Surveys are one of the most dynamic tools on an HR expert’s utility belt, but that doesn’t mean they always reveal the full picture. Sure, asking the team what soda they want the Halloween party stocked with will certainly bring a straightforward answer. Asking how strongly employees feel recognized around the office, on the other hand, brings forth answers that need a closer look.
Using a generic survey tool will indeed get you started; you can discover that 59% of your team feels strongly engaged against the 41% that don’t. The problem is the context – it’s impossible to know how good of a score that is without a reference point. How does anyone know the difference between a good 59% on an engagement survey and a bad 59%?
Benchmarks!
A benchmarked survey is one that takes results from one team’s survey and compares them against hundreds of other surveys of the same type. These surveys are the only way to reveal whether your results are better or worse than a typical workplace’s average. You don’t even have to look at a “typical workplace” if you don’t want to – a good benchmarking tool can separate median results by industry!
So if 59% of your team feels strongly engaged, you might worry that it’s a failing score. What if you knew, though, that the median answer for your industry was actually 45%? That’s a big relief… until you find out that when 76% of your team believes communication within the company is consistent, it falls short of the industry standard 86%.
Benchmarks narrow down your priorities to focus on what’s really falling behind. Perspective in numbers is vital in sales, it’s vital in engineering, and now it’s vital in human resources.
So where can someone find benchmarked surveys? You won’t find them on any old website, you’ve got to look at a premium HR platform…… such as HelloTeam! HelloTeam’s survey tool not only lets you customize the length and format of your workplace surveys, but now lets you compare your results to others in your industry.
If you’re wondering what this would look like, look no further than the image above – that’s HelloTeam’s benchmarking tool, complete with data on a heatmap to make your strengths and weaknesses easy to identify.
So go forth and use benchmarked surveys to get a new perspective on what your team has to say! You won’t know how many – or how few – problems your team has until you do.