly gather data from your employees in just a few minutes.

Foster a culture of recognition and appreciation 

Cultivating a company culture of recognition can have a big impact on job satisfaction, engagement, and retention, with 46 percent of respondents in one survey saying they have left a job in the past because they felt unappreciated.

Recognizing and appreciating your employees can include pay raises and bonuses, but it doesn’t have to. A well-phrased compliment can go a long way towards making an employee feel appreciated, with 85 percent of professionals saying they want to hear a simple "thank you" in day-to-day interactions.

Saying the right thing during a review or one-on-one meeting can be powerful too. Check out these performance review example phrases for professional and meaningful ways to recognize an employee for a job well done.

Develop personalized employee development plans 

Employees want growth opportunities, with 63 percent of respondents in one survey citing a lack of advancement opportunities as the reason for quitting a job.

You can provide those growth opportunities by creating personalized employee development plans. They should include clear goals and provide growth opportunities with explicit training and development programs that employees can actually utilize. Growth opportunities like these increase engagement by 15 percent and retention by 34 percent.

Creating and monitoring effective employee development plans is easier when you use continuous feedback software. Employees and managers are able to discuss progress in real-time, increasing the likelihood of goals being achieved while increasing overall engagement at the same time.

Utilize data-driven insights to address engagement gaps

Using employee engagement feedback data, you can identify engagement challenges that are unique to your business. You can also gain valuable insights into the challenges that are specific to certain departments or teams. Then you can come up with a custom intervention that addresses the challenge with those who need the most support.

For example, you might discover that your sales team has a higher employee turnover rate than the other departments in your organization. Knowing that it's unique to the sales team means you can personalize your response to the specific challenges faced by the employees in that department.

Make Data-Driven Decisions Using Employee Engagement Benchmarks

Data doesn't hold a lot of meaning on its own. Only after it is combined can we glean new information and discover insights that we otherwise wouldn't have noticed.

Both internal and external employee engagement benchmarks enable you to collate data in meaningful ways so you can make data-driven decisions that are designed to improve your particular company culture and overall engagement.

You can make the entire process easier and more effective by using the PerformYard platform. Download our free demo to see exactly how you can track and measure engagement benchmarks to create a happier, more engaged workforce.

FAQs

What are employee engagement benchmarks?

Employee engagement benchmarks are standards organizations use to see how employee engagement levels compare to others. Internal employee engagement benchmarks compare engagement levels between different cohorts at the same organization, while external benchmarks allow you to compare the results of your employees with other organizations.

Why are employee engagement benchmarks important? 

Employee engagement benchmarks give you context that helps you understand your data better. A score may seem low, but when you compare it to an industry-wide benchmark, you may discover that your score is actually above average.

Should I use multiple employee engagement benchmarks?

Yes! Using multiple employee engagement benchmarks gives you a more balanced view of employee engagement. You can discover contextual insights, which departments are outperforming others, and create targeted action plans.

How do I analyze my benchmark data? 

Analyzing benchmark data requires you to collect data, organize it, and display it in graphs and tables. Tools like Excel and Google Sheets can help, but using a platform like PerformYard is even better. It contains built-in analytical tools that help you discover valuable insights at a glance.