How To Benchmark Employee Experience Against Competitors

Knowing how your employees feel about their workplace is only half the picture. The other half is understanding how that experience compares to other organizations in your industry.

A strong engagement score may look encouraging on its own, yet it tells you little about how your workplace experience compares with others competing for the same people. Benchmarking shows where your culture is performing well, where employees’ experiences fall behind industry peers, and where focused action could make the greatest difference.

Here’s how to figure out which metrics are worth tracking, how to gather the most useful internal data, and how to use external comparisons to strengthen retention, culture and employer branding.

Quick Guide: How to Benchmark Employee Experience in 7 Easy Steps

1. Define your benchmarking objectives: Identify specific goals such as reducing turnover or improving engagement scores.
2. Select relevant employee experience metrics: Choose KPIs that align with your culture priorities and business outcomes.
3. Deploy employee satisfaction surveys: Use validated survey instruments like the Great Place To Work Trust Index to gather reliable data.
4. Gather internal baseline data: Calculate current scores across departments, locations, and tenure bands.
5. Identify external benchmark sources: Access industry and regional datasets from research organisations and certification bodies.
6. Analyse gaps and opportunities: Compare your results to external benchmarks and identify priority areas.
7. Create an action plan and track progress: Develop targeted initiatives and measure improvement over time.

How to Compare Your Employee Experience to Industry Standards

1. Define Your Benchmarking Objectives

Before collecting any data, clarify what you want to achieve through benchmarking. Are you trying to reduce voluntary turnover? Improve manager effectiveness? Identify why employees leave during their first year?

Your objectives shape everything that follows. A company focused on retention will track different metrics than one focused on innovation or productivity. Write down two or three specific questions you want benchmarking to answer.

For example, you might want to know whether your onboarding experience matches industry standards, or how your leadership scores compare to top-performing workplaces. These focused questions prevent data overload and ensure your benchmarking effort produces actionable insights.

2. Select Relevant Employee Experience Metrics

Employee experience covers far more than a single engagement score. Employees form their view of work through everyday moments. Do leaders communicate openly, do managers treat people fairly? Do career opportunities feel accessible, are contributions are recognized?

Great Place To Work’s Trust Index Survey gives organisations a consistent way to measure those experiences. It assesses workplace culture through five dimensions: credibility, respect, fairness, pride and belonging. The results give leaders a detailed view of what employees experience across the organization, with data that can be segmented by team, location, tenure and role level.

Instead of collecting disconnected metrics, you can see how your results compare with relevant industry, regional and Best Workplaces benchmarks. The same survey can be repeated over time, so leaders can track whether culture initiatives are improving the employee experience where it counts.

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3. Gather Internal Baseline Data

Before comparing your employee experience with other organisations, you need a clear view of what is happening inside your own workplace. An overall score can be useful, but it rarely tells the full story. Experiences often differ by team, location, tenure and level of seniority.

The Great Place To Work Trust Index Survey helps leaders examine these differences in detail. Results can be segmented to show where trust is strong and where particular groups may be having a markedly different experience. A healthy organization-wide result can sit alongside lower scores in one business unit, or among newer employees, creating a clear case for targeted action.

This internal baseline also makes external benchmarks more meaningful. When you can see which groups are driving your results, you can compare the right data with relevant industry, regional and Best Workplaces benchmarks, then focus improvement efforts where they will have the greatest effect.

4. Identify External Benchmark Sources

External benchmarks answer the question: “Is our score typical, strong, or weak relative to peers?” Several sources offer credible comparison data.

Industry benchmarks aggregate data from organisations in your sector. These control for market-specific factors like compensation norms and talent competition. Geographic benchmarks account for cultural differences that affect survey responses across regions or countries.

ALSO READ: Workplace Culture Benchmarks, What Top Companies Measure

Great Place To Work Certification gives you access to benchmark data from thousands of organizations, including the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For. This allows you to compare your Trust Index scores against top-performing workplaces globally.

Choose benchmarks that match your organization’s size, industry, and geography as closely as possible. A 200-person technology company should compare itself to similar workplaces, not global conglomerates.

5. Analyse Gaps and Opportunities

With internal data and external benchmarks in hand, identify where your organization outperforms, matches, or falls below industry standards. Focus on meaningful gaps rather than small statistical differences.

A five-point gap on a 100-point scale may fall in normal variation. A 15-point gap signals a real issue worth investigating. Great Place To Work data shows that organizations scoring in the top quartile for trust see employees who are 46% more likely to give extra effort and 38% more likely to plan to stay long-term.

