On the back of a brilliant 12 months in 2022, and as a definite sign…
A guide to uncovering the valuable employee data already in your organisation – and how to use it.
HR, internal comms and employee engagement professionals. You’ve always recognised the valuable relationship between employee experience and business success. Now, thanks to the pandemic, everybody else can see it, too. Brilliant, right?! But there’s a catch…
C-Suites want hard data, facts and figures to inform their decision-making. And, unlike your counterparts in marketing and sales, few HR and IC teams have a data analyst in their midst. So what can you do? Don’t panic: there’s already a gold mine of employee data waiting to be uncovered; you just need to do a little digging.
Here’s five places to start your search for stats.
1) Never underestimate a survey
A massive 81% of companies carry out an annual survey, so chances are, you already have this huge piece of data, ready to analyse. If you’re waiting to conduct your survey once we ‘go back to normal’, don’t delay – the world as we know it might be on pause, but your employees’ experience is not.
Do: Pull out data that ties in with your key objectives, e.g. questions on wellbeing or learning and development.
Don’t: Wait. If you need data fast, use pulse surveys. Emailing out a single question for managers to use in their team meetings is quick, easy and insightful.
2) Learn from training stats
Course attendance stats are useful, but your C-Suite will want to see ROI. New business growth, innovation, cost savings, increased engagement – look at where there’s cross-over between improvements in these areas and increased training. Find the correlations.
Do: Get the stats from your L&D and Finance teams.
Don’t: Miss out on valuable anecdotal feedback from clients and customers (including internal ones). Can you find examples of the impact employee training has had on customer experience?
3) Check who’s benefiting
What do your employee benefits really mean to your people? According to one study, people who are satisfied with their benefits are 11.5% more engaged than average. But you need to know the story behind the take-up.
Do: Use a pulse survey to find out which benefits people love most (not necessarily those that have highest uptake).
Don’t: Assume everyone knows about all the benefits. Work with your Internal Comms team to promote company benefits with the right campaign.
4) Look outside-in
Recruitment websites such as Glassdoor that allow ex-employees to leave reviews are a brilliant source of data. Make sure you know what’s being said by checking regularly.
Do: Keep a log so that you can report back on monthly trends, and compare it to any exit interview data. Are employees being open and honest? If not, why not?
Don’t: Respond to or share individual comments without having a plan for ‘what’s next’.
5) Follow career paths
What % of your hires are internal? A recent LinkedIn survey found that employees stay 41% longer in companies with high internal hiring, while 60% of businesses say it’s a great way to engage employees.
Do: Get external figures on cost to hire – including loss in productivity.
Don’t: Forget about the power of secondments. These are gaining in popularity as a way to boost retention and engagement.
Make the most of your data
We’re here to help you with all things measurement – from identifying the high value data in your business, to helping set up new measurement frameworks and demonstrate ROI. Drop Lucy McKerron a line for more insight.
