TalentMap | Knowledge Base
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  • Getting Started
  • STEP 1: PREPARE FOR ACTION
    • Executive Driven Survey Overview
    • Timelines and Deliverables
    • Schedule a Meeting with your Consultant or Project Manager
    • Stategic Assessment Session
    • Prepare for Action FAQ
      • Who will be responsible for different aspects of the project?
      • What kind of support can we expect during each phase of the survey process?
      • What are the recommended timelines for various project phases?
      • When should we schedule the questionnaire design call?
      • What kind of access will we have to the online reporting tool?
  • STEP 2: DEVELOP QUESTIONNAIRE
    • Questionnaire Design
      • TalentMap Employee Engagement Questionnaire
      • 5-Point Rating Scale
      • Response Scale From Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree
      • Length of an Employee Engagement Questionnaire
      • Determining Areas of Importance
      • Employee Net Promoter Score
    • Questionnaire FAQ
      • Can we customize the standard questionnaire?
      • How can we incorporate our specific themes or categories into the survey?
      • Can we add questions about our organization's mission, vision or strategic plans?
      • Which benchmark should we choose?
      • How do I sign off on a survey?
      • What is the difference between engagement and satisfaction?
      • Where should we place demographic questions?
      • Will the survey questions change in the future?
      • When you use the term “we” in the questionnaire, who does this refer to?
      • Can we change the scale so that Strongly Disagree is the last option?
  • STEP 3: PRE-SURVEY COMMUNICATION & SETUP
    • Participant Information File
      • Change Date of Birth and Length of Service to Ranges
    • Email Whitelisting
      • Compass Email Whitelisting (DIY)
    • Survey Communications
      • Comprehensive Guide To Survey Communications
      • Pre-Survey Email Communication Package
      • Promotional Posters
      • Employee Info Sheets
      • Engagement Survey Invitation Email
      • Exit Survey Invitation Email
      • Entry Survey Invitation Email
      • PIN Survey Invitation Email
    • Response Rate Strategies
    • Pre-Survey FAQ
      • Is the survey confidential?
      • How can we effectively communicate the survey to our employees?
      • How long should the survey be open?
      • Can I make changes to my PIF?
      • What methods are available for survey distribution?
      • Should we include new employees in our survey?
      • Should we survey contract or term employees?
      • What languages are available for communications material?
      • How long does it take to program my survey?
      • Are there standard invitations for Pulse surveys?
      • Why am I getting invalid entries in my import log?
  • STEP 4: DEPLOY EMPLOYEE SURVEY
    • Monitor Response Rates
    • Survey Live FAQ
      • How often are survey response rates updated?
      • Can I save my responses and complete the survey later?
      • Can responses be changed once submitted?
      • Can I extend my survey?
      • My survey link is not working what do I do?
      • We had bouncebacks, can you send the survey to them immediately?
      • What reports will our organization have access to?
  • STEP 5: ANALYZE, INTERPRET & REPORT
    • Compass Reports
      • General
        • Filter Data
        • Bulk Export
      • Snapshot
        • Webpage
          • Snapshot Report Overview
          • Sort Data
          • Compare to Overall
          • Compare to Other
          • Hide Benchmark and / or Previous Period
        • Export to PowerPoint
          • Export Response Rate
          • Export Lookup / Lookdown
          • Export Heatmap
          • Export Key Driver Analysis
          • Export AI Comment Summaries
        • Export to Excel
      • Heatmap
        • Heatmap Overview
        • Heatmap Previous Period
      • Comments
        • Comments Overview
        • AI Comment Analysis
          • Ask Comment Questions
          • Comment Summary & Suggestions
          • Search Comments by Meaning
        • Comment Settings
          • Hide Words & Phrases
            • Import Hidden Words or Phrases
