Benchmarking
The Employee Engagement Benchmarks Q1 2025
Gain valuable insights for measuring your team’s engagement levels, drivers, and eNPS trends with our benchmark data – collated from over 500,000 employee responses from various industries and organisations. This data is from January to March 2025 (Q1 2025).
See the latest benchmarking results for your industry*
*Rolling 12 months ending March 2025
See how similar sized organisations are doing*
*Rolling 12 months ending March 2025
Engagement Index
Hive’s Engagement Index is made up of the responses to 3 core questions measuring Pride, Advocacy and Loyalty across an organisation (measured on a scale of 0 to 10 with a result of 7 and above indicating a positive score).
Compare your organisation’s Engagement Index against the benchmark to get a snapshot of how your employees are feeling.
Not sure what your score is? We can help.
The Engagement Index (EI) has dropped slightly from 7.1 in Q4 2024 to 6.9 in Q1 2025, primarily driven by a decline in Loyalty. This dip suggests that employees may be feeling less committed or secure in their roles and could be linked to January being a busy time for people changing jobs. While engagement remains relatively strong, this drop in Loyalty highlights a need for organisations to address factors impacting employee trust and long-term commitment. Why not use Hive’s employee retention question bank in your next survey to better understand what drives long-term commitment, so you can keep hold of your best people for the future?
Employee engagement across industries in Q1 2025 paints a clear picture of where people feel most connected, and where attention is urgently needed.
- Top performers: Professional Services (7.8), Technology (7.8), and Housing Associations (7.6) are leading the way. These sectors consistently show strong engagement. This could be driven by meaningful work, strong leadership, and clear development pathways.
- Struggling sectors: Government (6.4) and Retail (6.4) continue to lag. Low scores may reflect ongoing challenges in these sectors such as recognition, workload, and work-life balance that can impact retention and morale.
High-performing industries are likely investing in culture, communication, and people-led leadership. Meanwhile, lower-scoring sectors may need to focus on trust, psychological safety, and clearer career growth to re-engage teams.
If you’re missing the mark with understanding your engagement challenges, after your survey, Hive Actions helps you focus on what matters most. It links to your Key Drivers and Action Grid so you can quickly spot priorities and take meaningful steps. Start turning feedback into action today.
Across different organisation sizes, the Engagement Index (EI) for Q1 2025 continues to show a distinct trend; smaller organisations lead in engagement, while larger ones face more challenges.
- Smaller organisations (0-250 employees) consistently perform well, with an EI of 7.4 in March 2025. The close-knit environment, where employees are more likely to experience personalised leadership and stronger team collaboration, likely contributes to higher morale and satisfaction.
- Larger organisations (5,000+ employees) continue to struggle with a lower EI of 6.7 in March 2025. As organisations scale, they often face challenges such as communication breakdowns, a lack of individual recognition, and difficulties in maintaining a cohesive culture, all of which can negatively impact engagement.
Top 5 engagement themes to emerge from Q1 2025
1. Confidence, Motivation & Communication (Strategic Direction)
2. Leadership Behaviours
3. Inclusion and Belonging
4. Reward and Recognition
5. Growth and Development
Top 5 engagement themes to emerge from Q1 2025
1. Confidence, Motivation & Communication (Strategic Direction)
2. Leadership Behaviours
3. Inclusion and Belonging
4. Reward and Recognition
5. Growth and Development
Survey Response Rates
Industries are showing clear differences in employee involvement, with some excelling in gathering feedback and others facing notable challenges.
- Hospitality leads with an impressive 85% response rate, indicating strong employee involvement in surveys and a willingness to provide feedback, and could suggest typically psychologically safe environments in this sector.
- Government follows at 79%, reflecting good survey response levels, but there’s still room to optimise processes to capture even more input.
- Manufacturing and Construction show solid response rates at 59% and 58%, suggesting healthy initiatives to drive responses, though there’s potential to boost survey completion and gather more insights.
- Technology struggles with just 22%, highlighting challenges in reaching employees or motivating them to respond to surveys.
These insights underscore that while some industries are successfully involving their workforce in feedback, others must focus on improving their processes for collecting insights and engaging employees in meaningful ways. Prioritising better survey accessibility and fostering a culture of participation will be crucial for driving continuous improvement across sectors.
The response rates across organisation sizes reveal clear trends in employee participation, with larger organisations performing better overall.
- Organisations with 5,001+ employees lead with a 62% response rate, indicating that larger teams often have more robust participation strategies in place.
- Mid-sized organisations (251-500 employees) show a 56% response rate, suggesting good participation but room to optimise engagement further.
- Organisations with 1,001-5,000 employees see a 43% response rate, pointing to potential challenges in maintaining strong connections and communication at scale.
- Smaller organisations (0-250 employees) have the lowest response rate at 38%, which could indicate issues with survey fatigue or less effective survey strategies.
