Equiniti

Equiniti’s implementation of monthly engagement tool Peakon and its use of the findings to drive meaningful, transformational change across the business was lauded by the PMAs judges – who also crowned Equiniti winner of the Best Health and Wellbeing Initiative – Private Sector, and Best HR/L&D & OD Team of the Year – Private Sector – as being “a clear example of a strategic people analytics journey with a strong business case behind it”.

But it wasn’t just Equiniti’s implementation of a tool that clinched the award. “You did more than just use a popular platform well – you demonstrated innovation,” the judges said. “You extended the platform’s functionality by strategically partnering with your vendor to implement your requirements ahead of their product roadmap. You took a scientific approach to drive meaningful impact across the business and innovated along the way.”

Before the launch of the monthly surveys, the annual engagement survey wasn’t giving sufficient insight to managers and the people team or given priority, and leaders weren’t being held accountable for their teams’ engagement. 

Peakon was introduced, and people reporting was standardised across divisions to create consistency, empowering HR business partners with the same insights viewed by executives. New engagement data enriched the pack and divisional leaders could be held to account across a range of metrics, including engagement. 

Focused analysis – combining engagement scores, performance review completion, absence, attrition and more – was used to identify patterns of low-performing managers. This group was tasked to put in place action plans for improvement and offered targeted support from their own manager and the people team where needed. High-scoring managers were buddied with low-scoring equivalents to share best practice.

Root cause analysis into EQ’s ER cases revealed managers weren’t always recording cases correctly or following HR process/policy properly, causing confusion and delaying support for staff. In response, a major review streamlined 126 regional policies into 30 global policies. A global handbook was launched to tie this work together. 

The result was an increase from 51 per cent of leaders entering engagement action plans in 2022 to 97 per cent of leaders engaging with feedback in Peakon in 2023; an increase in performance review completion rates (from 90 per cent in 2022 to 96 per cent in 2023); and 831 action plans created to address staff feedback in 2023. 

“Sustaining an impressive response rate of more than 90 per cent is a testament to the strength of the two-way dialogue within the business,” the judges added.