How do you benchmark your survey results against industry standards or best performers?

1 Choose your benchmark sources

When benchmarking your survey results, you can use different types of sources. External benchmarks come from other organizations in your industry, region, or size and provide a general overview of average or best performance. Internal benchmarks are from your own organization and provide a historical or comparative perspective. Custom benchmarks are created or selected based on your specific needs, goals, or challenges by selecting criteria such as survey questions, demographics, or performance indicators and applying filters, weights, or adjustments to the data.

2 Align your benchmark criteria

To ensure that your benchmark sources are valid and reliable, you need to align your benchmark criteria with your survey criteria. This means matching aspects such as survey design, population, and timing. For example, use the same or similar survey questions, scales, and formats as your benchmark sources to avoid inconsistencies or biases in the data. If you use different survey designs, you need to convert or normalize the data to make them comparable. Additionally, use the same or similar survey respondents, sampling methods, and response rates as your benchmark sources to ensure that the data represent the same or similar groups. Finally, use the same or similar survey frequency, duration, and dates as your benchmark sources to capture the same or similar conditions and events. If you use different survey timings, you need to adjust or control the data for the variations.

3 Analyze your benchmark gaps

To use your benchmark sources effectively, you need to analyze your benchmark gaps and understand what they mean for your organization. This requires calculating the gaps by comparing survey results with the benchmark sources, interpreting the gaps to determine strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and then communicating the gaps with visual aids and narratives. Simple formulas can be used to calculate the benchmark gaps, such as subtracting the benchmark score from your score or dividing your score by the benchmark score. To interpret the gaps, criteria such as size, direction, or significance can be used. Finally, charts, tables, or graphs can be used to communicate the gaps, along with stories, examples, or recommendations to convey insights and actions.

4 Review your benchmark results

To ensure that your benchmark results are accurate and useful, you should review and update them regularly. Validation is important; you need to check the results and verify that they are based on reliable data, sound methods, and clear assumptions. Monitoring and comparison of the results over time or across different groups is also essential. Finally, you should act on the results and implement changes that will enhance your performance or close your gaps, using strategies like action planning, goal setting, or best practices sharing.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?