These key takeaways suggest that larger organisations generally excel in engagement with regards to response rates despite their eNPS and EI generally being lower for the quarter, and smaller organisations may need to focus on improving their participation strategies to boost response rates.
employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)
January - March 2025
(Q1 2025)
Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) is an internationally recognised measure of engagement using the question ‘How likely are you to recommend our organisation as a good place to work?’ with detractors, passives and promoters. A positive score means an organisation has more advocates (promoters) than it does detractors. It is measured on a -100 to +100 scale.
What does a good eNPS score look like?
+41 and above is outstanding
+21 to +40 is very good
-10 to +20 is a typical score
-11 and below is a low, concerning score.
In Q1 2025, eNPS trends show clear industry patterns:
Top performers: Hospitality (37), Professional Services (33), and Technology (26) continue to lead, reflecting strong workplace satisfaction.
Improving sectors: Housing Associations (24), Health (21), Manufacturing (18), and Construction (14) show steady growth in eNPS, suggesting positive sentiment and improvements in employee satisfaction.
Struggling Industries: Government (-23), and Retail (-13) continue to face challenges, likely due to workforce dissatisfaction and industry pressures.
The decline in Government and Retail highlights sectors facing significant challenges that need urgent attention, likely due to burnout, structural issues, and compensation concerns. Hospitality, Professional Services, and Technology remain strong and should focus on maintaining their engagement and employee experience efforts to sustain their success.
Employee sentiment varies significantly across organisation sizes in Q1, with smaller businesses generally leading in eNPS, while larger companies face more challenges in driving positive sentiment.
- Top performers: 0-250 employees (24.0) continue to lead in eNPS, slightly lower than their 12-month average of 27.1, likely benefiting to close-knit teams and direct leadership.
- Stable but lower: 251-500 employees (14.0) show stable but lower eNPS, potentially reflecting growing complexities as organisations scale.
- Struggling organisations: 1,001-5,000 employees (4.0) face ongoing employee sentiment challenges, likely impacted by factors such as increased complexity in communication, less personal leadership visibility, or the difficulty of maintaining a unified culture in larger teams.
- Improvement noted: Organisations with 5,001+ employees saw their eNPS rise from 16 to 19, but then decline to 14 across Q1. This fluctuation may indicate challenges such as shifting company culture, difficulties in engaging a large, diverse workforce, or struggles to maintain cohesion as the organisation scales.
Smaller organisations continue to outperform in terms of eNPS, with their close-knit environments leading to higher employee loyalty and sentiment. Larger companies, particularly those with over 5000 employees, are seeing declines in employee sentiment. These organisations should consider improving internal communication, leadership accessibility, and creating a more cohesive and inclusive culture to boost employee morale and satisfaction.
Further analysis from our People Science team
Throughout Q1 numerous free-text questions have been asked to employees so that organisations can deep dive into employees’ thoughts, feelings and opinions surrounding specific topic areas. Of the range of questions asked, the most popular question categories were:
- Enhancing the employee experience
- What makes a great day at work
Enhancing the employee experience
These questions focus on how the company can enhance overall employee engagement, workplace culture, and leadership impact.
Example questions:
- How might we improve employee experience here?
- What is one thing you would like to see the company do differently to enhance your experience as an employee?
- How might senior managers/leaders improve colleague experience here?
Popular themes:
Communication and transparency
Leadership, strategy and trust
Workload, balance and support
Development, progression and recognition
Wellbeing, inclusion and fairness
Wellbeing, inclusion and fairness
Collaboration and teamwork
What makes a great day at work
These questions explore what makes employees feel motivated, fulfilled, and appreciated, including tangible benefits and daily work experiences.
Example questions:
- What makes a good day and makes you want to come to work?
- How would you describe what makes a great day for you at work?
- What is the most important factor in my decision to stay with the organisation?
Popular themes:
Growth, learning and development
Collaboration, relationships and teamwork
Purpose and making a difference
Autonomy, empowerment, and accomplishment
Balance, support and wellbeing
Recognition, pay and stability
Further analysis from our People Science team
Throughout Q1 numerous free-text questions have been asked to employees so that organisations can deep dive into employees’ thoughts, feelings and opinions surrounding specific topic areas. Of the range of questions asked, the most popular question categories were:
- Enhancing the employee experience
- What makes a great day at work
Enhancing the employee experience
These questions focus on how the company can enhance overall employee engagement, workplace culture, and leadership impact.
Example questions:
- How might we improve employee experience here?
- What is one thing you would like to see the company do differently to enhance your experience as an employee?
- How might senior managers/leaders improve colleague experience here?
Popular themes:
Communication and transparency
Leadership, strategy and trust
Workload, balance and support
Development, progression and recognition
Wellbeing, inclusion and fairness
Wellbeing, inclusion and fairness
Collaboration and teamwork
What makes a great day at work
These questions explore what makes employees feel motivated, fulfilled, and appreciated, including tangible benefits and daily work experiences.
Example questions:
- What makes a good day and makes you want to come to work?
- How would you describe what makes a great day for you at work?
- What is the most important factor in my decision to stay with the organisation?
Popular themes:
Growth, learning and development
Collaboration, relationships and teamwork
Purpose and making a difference
Autonomy, empowerment, and accomplishment
Balance, support and wellbeing
Recognition, pay and stability
Keep your finger on the pulse
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