Look for patterns. If multiple trust dimensions score below benchmark while others exceed, you have identified specific focus areas. Pair quantitative gaps with qualitative feedback from open-ended survey questions to understand root causes.

6. Create an Action Plan and Track Progress

Benchmarking without action is just measurement. Translate your gap analysis into specific initiatives with owners, timelines, and success metrics. Start with two or three high-impact areas rather than trying to fix everything at once.

For each initiative, define what success looks like. If manager trust scores lag the benchmark, you might set a target of closing half the gap within 12 months through leadership development programs. Measure the same metrics in subsequent survey cycles to validate improvement.

Share results and action plans with employees. Research shows that participation in future surveys increases when people see that previous feedback led to genuine change.

Why Does Employee Experience Benchmarking Matter for Talent Retention?

In competitive talent markets, job seekers compare employers before applying. A 2023 market study found that candidates were 15 times more likely to choose a company certified as a great workplace by its employees. Benchmarking gives you concrete data to compete for that talent.

Internally, benchmarking helps you allocate resources where they will have the most impact. Rather than guessing which culture initiatives matter, you can invest in areas where you genuinely lag peers. This data-driven approach to culture management prevents wasted effort on low-priority improvements.

Benchmarking also creates accountability. When leadership sees how employee experience metrics compare to industry standards, culture becomes a board-level conversation rather than an HR side project.

What Metrics Should HR Leaders Track for Competitive Benchmarking?

Not all metrics serve benchmarking equally. The most useful metrics meet three criteria: they can be measured consistently, they correlate with business outcomes, and external comparison data exists.

Trust-based metrics capture the quality of relationships between employees, managers, and the organization. The Great Place To Work Trust Index assesses credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and belonging through 60 validated statements.

Operational metrics track tangible outcomes. Voluntary turnover rate, 90-day retention for new hires, internal mobility rate, and time-to-productivity all offer benchmarking potential.

• Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS): Measures likelihood to recommend your organization as a place to work
• Trust Index Score: Assesses the five dimensions of high-trust workplace culture
• Voluntary Turnover Rate: Tracks departures segmented by tenure band
• 90-Day Retention Rate: Measures onboarding effectiveness
• Internal Mobility Rate: Indicates career growth opportunities

How Great Place To Work Helps You Benchmark Employee Experience

Great Place To Work has partnered over a million organizations around the globe over 30 years to measure, benchmark, and improve workplace culture. The Trust Index Survey captures the full employee experience across five dimensions that research shows drive retention, productivity, and profitability.

When you survey with Great Place To Work, you gain access to exclusive benchmark data from the Best Workplaces globally. You can compare your scores against the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For, industry peers, and regional norms. This context turns raw scores into strategic insights.

FAQs About Employee Experience Benchmarking

How often should you benchmark employee experience?

Annual benchmarking captures broad trends, but quarterly pulse surveys give you timelier data. Great Place To Work recommends combining annual Trust Index Surveys with shorter pulse checks throughout the year. This approach balances depth with responsiveness to changing workplace conditions.

What is a good employee experience benchmark score?

Good varies by metric and industry. For eNPS, scores between +10 and +30 indicate healthy employee advocacy. For the Trust Index, scores above 70% typically qualify for Great Place To Work Certification. More important than hitting a specific number is tracking improvement over time.

Can small companies benchmark employee experience effectively?

Yes. Great Place To Work Certification is available to organisations with as few as 10 employees. Small companies should focus on three to five core metrics and compare against similar-sized peers. The Trust Index Survey norms include benchmarks segmented by company size.

What is the difference between internal and external benchmarking?

Internal benchmarking compares results across your own teams, locations, or time periods. External benchmarking compares your results to other organisations. Both add value. Internal benchmarks reveal bright spots you can replicate. External benchmarks show whether your overall experience is competitive.

How do you ensure employee survey data is reliable for benchmarking?

Use validated survey instruments with consistent questions and scales. Great Place To Work Trust Index questions have been tested across millions of respondents globally. Ensure adequate sample sizes and communicate confidentiality clearly to encourage honest responses.

What should you do after identifying benchmark gaps?

Translate gaps into specific action plans with owners and deadlines. Start with two to three priority areas. Share findings and plans with employees. Measure the same metrics in subsequent cycles to validate that your initiatives are working. Great Place To Work Certification tracks your progress year over year.