Engagement & performance

Your engagement score is only the beginning.

See where engagement differs, then connect it to performance, turnover, total rewards and the rest of your workforce data to understand what sits behind the score.

Establish the signal

Read the response rate before you read the score.

Engagement is up a few points from last year. But before interpreting the improvement, check the response rate: around two thirds of employees responded, slightly fewer than last year.

Then look beyond the 71. See how the score has changed over time and how people are distributed around the average.

Engagement
Monthly · latest survey · ~5,400 employees
Average engagement score
71
+3 ↑ in one year
Response rate
66%
-2 ↓ in one year
Engagement over time
68 71
Two years agoLast yearLatest
Engagement distribution
Disengaged 1%54
Partially engaged 16%864
Engaged 69%3,726
Highly engaged 14%756
What is the engagement score by function and location?
DepartmentAsiaEuropeNorth America
Customer Support757072
Finance676971
HRn<56872
IT656471
Manufacturing697071
Marketing696973
Operations716972
Supply Chain717071

Break the average apart

The average hides where engagement differs.

Break the same score down by function and location and it runs from the low sixties to the mid seventies. That spread is where the investigation starts.


One region sits above the others in nearly every function. Now you have somewhere to investigate, but not yet an explanation. Role mix, tenure, local conditions and survey timing could all sit behind a gap like that. Keep the response rate beside the score as you go deeper.


Cross it with performance

Are the engaged people the ones delivering?

181 people entered sales roles. 153 left. The result: Cross engagement with performance ratings and the picture changes. High performers average 75 on engagement, above the other performance groups.

Their engagement is also up two points in a year. But over the same period, the number of people rated as high performers fell from 180 to 120. Their engagement is rising while their numbers are falling.

AI summary
High performers average 75 on engagement, but there are a third fewer of them than last year.
Avg. engagement score by performance rating
High
75
Medium
71
Low
66
Company average 71
High performer engagement
Avg. score
75
+2 pts ↑ in one year
High performer headcount
Latest
120
-60 ↓ in one year
Which functions are at risk of losing people?
Engagement score vs. voluntary turnover · bubble size = headcount
Avg. engagement score (12 months)
← lower turnoverhigher turnover →
Operations IT Sales +9 more
Bottom left: disengaged, still here
Bottom right: disengaged and leaving

Cross it with retention

Where do low engagement and high turnover meet?

Plot engagement against voluntary turnover by function and different clusters emerge. Some teams combine lower engagement with higher turnover.


That tells you where to look, not why people are leaving. To understand that, look at the people who actually left.

Look at who left

Were the leavers actually less engaged?

Not in this case. People who left over the last year had similar engagement scores to those who stayed, and rated their managers similarly.

The bigger differences were elsewhere. Leavers had lower relative pay and had been in their roles for less time.


Without connecting engagement to other workforce data, you could mistake a progression or rewards signal for an engagement problem.

How did leavers differ from the rest, before they left?
Voluntary leavers, rolling 12 months
Average engagement score
Leavers
71
Stayers
70
Average manager effectiveness
Leavers
74
Stayers
74
Relative salary position
Leavers
99%
Stayers
103%
Average years in the same position
Leavers
2.1
Stayers
2.8
How engaged is the talent the business depends on?
Succession pool vs. overall population
Successors
68
All employees
71
Critical roles, by successor cover
Covered
73
Not covered
64
Where does that sit by business unit?
Business unit Critical roles Successor cover Engagementcritical talent Voluntary turnover
Aftermarket & Services3482%7416%
OEM & Industrial Systems5164%6916%
Consumer Products2941%6517%
Components & Supply1838%6319%
Overall13258%6817%

Cross it with critical talent

How do the people the business depends on feel?

Filter the same population to the people on the succession plan and the picture changes. Nominated successors sit three points below the company average. People in critical roles without successor coverage score lower still, at 64.


A business unit can look healthy overall while its successors and the people in critical roles tell a different story.

Drill without exposing people

The moment a cell gets small, it stops being data and starts being a person.

Crunchr suppresses small populations before results are shown. The same rules follow the data through drill-downs, exports, reports and Ask Crunchr.


This lets more people work with engagement data without exposing the individuals behind it.

What a suppressed breakdown looks like
Team Headcount Engagement Response rate
Embedded Software1127271%
Demand & Supply Planning867068%
AI Enablement247479%
Privacy & Compliance9Hidden — group below threshold
Information Security7Hidden — group below threshold
Cell suppression below your thresholdSet once per metric family. Survey results usually sit higher than headcount.
Complementary suppressionNeighbouring cells are hidden where a small group could be recovered by subtraction.
Scope follows the person, not the pageManagers see their own line. Employee-level detail needs an explicit permission.
Ask Crunchr
Are our high performers engaged?
Yes. High performers average 75, compared with a company average of 71. But the group is a third smaller than a year ago, and engagement within it is lowest among people who have been in the same role for one to two years.
High performers 75 Company average 71 Managers among them 41% Cells suppressed 3
Or try

Ask the question directly

Don’t want to walk the drill-down? Just ask.

Ask Crunchr answers the questions that come up in a people review. “Where is engagement lowest?” “Are our high performers engaged?” It connects the relevant data and returns the answer in context.


The answers follow the definitions, access rules and privacy protections already in place.