Benchmark Editor (EX)

About the Benchmark Editor

Benchmarks are often used to compare your current results to a benchmark standard (e.g., an average for your industry, or a global average). For example, you may have specific goals for your engagement survey scores. You can add in a benchmark to show how you performed against that goal.

Benchmarks are added using the benchmark editor in dashboard settings. Once you add your benchmark data in the editor, you can then add these benchmarks to some of the widgets in your dashboard. Displaying your benchmarks in your widgets will allow you to display the target data you would like your organization to strive for. By easily comparing your actual data to the goal data, you can easily identify gaps in performance or opinions and use this information to make informed decisions on how your company would like to address each gap.

There are different types of benchmarks depending on how you want to present your data. See benchmark types for more information. The type of benchmark you choose determines which widgets you can use the benchmark in.

Benchmark Types

When creating benchmarks, you upload benchmark data for each of your survey fields. You may use different benchmark types depending on how you want to compare data.

There are three different types of benchmarks you can add:

• Dynamic comparison benchmarks are benchmarks that display the most relevant benchmark cut based on org hierarchy data. With this benchmark type, you must associate benchmark cuts with your org hierarchy units.
• Percentile benchmarks contain a set of 100 values (or buckets) for a particular field. A value for a field, such as an average, is calculated from the response data and then the value is looked up in the percentile list to see what percentile bucket (one of the 100 in the list) it falls in, and then the bucket number (1-100) is displayed.
• Comparison benchmarks contain one number per survey field and are usually compared directly with some value calculated from an actual field, using the same metric type (e.g. Top/Bottom Box).

Choosing a benchmark type

Generally, comparison benchmarks are the most common benchmark types since they are the simplest. Each survey question is assigned a benchmark value, and then collected employee data is compared against those values. This benchmark type is the most useful when you are comparing everyone against the same metric.

Dynamic comparison benchmarks are most commonly used when the metric you are comparing against changes depending on the org hierarchy unit you are viewing. This benchmark type allows you to associate benchmark cuts with org hierarchy units, enabling comparisons that change context depending on the employee viewing them.

Percentile benchmarks are used to bucket values into different percentiles. In this benchmark type, you choose 100 different values that correspond to the 100 different percentiles, which then allows data to be presented alongside an appropriate percentile (e.g., my 70% favorable score is in the 80th percentile).

Adding Dynamic Comparison Benchmarks

To create dynamic comparison benchmarks, you must upload a CSV file containing your benchmark cuts and then assign benchmark cuts to your org hierarchy units. This section will cover creating dynamic comparison benchmarks.

1. Open your dashboard and go to Settings.
   
2. Navigate to the Benchmark Editor.
3. Click Add New Benchmark.
4. Select Dynamic comparison for the benchmark type.
   
5. Upload a file will be selected for you. You may only create dynamic comparison benchmarks by uploading a CSV file.
6. Name your benchmark.
7. Dynamic comparison benchmarks may only be the Top Box / Bottom Box metric type. The metric type determines which widgets the benchmark can be displayed in. See widget compatibility for more information.
8. Click Next.
9. Download your project’s file by clicking Click here to download.
   
10. Open the file on a spreadsheet editor on your computer.
11. In the DYNAMIC_COMPARISON_BENCHMARK_CUTS column, enter your different benchmark cut names. For example, you can add benchmarks for different country, sector, or regional norms.
    
12. The remaining columns correspond to your survey questions. Populate each benchmark cut with the associated favorability score for each field. Values should be entered as a decimal representing percent favorability (e.g. enter 0.5 for 50% favorable).
    Qtip: You can leave the column blank if you’d like to exclude that field.
13. Save your file as a CSV file.
14. In the Qualtrics benchmark editor, click Choose File and select the benchmark file on your computer.
    
15. Click Submit.
16. Next, you need to associate benchmark cuts with hierarchy units. Navigate to the Participants tab.
    
17. Go to Org Hierarchies.
18. Click Hierarchy Tools.
19. Select Export Units.
20. Once your file is finished downloading, open it on a spreadsheet editor on your computer.
    
21. Add a new column. The column header should match your newly created benchmark name exactly.
22. Each row in your spreadsheet is a unit. For each unit, enter the benchmark cut name that corresponds to it.
23. When finished, save your file as a CSV file.
24. In Qualtrics, click Hierarchy Tools.
    
25. Select Import Units.
26. Click Choose File and select the unit file on your computer.
    
27. Click Update.

After your benchmark has been added, you can click View next to any question field to see the benchmark cuts for that field.

To add your benchmark to a dashboard widget, see displaying benchmarks in a widget.

Adding Percentile Benchmarks

To create percentile benchmarks, you can upload a CSV file containing your percentiles, or manually enter them in Qualtrics. We recommend using the CSV upload method for percentile benchmarks. This section will cover both methods.

CSV Percentile Benchmarks

1. Open your dashboard and go to Settings.
   
2. Navigate to the Benchmark Editor.
3. Click Add New Benchmark.
4. Select Percentile for the benchmark type.
   
5. Choose Upload a file.
6. Name your new benchmark.
7. Choose the metric for the benchmark. See Widget Compatibility for the metrics you can use.
8. Click Next.
9. Download your project’s file by clicking Click here to download.
   
10. Open the file in a spreadsheet editor on your computer.
11. Add your percentiles in the spreadsheet. If you do not want to include a question, feel free to leave that column blank. However, you cannot have empty rows for a question; if adding a benchmark, you must include all 100 percentiles.
    
12. Save your file as a CSV file.
13. In Qualtrics, click Choose File and select the file on your computer.
    
14. Click Submit.

After your benchmark has been added, you can click View next to any question field to see the benchmark percentiles for that field.
 

