Hundreds of thousands of people change jobs every year – and chances are that some of your colleagues and employees are currently looking for new opportunities. There can be many reasons for this, which is why it’s important to understand how well your workplace is doing in retaining and attracting talent compared to other companies your colleagues might consider.
A key indicator of this is employee well-being and motivation – something you can gain insight into with a GAIS survey. That’s why GAIS has developed a brand-new Live Benchmark
GAIS Live Benchmark
With GAIS Live Benchmarks, companies can track developments in employee well-being and compare them directly to trends in their industry. As the name suggests, Live Benchmarks are continuously updated with real-time data, providing you with a current and accurate comparison.
Moreover, Live Benchmarks offer more granular comparisons across various industries and company types.
In addition to GAIS Live Benchmarks, you can also benchmark against your own previous GAIS reports and the research-based benchmark from the God Arbejdslyst Index. For clients with specific needs, we also offer fully customized benchmarking options.
A reflected and balanced approach to benchmarking
Benchmarking provides an objective foundation for assessing how your organization is doing compared to others in the same industry. It helps place your internal well-being data in a broader context and offers a solid perspective on your standing relative to competitors.
Benchmarking allows you to identify areas worth exploring: Why are you scoring lower on a particular factor than your peers? Why are you doing better in other areas? By examining how others approach employee well-being, you can adopt strategies that have proven effective elsewhere and use them as inspiration for your own development.
Key considerations when working with benchmarks
Beware of superficial comparisons:
Be cautious about drawing quick conclusions based on surface-level comparisons. Different companies have unique strategies, cultures, and challenges, and direct comparisons can sometimes paint a misleading picture.
It’s not a static truth
When interpreting a benchmark, it’s important to account for contextual factors – such as industry-specific conditions, market trends, and internal changes. The labor market is constantly evolving, and so is your industry and organization. Things could look quite different just a few months from now.
Focus on quantitative results:
While quantifiable data is helpful, it doesn’t always capture the nuanced aspects of well-being. It’s crucial to combine benchmark insights with qualitative input – such as comments and feedback from GAIS – to gain a complete understanding of your workplace culture.
Risk of negative cultural impact:
Consider the kind of culture you want to encourage. An excessive focus on comparisons can create an environment that’s overly concerned with what others are doing instead of focusing on your own efforts. Sometimes, what matters most isn’t what others are doing, but what you want to improve and achieve yourselves. Benchmarking should support, not undermine, your company’s values and culture.
Strategic Prioritization
Benchmarking helps identify areas that require attention or improvement. It can guide resource allocation and strategic planning so that your efforts are focused where they’re most needed or where the greatest potential for positive change exists.
But identifying the largest gaps between your results and the benchmark is just the beginning. The common pitfall is assuming that the biggest gap should automatically be your top priority. While it might be, it could just as easily be that your most important area of focus is the third-largest gap.
You may have strategic priorities that differ from your competitors. Or your GAIS focus map, in the company report, may show that your employees value other factors more highly. That’s why benchmarking should always be combined with other analytical tools – not used blindly as the sole basis for strategic decisions.
External benchmarking vs. Internal development
External benchmarking provides valuable insight into where your company stands relative to similar workplaces. But even more important is focusing on internal development. Comparing your current results to your own past performance is the most meaningful benchmark for understanding your trajectory over time. This is something you can directly influence, unlike what’s happening in other organizations.
By analyzing your progress since the last measurement, you can identify what worked, what could be improved, and how different initiatives have impacted employee well-being. This focus helps build a culture where continuous development and progress are central. Essentially, it’s benchmarking against your own past.
The purpose of GAIS Live Benchmarks is to inspire clarity around the goals and methods you set for your development – not to encourage a competition over who has the best well-being scores. But by looking beyond your own organization, you gain a broader perspective that can enrich the conversation around priorities, goals, and actions.
If you have questions about how to get started with GAIS Live Benchmarks, feel free to reach out at support@gais.dk.
Start strengthening employee well-being
Let’s have an informal conversation where we explore how the GAIS platform can support your needs and goals.
With GAIS, you can easily begin collecting continuous feedback from your employees – enabling you to take targeted actions, boost engagement, and improve employee retention.
