When it comes to understanding how your people feel, eNPS and traditional engagement scores are great places to start. They’re simple, widely used, and easy to benchmark. But as your organisation grows and evolves, so too should the way you measure engagement.
That’s where custom indexes come in — and with Hive’s enhanced Question Bank, building tailored insights has never been easier.
Why we use eNPS and the Engagement Index (EI)
eNPS has long been the go-to for a quick pulse on employee advocacy. It’s a simple question: How likely are you to recommend our organisation as a good place to work? The resulting score is easy to understand and globally benchmarked, making it a great starting point for gauging sentiment.
A positive score means an organisation has more advocates (promoters) than it does detractors. It is measured on a -100 to +100 scale.
What does a good eNPS score look like?
+41 and above is outstanding
+21 to +40 is very good
-10 to +20 is a typical score
-11 and below is a low, concerning score
But eNPS alone doesn’t capture the full picture. That’s why we use Hive’s Engagement Index (EI) — a set of expert-designed, benchmarked questions that capture key drivers of engagement, such as purpose, recognition, development, and belonging. These questions dig deeper into how employees feel and why.
Why the EI matters:
- It provides a consistent baseline to measure against over time.
- It unlocks benchmarking insights across companies and industries.
- It helps HR and leadership teams identify where to act.
Hive’s Engagement Index is made up of the responses to 3 core questions measuring Pride, Advocacy and Loyalty across an organisation (measured on a scale of 0 to 10 with a result of 7 and above indicating a positive score). Not sure what your score is? We can help.
These questions provide a broader, more meaningful insight into employee experience and can be benchmarked across industries, locations, and team sizes.
Custom Indexes: Making engagement personal
Not every organisation wants to measure the same things. While eNPS and EI provide valuable consistency, custom indexes let you zero in on what matters most to your culture, strategy, and goals.
Using the Question Bank, you can now:
- Create your own questions
- Combine them with EI questions
- Group them into a custom index via Hive Support
- Track them consistently across heatmaps and dashboards
Examples of Custom Indexes (with EI integration):
- Leadership Trust Index
“I trust the leadership team at [Company].” (Custom)
“I feel confident in the future of the organisation.” (Custom)
“Senior leaders communicate openly and transparently.” (Custom)
Remember: For these to be counted as a Custom Index , you’ll need to include all 3 Engagement Index questions:
“I rarely think about looking for a job with another company”
“How likely are you to recommend our organisation as a good place to work?”
“I feel proud to work for this organisation”
2. Wellbeing Index
“The organisation provides a suitable level of support for my wellbeing” (Custom)
“I can maintain a healthy work-life balance.” (Custom)
“My workload feels manageable.” (Custom)
Remember: For these to be counted as a Custom Index , you’ll need to include all 3 Engagement Index questions:
“I rarely think about looking for a job with another company”
“How likely are you to recommend our organisation as a good place to work?”
“I feel proud to work for this organisation”
- Belonging & Inclusion Index
“I feel a sense of belonging at [Company].” (Custom)
“My identity and background are respected here.” (Custom)
“People from all backgrounds have equal opportunities to succeed.” (Custom)
Remember: For these to be counted as a Custom Index , you’ll need to include all 3 Engagement Index questions:
“I rarely think about looking for a job with another company”
“How likely are you to recommend our organisation as a good place to work?”
“I feel proud to work for this organisation”
Why use EI questions in your Custom Index?
One word: benchmarking.
Hive’s Engagement Index questions are tried, tested, and benchmarked across a wide range of companies and industries. By including these in your custom index, you get the best of both worlds — tailored measurement and comparative insight. You’ll be able to see how your results stack up not just internally over time, but also externally against your peers.
Using the Question Bank and Custom Indexes
Your Question Bank is where flexibility meets structure. Here’s how to use it to take control of your engagement strategy:
- Add your own questions
Tailor your surveys with custom questions that reflect your unique culture, challenges, or strategic goals. Whether it’s leadership effectiveness, innovation, or remote team dynamics — it’s your call. - Mix and match with Hive’s EI questions
Don’t lose sight of benchmarking. Including EI questions gives you access to comparative insights while still capturing what’s specific to your team. - Build a Custom Index
Choose the questions you want to track as a group. Think: a Wellbeing Index, Leadership Index, or Culture Health Index. These indexes show up in your dashboards and heatmaps, helping you visualise performance over time. - Work with Hive Support
Right now, custom indexes are set up via the Hive team — just reach out and we’ll help you define and implement your index. (Self-service functionality is coming soon!)
