Many of our clients ask about benchmarks because their leaders often want to know how they compare with other companies. In the work of DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), our analysis of equity focuses on internal benchmarks within your workforce. As such, our priority is to highlight the patterns of responses across demographic groups at your company. We will identify how inclusion scores vary among different segments that you prioritize (e.g., gender, level, etc.).
For overall inclusion pillar scores and inclusion competency scores, Pulsely provides your organization’s percentile score. Grades for each pillar are based on percentiles of all employees participating in Pulsely's Inclusion assessments. The mean response of your employees is compared to the mean response of employee responses globally. Overall grades are important, but the patterns of experiences among groups will indicate organizational strengths and inclusion gaps.
Identifying and addressing those inequities before they become a liability is a priority. After implementing solutions, you will then measure your progress toward closing those gaps and continue to monitor and re-prioritize your other metrics. Making progress toward your goals is the ultimate purpose of benchmarking.
We do not provide more specific benchmarking because we have seen that when leaders are provided with external benchmarks, one of three things happens:
- If your scores surpass the benchmarks, results can provide a false sense of reassurance and “mission accomplished” when there is still work to be done.
- If your scores align with the benchmarks, despite being just as “bad” as other companies, leaders can lose a sense of urgency.
- If your scores are below the benchmarks, leaders will ALWAYS find a way to doubt the relevance of the benchmarks to their business blaming region, size, industry, timing, etc.
Of course many companies find that benchmarking against their competitors is a useful motivation. One important caveat is to not let the results of external benchmarks provide a false sense of reassurance. Being a leader in a lagging industry is nothing to brag about. All it takes is one committed competitor to make progress and you have lost your advantage; without momentum it may take you longer than you expect to regain your leadership position.