To add your benchmark to a dashboard widget, see displaying benchmarks in a widget.

Manual Percentile Benchmarks

1. Open your dashboard and go to Settings.
   
2. Navigate to the Benchmark Editor.
3. Click Add New Benchmark.
4. Select Percentile as the benchmark type.
   
5. Choose Create a new benchmark.
6. Name your new benchmark.
7. Choose the metric for the benchmark. See Widget Compatibility for the metrics you can use.
8. Click Next.
9. Click View next to a question field you want to add benchmarks for.
   
10. Select Edit.
    
11. Enter your percentile scores in the boxes. You must add all 100 percentiles.
    
12. Click Save.

After your benchmark has been added, you can click View next to any question field to see the benchmark percentiles for that field.

To add your benchmark to a dashboard widget, see displaying benchmarks in a widget.

Adding Comparison Benchmarks

To create comparison benchmarks, you can upload a CSV file containing your benchmarks, or manually enter them in Qualtrics. We recommend using the CSV upload method if you have a lot of benchmark data to upload. If you only have a few benchmarks to upload, doing them manually may be easier. This section will cover both methods.

CSV Comparison Benchmarks

1. Open your dashboard and go to Settings.
   
2. Navigate to the Benchmark Editor.
3. Click Add New Benchmark.
4. Select Comparison as the benchmark type.
   
5. Choose Upload a file.
6. Name your new benchmark.
7. Choose the metric for the benchmark. See Widget Compatibility for the metrics you can use.
8. Click Next.
9. Download your project’s file by clicking Click here to download.
   
10. Open the file on a spreadsheet editor on your computer.
11. Enter your benchmark values in the file. The expected format for a comparison benchmark is 0.XX. The widget will interpret this as a percentage. For example, 0.3456 will be shown as 34.56% and 0.02 will be shown as 2%. 1.0 will be shown as 100%.
    
12. Save the file as a CSV file.
13. In Qualtrics, click Choose File and select the file on your computer.
    
14. Click Submit.

After your benchmark has been added, you can click view your benchmark data directly in Qualtrics under your benchmark’s name. 

To add your benchmark to a dashboard widget, see displaying benchmarks in a widget.

Manual Comparison Benchmarks

1. Open your dashboard and go to Settings.
   
2. Navigate to the Benchmark Editor.
3. Click Add New Benchmark.
4. Select Comparison as the benchmark type.
   
5. Choose Create a new benchmark
6. Name your new benchmark.
7. Choose the metric for the benchmark. See Widget Compatibility for the metrics you can use.
8. Click Next.
9. Click your benchmark’s name.
   
10. Select Edit.
11. Enter your benchmark values in the file. The expected format for a comparison benchmark is 0.XX. The widget will interpret this as a percentage. For example, 0.3456 will be shown as 34.56% and 0.02 will be shown as 2%. 1.0 will be shown as 100%.
    
12. Click Save.

After your benchmark has been added, you can click view your benchmark data directly in Qualtrics under your benchmark’s name.

To add your benchmark to a dashboard widget, see displaying benchmarks in a widget.

Displaying Benchmarks in a Widget

After you have successfully added a benchmark source, you are ready to start displaying benchmarks in your widgets. First, begin editing the widget you want to add benchmarks to:

1. Navigate to the Dashboard tab.
   
2. Enable editing on your dashboard by selecting Edit Page.
3. Locate the widget you would like to add your benchmark to. Hover over it and select Edit.
   

The remaining steps differ depending on the type of benchmark you are displaying.

Adding Comparison Benchmarks to a Widget

Follow the instructions in this section to add dynamic comparison and comparison benchmarks to widgets.

1. Scroll to the bottom of the widget editing pane on the right and select Add Comparison.
   
2. Select your benchmark from the dropdown menu.
3. Specify the number of decimal places you would like your benchmark(s) to display and if you would like to show +/- Delta or the Base Value.
   
   Qtip: +/- Delta displays the difference between your benchmark data and your actual data. Base Value will display only the values of the benchmark data.
4. Add additional benchmarks. You can drag and drop the benchmarks by selecting the three lines next to each one to change the order in which they are displayed.

Adding a Percentile Benchmark to a Widget

Follow the instructions in this section to add percentile benchmarks to widgets.

1. Click the percentile icon.
2. Choose the Percentile Source. This is the Percentile benchmark source you created earlier.
3. Under Percentile Bar Options, you may choose a different bar color.

Removing Benchmarks

You can remove a benchmark from a single widget, or remove it from the dashboard entirely.

Removing a Benchmark from the Dashboard

1. Open your dashboard and select Settings.
   
2. Select Benchmark Editor.
3. Select the name of the benchmark source you would like to delete.
4. Select Delete and confirm your action by selecting Yes on the popup window.

Removing a Benchmark from a Widget

1. Navigate to the Dashboard tab.
   
2. Enable editing on your dashboard by selecting Edit Page.
3. Locate the widget you would like to remove your benchmark from. Hover over it and select Edit.
   
4. Scroll to the bottom of the widget editing pane on the right, and under comparisons, select the X next to the benchmark you want to remove. The X will appear when you hover over the benchmark.
   

Widget Compatibility

The type of benchmark you can use (Comparison or Percentile) varies by widget. Not only that, but the Metric that is set when you set up your benchmark (Sum, Average, NPS, etc.) also varies in compatibility. The following tables will display what combinations you can use.

Dynamic Comparison Benchmarks

Comparison Benchmarks

Percentile Benchmarks

FAQs