          • Comment Dimension Score
          • Sentiment Analysis
          • Minimum Words & Random Sample
          • Auto-Translate
        • Word Cloud
          • Word Cloud Overview
          • Word Cloud Settings
          • Import Stop Words
        • Export to Excel
        • How to Handle and Distribute Verbatim Comments
        • FAQ
          • How should disclosure of employee comments be handled?
          • Who has access to comments in Compass?
          • How is AI data handled?
      • Insights
      • Correlations
      • Prepare Reports for Senior Leadership
      • Reporting FAQ
        • How should I analyze the survey results?
        • What is key driver analysis?
        • What is Pearson correlation?
        • What size group is required to do driver analysis?
        • Why do some scores total over 100%?
        • What is the purpose of the neutral option?
        • What is the minimum participation percentage to achieve statistically valid results?
        • Should we focus on dimensions with low scores?
        • How does report filter confidentiality work?
        • Can I turn off the confidentiality similarity warning message?
        • Can I filter by questions in the survey?
    • Compass Admin
      • Results
        • General
          • Enable Results for Reporting
          • Edit Demographic Report Labels
          • Update a Survey Title
        • Participants
          • Edit Participant Information
          • Remove Participant(s) From an Email Campaign
        • Survey Items
          • Customize Survey Items
          • Convert a Survey Item into a Demographic Filter
        • Benchmarks
        • Previous Period
        • Snapshot Customization
        • Dashboard Editor
        • Assign Access
      • Users
        • Permissions
        • Add a User
        • Log In with Microsoft Account
        • Assign Restricted User to a Report
  • STEP 6: DISCUSS, CLARIFY & PLAN
    • TalentMap Reports
      • Scouting Report
      • HR Preview
      • Executive Presentation
      • Additional Presentations
      • TalentMap Report FAQ
        • What’s the difference between a preview and a final executive presentation?
        • High satisfaction vs low engagement (or vis versa)?
    • Post-Survey Consulting Services
    • Focus Groups
      • Conduct a Focus Group
      • Focus Group Invitation Email - Template
    • Management Resources
      • Improve Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace
      • 360 Leadership
      • Employee Onboarding
      • Stay Interviews
      • Exit Interviews
      • One-on-One Meetings
  • STEP 7: COMMUNICATE & TAKE ACTION
    • Communicating Results
      • Constructive Strategies for Leaders with Low Scores
    • Action Planning
      • Organization vs. Leadership Action Plans
        • Pitfalls to Avoid When Action Planning for Senior Leaders and Managers
      • Develop an Action Plan
      • Create Action Teams, Documentation and Implementation
    • Action Planning Resources
      • Before You Start
        • Action Planning Quick Wins
        • 6 Steps to Successful Action Planning
        • Plan for Action Planning Difficulties
        • Proven Action Planning Tips
      • Tactical
        • How to Start Action Planning
        • Action Plan Framework Guide
        • Action Planning - How To Guide
        • Action Planning Checklist
        • Action Plan Template
        • 3 Post-Survey Action Planning Tactics
    • Action Plan Library
      • Compensation
        • Bonus Pay Or Incentives
        • Determining Fair Compensation
        • Total Rewards Packages
      • Customer Focus
        • Build Loyalty, Not Delight
        • Making Customer Feedback Work for You
        • Translating Competition into Improvement
      • Diversity & Inclusion
        • Employee Resource Groups
        • Mentoring Program
        • Multicultural Potluck
        • Sensitivity Training
      • Growth & Development
        • Develop Cross-Training Programs
        • Implementing Job Shadowing Programs
        • Increase / Improve Training
        • Instituting Regular Career Pathing Conversations
        • Professional Development Plans
      • Immediate Management
        • Avoid Switch-Tracking When Given Feedback
        • Developing Emotional Intelligence
