A quick guide to employee engagement scheme reporting

Whether it’s a benefits programme or a reward and recognition scheme, for any business that launches an employee engagement platform, consistent scheme reporting is essential. Why? Because data extracted from your platform can generate a transparent and reliable snapshot of your scheme’s performance.

This data, otherwise known as Management Information (MI), can be formatted in a number of ways which offer varying degrees of insight. It’s therefore useful to have an understanding of these different data outputs so you can act on trends, make comparisons, forecast the future and optimise your scheme to get the best value.

So, here’s our quick guide to employee engagement scheme reporting. We will give you a break-down of the different data outputs you’re likely to access, and how each one can be used to benefit your scheme analysis.

Online MI is the easiest method of accessing scheme data. Whether you have a benefits platform or a reward scheme, your admin portal will provide a useful surface-level glimpse of the activity and engagement of employees.

For a platform like our advantage benefits and discounts solution, our clients simply log in using their admin details and they then get full access to pre-configured data that displays key scheme variables. This will include stats on number of logins, amount spent and most popular retailers, for example.

While this only provides a first glance of scheme performance, it’s the most accessible and convenient way of retrieving scheme data. You get an instant snapshot of how many people are interacting with your scheme and which elements are popular amongst employees. This is useful information that can then be investigated further if necessary.

The instant nature of online MI mean that it’s also particularly useful for analysing the impact of communications. For instance, let’s say you send out an email communication to all employees notifying them of a new offer on your benefits platform. Once the email has been sent, you can then log into the platform straight away and see, in real time, whether it has generated a spike in engagement. If, for example, a large number of employees logged in straight after the email went out, you know your communication has been effective. If they haven’t, you can then assess your communications approach and make changes to improve it going forward.

To get a more in-depth and detailed view of your scheme’s performance, raw data is the most beneficial type of MI. Every single data variable embedded in your platform is taken into account and exported into a spreadsheet as raw figures. This information can then be picked apart and analysed in greater detail.

Why is this MI format useful? Being able to extract this degree of data means that you get a comprehensive statistical report that logs every single action that has taken place on your platform. From this information, you can then drill down into it to draw comparisons between different areas of your business.

For platforms like ereward, raw data is especially useful because it delivers an accurate picture of how different teams, departments and locations are interacting with the scheme. For instance, one department might be allocating reward points to well-performing employees on a regular basis and therefore showing high levels of engagement, whereas another department might not be allocating reward points at all. This kind of information is therefore useful in the decision-making process of any scheme and can help improve engagement across the board.

A visual representation of MI, infographics provide a tailored summary of scheme data and focuses on specific areas which are aligned to a business’ Key Performance Indicators. This type of MI reflects both online and raw data but homes in on the areas that categorically display how a scheme has performed over a fixed period.

To use advantage as an example, an MI infographic would usually include the overall login count, overall spend, amount saved, number of orders, a click analysis of key pages and an overview of shopping information which highlights the top retailers for that given period.

Presented in a format that is transparent and easy to comprehend, infographics are particularly useful when key data is requested from stakeholders and senior team members. Infographics are easy to present and clearly illustrate a fixed notion of how a scheme is performing, showing no doubt about what is going on in terms of registration numbers, spend, and overall engagement.

We produce and deliver this data for our clients on a monthly basis because it’s a useful tool that can be adjusted and re-worked to fit around their specific goals and requirements. Clients can define what data gets included in their infographic and this is something that can be altered as time goes on and their scheme develops.

Management Information is instrumental in helping employers and providers (like us) monitor and measure the performance of an employee engagement platform, from benefits and discounts, to reward and recognition. For us as an employee engagement provider, it also allows us to be wholly transparent so we can spot areas of improvement and develop our solutions accordingly.

Hopefully our quick guide on employee engagement scheme reporting has given you a clear idea of how it can come in different formats and subsequently provide varying levels of insight.

Check out our recent blog to find out, in further detail, how scheme data can provide business insight.

If you’d like to find out more about our solutions, why not book a demo? We’d love to show you what we do.