Building a great workplace starts with understanding where you stand, but only if you’re measuring against the right benchmarks.
Not every company is ready to benchmark against the best of the best. And that’s okay.
While it’s great to learn from the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For®, comparing yourself to these when you’re still early in your culture journey doesn't just feel discouraging — it makes it nearly impossible to prioritize the right actions, demonstrate progress, or build momentum.
That’s why we created our Journey To Great Benchmarks: a new way to measure your workplace culture against organizations that actually look like yours.
This feature in Emprising™ gives culture leaders the clarity and confidence they need to turn data into action, celebrate meaningful wins, and keep their teams moving forward on the path to becoming a great workplace.
The problem with one-size-fits-all benchmarks
We know that organizations are looking for credible data and benchmarks that reflect their reality, from companies that share similar characteristics, such as location and employee size.
Many of our 22,000+ customers have said they see great business results using the Trust Index™ and that comparing against the 100 Best lists helps to guide their initiatives, but they also need comparison data that reflects where they are in their journeys right now.
Without this data, they face challenges like:
- Difficulty demonstrating meaningful progress – it’s hard to show improvements to decision-makers when measurements are always against top-tier companies
- Goals feeling irrelevant – when benchmarks feel unattainable or don’t reflect your organization’s size or region, it feeds discouragement rather than motivation
- Missing realistic data for strategic planning – you need appropriate benchmarks to inform your strategy, prioritize focus areas, and understand what “good” looks like for your workplace
- Losing competitive advantage – without clarity on where you’re falling behind or where you’re ahead of peers, you can’t identify your organization’s competitive edge
Our new Journey To Great Benchmarks address these challenges, so that businesses can make better decisions, driven by real data.
Benchmarks built for your journey
Journey To Great Benchmarks give you more ways to measure your workplace culture.
Instead of comparing your workplace to 100 Best list-makers, you’ll see how your organization stacks up against Great Place To Work® Certified™ peers at a similar stage in their culture journey, segmented by size and region.
All customers can opt to have Journey To Great Benchmarks added to their account. Once activated, they’ll be accessible within the Emprising platform, so you can access benchmarks alongside your survey results without switching tools. For customers with Analyze and Accelerate subscriptions, this feature can be an especially valuable add-on to your data.
Journey To Great Benchmarks make it easier to spot gaps, prioritize efforts, and build action plans based on what’s working for similar organizations. It also helps you track progress over time and tell a compelling story of growth to leadership — showing that building great culture is a journey, not a destination.
These benchmarks are refreshed annually and drawn exclusively from Certified companies, so you’re always measuring against credible, current data.
4 key benefits of Journey To Great Benchmarks
Think of Journey To Great Benchmarks as your personalized roadmap to building an even greater workplace.
Relevant comparison points
Benchmarks are segmented by company size and region, so you’re measuring progress against your relevant peers rather than outliers.
Smarter action planning
You can use Journey To Great Benchmarks to identify your workplace’s strengths and weaknesses and turn data into clear action plans that drive real business outcomes.
Clarity for leadership buy-in
Journey To Great Benchmarks give credibility and context to your efforts, helping you to demonstrate measurable progress for your executive team.
Accelerate growth
Use the Benchmarks to track incremental improvements, celebrate milestones, and reinforce your commitment to building a high-trust, high-performance workplace.
“Only Great Place To Work combines proprietary data, the credibility of Certification, and decades of trust research to offer benchmarks that are as actionable as they are aspirational.” – Sarah Lewis-Kulin, EVP global recognition and research, Great Place To Work
How to put Journey To Great Benchmarks to work
HR and people leaders can use these benchmarks to inform action planning, identify opportunity areas, and build momentum toward a high-trust culture.
Here are a few ways you can apply these benchmarks to enhance your culture initiatives:
- Demonstrate progress to leadership: Show how your workplace culture is improving relative to comparable Certified companies and prove the value of investing in culture
- Motivate teams: Set targets based on what similar organizations are achieving and celebrate milestones that reflect your current stage rather than aspirational outliers
- Spot competitive advantages: Identify areas where your organization outperforms peers and use this information in your recruiting and retention efforts
Whether you’re preparing for Certification or simply want to improve engagement, Journey To Great Benchmarks offer practical insights to move forward with purpose.
Want to see how Journey To Great Benchmarks can help you on your path to becoming a great workplace? Speak with our team today to find out how you can activate this powerful resource.
Already a customer? See how to get started with Journey To Great Benchmarks.