        • Fika: Creating Genuine Connections Over Coffee
        • The Pomodoro Technique
      • Information & Communication
        • BLUF Your Way to Better Communication
        • Stand Up for One Another
        • Want Better Groupwork? Talk Less
      • Innovation
        • Establishing Innovative Onboarding
        • HR Analytics
        • Mental Health Coaching
      • Mental Health
        • Lunch-n-learns
        • Stress Audit
        • The Canine-Colleague Culture Connection
        • Volunteer Program
      • My Role
        • Autonomy Advances the Workplace
      • Performance Feedback
        • Improved / Better Communications
        • Set Clear Goals
        • Utilize the Right Technology
      • Safety
        • Fitness Challenge
        • Health and Safety Committee
        • Health Fair
        • Kick the Sit Out of Work
      • Senior Leadership
        • Develop Empathy Superpowers
        • Embracing Change in Long-Term Thinking
        • Evangelizing Your Vision
        • Hosting a World Cafe Session
        • Increasing Visibility
        • Integrating Vision to Boost Engagement
        • Setting Ambitious and Realistic SMART Goals
        • Understanding Communication Styles
        • Use Storytelling to Share Your Vision
      • Systems & Resources
        • Investing in Technology
      • Teamwork
        • Clarifying Roles
        • Project Management Tools
        • Reward Excellent Teamwork
      • Work Environment
        • Adapting to Open Office Environments
      • Work/Life Balance
        • Enforced Digital Downtime
        • Flextime
        • Focus on Productivity Not Hours
  • DIY SURVEY DESIGN & DEPLOYMENT
    • Compass Questionnaire Design (DIY)
      • Getting Started (DIY)
        • Build a Survey
        • Style a Survey
        • Test a Survey
        • Pulse Survey Overview
        • Getting Started With Logic (Branching)
      • Compass Survey Design (DIY)
        • Build
          • Question Types
          • Add a Question
          • Require a Question
          • Add Text / Instruction
          • Page Title and Description
          • Copy & Paste
          • Reorder Questions
          • Reorder Pages
          • Copy a Survey
          • Skip Logic
          • Question Logic
          • Restore "Undo" a Question or Page
          • Textbox / Long Answer Character Limit
          • Post a Survey Link
          • Disable a Question
        • Style
          • Add Logo
          • Text Options
          • Preview Survey by Device or Language
          • Choose Respondent Interaction
          • Hide Progress Bar
          • Hide Page Titles, Descriptions, and Question Numbers
        • Test
          • Survey Diagnostics
          • Invite Others to Test
          • View Comments Made by Survey Testers
        • Tools
          • Rename a Survey Title
          • Text & Translations
            • Change Required Text, Messages, and More
            • Add Translation
            • Test Translation
            • Share A Translated Survey
            • Reuse Translations for Standard Messaging
        • Design FAQ
          • Why is there a red asterisk on my question?
          • How do I add or remove page breaks?
          • How can I design surveys to be more accessible?
          • Why is my question title and/or answer option blank?
          • Why Is the font for some of my survey questions different?
          • Why are the option buttons not displaying in my survey?
          • What is a thank you page?
    • Compass Survey Deployment (DIY)
      • Create an Email Campaign
      • Hide Unsubscribe Link
      • Upload Participants
      • Repeated Participant Email Upload
      • Add Reminder or Thank You Emails
      • Add Image to Email
      • Change Email Font
      • Test Email Campaign
      • Convert UTC Time
      • Resend a Survey Link
      • Source Tracking
      • Rename an Email Campaign
      • Close a Survey
  • GENERAL
    • FAQ
      • How do I escalate an issue?
      • When will I receive an invoice?
    • Product Updates
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    • ISO 27001
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  1. STEP 7: COMMUNICATE & TAKE ACTION
  2. Action Plan Library
  3. Customer Focus