Hive’s Custom Index
At Hive, we believe measuring engagement should be simple, insightful, and flexible. That’s why our core Engagement Index focuses on three evidence-based questions:
Loyalty: “I rarely think about looking for a job with another company.”
Advocacy: “How likely are you to recommend our organisation as a good place to work?”
Pride: “I feel proud to work for this organisation.”
These questions reflect three core outcomes of engagement: emotional connection, present-day commitment, and willingness to advocate.
Why three?
Rather than overloading surveys with a long index, we’ve chosen a lightweight, research-backed model that:
- Supports high response rates and faster pulses
- Enables consistent benchmarking
- Leaves room for customisation with additional questions
It’s a balance: depth where it matters, flexibility where it counts.
Building on the foundation
Our three-question index is a strong starting point—but we know it’s not the whole picture. You can strengthen insight by adding custom questions or building your own Custom Indexes (e.g. wellbeing, leadership trust, autonomy). This gives you:
- A stable core for trends and comparisons
- A tailored layer of questions aligned to your culture and strategy
Enhancing each dimension
Each index item has its limits. To deepen insight, pair them with targeted questions:
- Pride: Add questions on day-to-day experience, leadership, and recognition.
- Loyalty: Explore future intentions and career growth.
- Advocacy: Include trust, inclusion, and psychological safety questions.
You can also:
- Use comments for qualitative depth
- Segment results for better targeting
- Track over time to spot real change
Hive’s three-question Engagement Index gives you a strong, simple foundation—backed by research and built for action. And with Custom Indexes, you can go deeper, your way.
Need help getting started? We’re here for that too.
Why custom indexes matters
Custom indexes and a flexible Question Bank aren’t just about adding more survey options — they’re about making engagement data work harder for everyone. When you measure the things that are most relevant to your people, you unlock insights that are more actionable, more meaningful, and more aligned with your organisation’s goals.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
For people teams:
You’re not just running surveys, you’re shaping the employee experience. With the flexibility to design and track your own metrics, you can align your data with your people strategy. Whether you’re focusing on wellbeing, psychological safety, DEI, or manager effectiveness, custom indexes help you measure what actually drives engagement in your organisation — not just what’s easiest to measure.
Example: Want to track how your new hybrid working policy is landing? Create a “Flexibility & Autonomy Index” and monitor sentiment over time.
At Enginuity, the People Team created Custom Indexes focused on wellbeing and inclusion—two areas they knew were critical to employee engagement. These indexes gave managers visibility into seasonal patterns, like dips in wellbeing during particularly busy periods, and helped them respond quickly with targeted support.
Empowering managers with this insight marked a big shift. They now have direct access to engagement data and can build local action plans based on what their teams are actually saying. It’s helped move engagement from being an HR initiative to something managers actively own—and it’s had a real impact, including a significant increase in eNPS.
For leaders:
Data-driven decision-making is only as good as the data behind it. By combining benchmarked EI questions with your own focus areas, you get a well-rounded view: how your teams compare externally, and where your internal culture is evolving. This helps leadership teams prioritise investments, identify cultural strengths, and respond quickly to emerging challenges.
Example: Noticing a dip in belonging across remote teams? A targeted index can help pinpoint what’s missing and where to act.
For employees:
When survey questions reflect real workplace experiences, not just generic measures, people feel heard. Custom questions make surveys more engaging and relevant, leading to higher participation and better-quality feedback. Over time, this builds trust and shows employees that you’re asking about what they care about, not just ticking a box.
Example: Employees who see wellbeing questions tailored to their work-life balance are more likely to believe that leadership genuinely cares.
Bringing it all together
Every organisation is different, and so is what drives engagement within it. Whether you’re just starting with eNPS or ready to build custom indexes that reflect your strategy and culture, Hive gives you the tools to measure what matters most. With the new Question Bank, you’re no longer limited to generic surveys or one-size-fits-all metrics. You can ask better questions, gain sharper insights, and track what’s truly meaningful, all while keeping benchmarking in sight.
Because when your measurement strategy reflects your values, your people feel it, and that’s when real engagement begins. Need help getting started? Our experts are on-hand to help guide you with the right questions.
