They Asked, We Listened: How Paycor Uses Employee Feedback to Drive Employee Engagement

Headquarters: Cincinnati, OH

Employees: 999–2,499

Industry: Payroll

Objective

Implement a listening strategy, improve engagement, and connect with associates

Solutions

Energage Workplace Survey, Insights, Employer Branding, Pulse, Premier Support

Results

Increased employee engagement, improved company culture, and Top Workplaces employer-of-choice recognition

For over 30 years, Paycor’s human capital management (HCM) platform has helped leaders solve organizational problems and modernize people management. Paycor uses the Energage platform to improve its company culture and the Top Workplaces program to strengthen employer recognition.

“Our engagement score has increased year over year, but since December 2020, it jumped by 15 percent. Our associates feel empowered to share their feedback to continue making Paycor a better place to work. We’ve found the secret ingredient, and it’s working!”

Audrey Inniger
Senior Manager of Employee Experience at Paycor

“Our engagement score has increased year over year, but since December 2020, it jumped by 15 percent. Our associates feel empowered to share their feedback to continue making Paycor a better place to work. We’ve found the secret ingredient, and it’s working!”

Audrey Inniger
Senior Manager of Employee Experience at Paycor

The primary benefits Paycor gets from Top Workplaces

For us, there are three important things. First, there’s the feedback component, which impacts how we operate, our strategy, and how we engage and connect with associates.

The second is how we combine our listening strategy and Energage Platform with Top Workplaces employer recognition. It provides us with a sense of pride, and ultimately enables us to continue to build our brand. We see that impact when it comes to candidates and applicants, as well as employees.

And third is customers and prospecting: We’re able to go out and position ourselves authentically as a Top Workplace to show how we invest in our employees and company culture.

The value Workplace Survey feedback brings to Paycor

Employee feedback is such a gift. The survey was the foundation for us to really go out and start gathering feedback. Our engagement score has increased year over year, but since December of 2020 it has increased by 15 percent. It’s great to see what we’re doing and how we’re acting on that. Employee feedback is working, there’s some magic in the water.

How Workplace Survey helped Paycor to strengthen its employee benefits and compensation program

Communication is a really important component. To employees, it’s more than base pay – it’s about personal development. Survey feedback revealed a need to expand our benefits program and make our talent recruitment more inclusive. We gather feedback by asking our employees what’s most important to them, and act on those items. We’re focused on the entire employee experience, not just salaries.

How Paycor uses Energage Insights

Insights helps us turn survey feedback data into intelligence we can act on and continue to measure. It gives us a meticulous plan for understanding, sharing, and acting on associate feedback.

We first share the results with our executive team, and they help us to select focus areas based on the employee feedback. We also share results with leaders of each function so they can choose additional hot spots in need of action.

Then we focus on communicating continuously about the actions we take in between surveys. In fact, we created a “You Asked, We Listened” badge, a recognizable graphic that signifies to our associates that they asked for the initiative, we listened, and then acted on their feedback.

An example of how Paycor utilized Insights to overcome a challenge

In 2021, we saw a lower engagement score for women. That data helped us make a concentrated effort to enhance the experience and engagement for women in the workplace. We had Woman’s History Month activities, doubled down on our women’s employee resource group, and we launched a development accelerator for women within the organization.

Because of this effort, we saw engagement increase with our female associates by eight percent between fall of 2021 and fall of 2022.

What Paycor leaders are saying:

Top Workplaces helps us identify and continue to  build our strong brand. We can position ourselves  authentically as a Top Workplace that invests in our associates and culture. We see a positive impact in attracting candidates and applicants, especially as we continue to broaden our reach.”

Nathan Peirson
Senior Vice President of Talent and Experience at Paycor

“The Energage Platform and Top Workplaces recognition are components of our annual strategy. It’s not just something that we do as a service. It’s part of our focus to enhance our employees’ experiences and improve engagement along the way.”

Audrey Inniger
Senior Manager of Employee Experience at Paycor

“The Energage Platform and Top Workplaces recognition are components of our annual strategy. It’s not just something that we do as a service. It’s part of our focus to enhance our employees’ experiences and improve engagement along the way.”

Audrey Inniger
Senior Manager of Employee Experience at Paycor

Recent Top Workplaces awards

Energage and USA TODAY partner to publish Top Workplaces USA