Translating Competition into Improvement

We all like a bit of friendly competition, right? Well, competition can feel awfully personal too, especially if it’s your business that’s on the line. But by using knowledge of a competitor productively, you not only avoid getting thrown off your game but can even improve how your organization operates. Think of competitors as learning opportunities: thanks to them, you can assess your own performance in ways you might not think of otherwise.

Goal

Translate what you know about a competitor into meaningful growth that makes you better suited to thrive.

What is Translating Competition into Improvement?

Like any good business practice, assessing the competition is simply a matter of using available information to guide your business smartly. It doesn’t involve subterfuge or industrial espionage: think of it more like due diligence, in which you learn as much as possible about another organization to see how healthy their operation is. But the point is not to work out whether they’ll succeed – it’s to work out whether – and how – you will. You want to avoid making rash decisions as a result of what you learn: swerving to avoid obstacles is much more dangerous than calmly changing lanes. Instead, use research about competitors to spur your organization into smart decisions you might have otherwise missed.

How does Translating Competition into Improvement improve employee engagement and culture?

Competition is always good for the customer, but you have to work hard to make it good for you. First, as a rule of thumb, the better you treat your employees the better they’ll treat you (as in, your organization), and so the more opportunities you have to tweak your operation the better it will be for colleagues. Second, learning from competitors and showing employees you’re introducing smart changes– or avoiding bad changes – gives them extra confidence in your organization, reducing the potential for them to skip across the road in search of greener pastures. You want to be able to retain your best people, regardless of what competitors are offering.

What are the benefits?

Competitor research is a vital way of assessing the marketplace and, by extension, helping you provide customers with more of what they want and less of what they don’t.

How do you conduct Translating Competition into Improvement in the workplace?

Without any competition, you would have no motivation to grow. Nor would you know how to, because you would not have anyone learn from. So it’s important to see competitors as opportunities, not threats. You can even, if in a position of relative safety, exchange ideas and collaborate with competitors, to mutual benefit, even if just in informal ways. That said, you don’t want to become so comfortable that you ignore the potential for your organization to be overtaken or put out of business, whether by existing competitors or someone new you never saw coming. Cultivate a respectful attitude toward competitors, but always take seriously the threat they can pose.

Action

Learn About Them to Learn About You

Let’s assume you’ve done your research about your competitors. You know about their prices, their profit margins, their market share, even the personalities of their CEOs and senior execs. Most of all, you know what they do well and what they don’t. So how do you turn that knowledge from something either reassuring or threatening into something that makes you a better competitor yourself?

One useful approach is to sort what you learn into three categories:

  1. Do something better Of course, anything the competition does better than you is an area you need to improve on. Customers know when companies are mimicking each other, however, and you don’t want to be a copycat by adopting a competitor’s approach without adding anything of your own. Find a way to do something better that you previously did worse, a way that can tip the advantage back to you and draw more customer attention. Think of Apple – they’re not often the first to do something, but when they eventually enter a market it’s usually with the most polished offering available.

  2. Do the best, better This area is where you already have market advantage. While your competitors may or may not realize that from their own research, either way they’re on the back foot. The tendency may be to gloat or simply relax in these areas, redirecting attention elsewhere, but have you heard the story of the tortoise and the hare? Don’t slack off too soon! Think of an area where you’ve been especially successful compared to the rest of the field. Keep on innovating in that area: that’s your company’s signature. Protect and expand on that distinction.

  3. What you both do the same way Here’s a tricky one. Maybe you both have it right. Or, maybe you’re both opting for the most conventional approach. Make a list of what you and your competitors do the same. Choose one aspect on the list as a possible option to help you push ahead of them. Don’t start with items in this category, but don’t neglect it either.

The bottom line is that you should just improve in all three categories. How is this really helpful then? Well, hopefully categorizing strengths and weaknesses will reveal something you would not have otherwise realized about how you do business. It may give you an opportunity to capitalize on a previously untapped area or shore up a leak where you’re getting badly beaten. Competitor research, really, is just one more way of researching yourself.

Lastly, remember that no one stays in business without customers. It’s not about beating the competition so much as it is about earning the customer’s trust. If you give them what they want, they’ll come to you. If someone else does it better, they’ll go there. Keep customer focus as your goal whenever you look at the competition, and you’ll avoid getting caught up in hasty decisions or competition mind-games, putting you in a more stable position for the future.

Reference Material

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