When we commenced measuring organisations for Best Companies Accreditation way back in 2006, we’d already collected and analysed sufficient data to understand that the overall size of an organisation had an influence on the engagement data we were collecting. We have always been careful to keep organisations of different size bands separate in the Best Companies lists and we understood the importance of allowing for the size banding of an organisation to ensure that overall accreditation was consistent and fair to all.
We have now surveyed millions more employees across thousands of organisations and have studied in detail how the size of an organisation (as measured by its headcount) affects the responses of its employees to individual survey items. As a result we have been able to refine our calculations to take into account the influence of headcount not only on an organisation’s engagement score (BCI) but also on its scores at factor and statement (question) level.
What is headcount adjusted scoring?
Headcount adjusted scoring takes the average score for each statement and removes the influence of headcount from the score for that item. Some statements are more sensitive to headcount than others so the headcount adjustment that we apply differs between the statements in the survey and is based on previous data collected using the same statement.
How headcount adjusting scores affects BCI
Because we are now able to implement our headcount adjusted scoring at statement level, we are able to apply this correction to each factor as well as the overall BCI ensuring that even small fluctuations in headcount are taken into account in all of our scoring, allowing for more meaningful comparisons between organisations of all sizes.
The benefits of headcount adjusted scores
Headcount adjusted scoring enables organisations to benchmark their scores against other organisations regardless of their size. This provides clients with the opportunity to compare against a greater number of organisations than was previously possible.
Another benefit to headcount adjusting scores is that it improves comparability when viewing surveys over time, as any fluctuations in headcount between surveys will not influence the scores. This removes the uncertainty on whether changes in the engagement score were due to fluctuations in headcount.
How comparisons will be made with data from previous surveys
It is helpful to understand the engagement journey over time to be able to see what impact various changes in strategy may have had. To do this, you need to be able to compare scores in a like-for-like way. Therefore, for surveys completed after 1st September 2020, our reporting tools will remove the influence of headcount on all previous years’ scores as far back as September 2016 so that like-for-like comparisons can be made.
This will not affect any scores or accreditations your organisation may have already received. Your organisation’s actual scores and accreditation ratings will remain as they were originally stated.
This downloadable presentation contains full details of Headcount Adjusted Scoring and calculations, please click the image below to access the document ...
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