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

Headquarters: Cincinnati, OH

Employees: 999–2,499

Industry: Payroll

Objective

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

Solutions

Workplace Survey, Insights, and Employer Branding

Results

Increased employee engagement, improved company culture, and 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 people-first company culture and the Top Workplaces program to strengthen employer branding.

“The Energage Platform and Top Workplaces recognition are critical components of our annual strategy. Our engagement score recently jumped by 15 percent. Our associates feel empowered to share their feedback. They want to continue making Paycor a better place to work with us. We’ve found the secret ingredient, and it’s working!”

Audrey Inniger
Senior Manager of Employee Experience at Paycor

Employee feedback improves engagement levels and amplifies recognition

At Paycor, we see three primary benefits of the Energage Platform. First, there’s the feedback component, which impacts how we operate, our strategy, and how we engage and connect with associates. Employee feedback is such a gift and the Workplace Survey helped us increase engagement levels by 15 percent. It’s great to substantial progress and impact.

The second benefit is how we are able to combine our listening strategy 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 major benefit revolves around customers and prospecting. We’re able to go out and position ourselves authentically as a Top Workplace. Showcasing how we invest in our employees and company culture makes a positive impact on new business and talent attraction. 

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

Survey insights strengthen employee benefits and compensation program

Communication is a really important component. To employees, it’s about more than 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 – and everyone appreciates that. 

Paycor leaders respond to feedback with action

We first share the results with our executive team, and they help us to select focus areas based on the employee feedback. 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.

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.

Demographic data reveals opportunity for higher engagement

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.

Recent Top Workplaces awards