Lessons learned from the Pilot for project for a LG Employee Engagement Benchmark.
The LGA have supported the development of a Local Government ‘employee engagement index’ (LGEEI) – a set of six questions for all councils to include in their employee surveys to create a benchmark for the sector.
A pilot project supported by over fifty councils to share benchmark data took place in 2024 (1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025). Due to a range of issues only 17 councils submitted data (less than five per cent of the sector). Whilst this was disappointing the decision to continue was overwhelming with councils still keen to progress this work despite the low response.
The main lessons learned were to:
- keep the data collection to a minimum of just the six questions without the further analysis against demographic breakdown of responses as it was deemed to burdensome to provide this data (data definitions were inconsistent for benchmarking purposes i.e. councils used different demographic collection criteria for example ranges for pay etc)
- broaden the data period from three months (originally the pilot aimed to collect data from 1 April to end of September) to 12 months (1 April to 3 March to align to service planning / financial years).
- include the ‘response rate as % of workforce’ as a metric comparator as part of the collection response.
- keep the eNPS question as optional but use question 1 as an equivalent converting it to eNPS where applicable.
- allow councils to submit data for any number of questions (within the six) i.e. if they only use two of the six questions they can still submit this data.
- not create an overall LGEEI index score (cumulation of the six) as a metric as it was deemed unhelpful.
- increase the promotion at a regional level to encourage more councils to take part.
- bring participating councils together to share practice in terms of what they have done with their data to improve employee engagement.
- keep the project open despite the low response rates as councils often undertake surveys at different cycles / every two years / will need more lead in time to add in questions etc.
The LGEEI benchmark will therefore run in 2025-6 with the target of fifty councils to take part this year.
If you council can submit data for previous year (2024) or you wish to take part please send your completed data sheet reference your email with LGEEI Data <year> to [email protected]
Further information
For more information or if you have any questions, please email [email protected]