The New Data Smart HR Leaders Use to Guide the Business

How HR Leaders Can Use Industry Benchmarking to Deliver Strategic, Predictive Insight.

Employees often leave with the belief that there’s something better out there.
More flexibility. Better Managers. More opportunity. Better career advancement.

You may hear the exit reason, but without market context, you don’t know if it’s an organisation-only issue, a localised team problem, or a symptom of something bigger.

The reality is: your employees, whether they are actively looking for a new role or not, are already comparing their experience and your culture to what’s on offer elsewhere. They know what other employers are promising. They feel the culture at interview. They’ve heard from recruiters and hiring managers, and talked to peers.

But do you know how your organisation actually compares when it comes to employee experience and cuture? Most HR leaders don’t.

They’re flying blind with no external visibility and no way to know if their employee experience and culture is above average, below, or falling behind their competitors for talent.

You can truly lead the experience conversation if you do know how you compare.

Many HR leaders are now moving beyond internal engagement and exit surveys and are starting to deliver external, segmented benchmarking data that shows exactly how your employee and leaver experience stacks up in the market – all in real-time and automated. By role, skill, department, gender and more.

This is opening the door to more strategic, predictive conversations with the business.

Here’s how.

1. Give Your Executive Team a Real-Time SWOT Analysis of Your People Experience & Culture

Leaders don’t just want scores, they want signals and comparisons.
They want to know:

Where are we ahead of the market?
Where are we vulnerable to poaching?
Are there parts of the business where experience is a risk to retention?

Benchmarking gives you that SWOT.
By comparing your data against other employers hiring similar talent, you can show:

The departments or role types where culture and engagement are lagging versus the market
Where your EVP lands strongly (and why)
How leaver motivations in your business compare to the wider market

This positions you as a consultative advisor — not just a data reporter.
You’re not just tracking attrition.
You’re showing where it’s likely to happen, and what to do about it.

2. Surface Trends That Help the Business Compete for Talent

Using segmented benchmarking, you can compare experience by:

Role type
Department
Gender
Location
Employment type

This lets you zero in on hotspots that would otherwise be hidden in averages.

For example:

Female engineers in your organisation may be rating the experience 20 points lower than the industry benchmark — without benchmarking, your score may look fine, with benchmarking it provides reality versus your competition.
Leaver feedback in the Sales team may mirror what’s happening elsewhere — but in Marketing, the top reason is not the same across other marketing departments.
You may discover your flexible work score is high — but in certain teams, it’s well below market

This level of insight helps your HR team lead the conversation on experience, equity, inclusion and retention — using data the business hasn’t seen before.

3. Move From Reactive to Predictive People Strategy

Most HR dashboards focus on what’s already happened.
But benchmarking opens the door to predictive insight.

You’re no longer asking: “Why did they leave?”
You’re asking:
“How likely are others to leave — based on how our experience compares to the market?”

And you can provide clear, actionable recommendations to leaders:

“Here’s where we’re at risk of losing talent”
“Here’s what competitors are doing better in this area”
“Here’s where we lead — and can leverage that more”

You become the source of strategic foresight — not just operational reporting.

Final Thought

Your employees already know what the market looks like.
They’ve heard the recruiter pitches.
They’re following Glassdoor and talking to friends.

The only question is:
Do you know how your employee experience and culture stacks up — where it matters?

Benchmarcx gives HR leaders a clear view of the external landscape — segmented, de-identified, and built for action.

Because the grass might be greener.
And with the right data, you’ll know exactly what to do about it.

➡️ Visit www.benchmarcx.io to see how HR leaders are using benchmarking to lead more strategic conversations.