This article is designed for both new and existing Qualee clients.
Benchmarking employee engagement data is a powerful way for organizations to understand how their workforce experience compares to competition and industry standards.
By analyzing key indicators such as engagement scores, participation rates, and various engagement drivers, companies can uncover strengths, identify areas for improvement, and make informed, data-driven decisions.
With Qualee's benchmarking feature, your organization and leadership team can now set actionable goals, track progress over time, and strengthen business cases for culture-focused initiatives.
In this article, we’ll explore how to use the benchmarking feature in Qualee to gain these insights and drive continuous improvement in employee engagement.
How to Enable Industry Benchmarking via the Heatmap
To begin, ensure that the Benchmarking feature is included in your Qualee subscription plan.
Log in to your Qualee Console as an Administrator
Navigate to Reports > Heatmap
Click on the Show/Hide menu and toggle Benchmarks to enable the feature
Heatmap Benchmarking Preview:
Boards Benchmarking Preview:
Note:
Once Benchmarking is enabled, you’ll see an updated color scheme across both your Heatmap and Boards reports. This visual update represents a shift from Qualee’s default internal benchmark to industry-specific benchmarks, allowing for a more meaningful comparison of your organization’s engagement scores.
Qualee default internal benchmark:
Average Score: Measured on a scale of 0 to 10
eNPS Score: Measured on a scale from -100 to +100
Industry Benchmark Color Scheme Guide
Refer to the guide below for a quick overview of the Benchmark color scheme.
Heatmap/Boards Average Score vs. Benchmark Score
Dark Red: 3.0 points or lower (-)
Red: 2.9 points <> 2.0 points lower (-)
Light Red: 1.9 <> 0.6 lower (-)
Grey: 0.5 lower <> 0.5 higher (-/+)
Light Green 0.6 <> 1.9 higher (+)
Green: 2.0 <> 2.9 higher (+)
Dark Green: 3.0 or higher (+)
Heatmap/Boards eNPS Score vs. Benchmark Score
Dark Red: 10.0 points or lower (-)
Red: 9.9 points <> 5.0 points lower (-)
Light Red: 4.9 points <> 2.0 points lower (-)
Grey: 1.9 points lower <> 1.9 points higher (-/+)
Light Green 2.0 points to 4.9 points higher (+)
Green: 5.0 points <> 9.9 points higher (+)
Dark Green: 10.0 points or higher (+)
Industry Benchmark Score by Subdriver(s) - Heatmap only.
By default, the Heatmap & Boards report are displayed by Aggregated Scores of both Drivers and Subdriver(s).
But it is also possible to compare Benchmark Scores vs. Subdriver(s) only, especially when a Primary driver is excluded from the engagement data.
Subdrivers can be displayed separately by:
Going to Heatmap > Show/hide menu
Enable Subdrivers
This will then display the Subdriver's own Benchmark Score rather than the Primary driver's benchmark score.
Tip: Benchmarking is available for any Segments such as:
Location
Department
Team
Gender
Manager/Secondary Managers (manager assignment)
Age (based on employee age)
Employment Phase (based on employee tenure)
Custom Segments (any unique/custom grouping created)
Heatmap Choose Segments preview:
Boards Choos Segments preview:
