What's Working™ - Using Employee surveys to drive business decisions

Because each organization is unique, organizations need to measure workforce viewpoints using employee research. Yet internal surveys by themselves are not sufficient if organizations are to develop meaningful insights they can use to form their human capital strategies. Results must be analyzed in light of normative data and, when available, historical data to develop a more complete assessment of engagement.

Mercer’s What’s Working™

As part of our commitment to providing clients with research-based solutions, Mercer’s employee research group conducts a series of national studies around the globe, entitled What’s Working™.

These studies allow us to analyze national trends regarding employee perceptions and to identify the key drivers of employee engagement – by country and on a global basis.

Norms to help you design and evaluate your surveys

The What’s Working research is then used to both design our clients’ internal research studies and evaluate their specific employee survey results. The norm comparisons, combined with Mercer’s key driver analysis, provide a powerful methodology to determine interventions that will have the greatest impact on employee engagement – and ultimately on business performance.

Engaging employees to drive business success

Substantial research has been undertaken that supports the theory that when employees are engaged, service quality, customer satisfaction, employee retention, productivity, and financial performance improve.

The What’s Working studies provide insight into workers’ attitudes and the factors that drive employee engagement. The results are based on:

Data collected from a statistically valid sample representative of the national workforce in each country by age, gender, job level and industry.

Sophisticated analysis that includes both conjoint analysis to identify what employees value most and regression analysis to identify key engagement drivers and other important correlations.

The survey's 100+ questions elicit views in the areas of:

Work processes
Ethics and integrity
Quality and customer focus
Immediate manager
Communication
Performance management

Work/life balance
Rewards (compensation and benefits) and recognition
Job security and career growth
Leadership and direction
Teamwork and cooperation
Training and development

Mercer's Survey Navigator: quickly get the results you need

While most organizations do some form of regular employee sensing, many struggle with post-survey results analysis and action plan implementation. This is driven by the overwhelming amount of data that a survey can create.

The Mercer Survey Navigator is a powerful desktop tool that allows users to quickly and easily explore their employee survey results, as well as compare their findings to Mercer’s What’s Working™ global normative data.

The Survey Navigator’s user-friendly interface quickly guides the user to key areas of strength and opportunity, both in terms of the organization’s own survey history and relative to country and industry norms.

The interface walks the user through a step-by-step process to access the exact data they wish to see. In a few simple clicks, users can quickly sort through hundreds or even thousands of data cuts to find exactly what they’re looking for and export the views they’ve created to PowerPoint or Excel.