EM1: Employee Engagement
Prefill
Eligible
Validation
Other answer is manually validated
2026 Updates
None
Does the entity engage with its employees through training or satisfaction monitoring?
Assessment Instructions
Intent: What is the purpose of this indicator?
This indicator assesses the coverage and scope of the entity’s engagement with its employees through training and satisfaction surveys. Training on sustainability topics reflects the entity’s commitment to building employee capacity to manage complex issues, strengthening human capital and supporting overall performance.
Employee satisfaction surveys help organizations identify internal priorities, engage with staff, and improve satisfaction, which may contribute to better retention and productivity. Using widely applied survey tools can also provide interpretable metrics that support analysis and comparison of results across different firms.
Input: How do I complete this indicator?
Select Yes or No: If selecting 'Yes', select all applicable checkbox(es).
Training
Percentage of employees covered (training)
Both percentages should be calculated based on the following formulas:
Number of employees participating in professional training / Total number of employees at the time of training administration x 100%
Number of employees participating in sustainability-specific training / Total number of employees at the time of training administration x 100%
Surveys
Percentage of employees covered = Number of employees who received the satisfaction survey / Total number of employees at the time of survey administration x 100%
Survey response rate = Number of individual survey responses / Number of employees receiving the satisfaction survey x 100%
Quantitative Metrics: Indicate which quantitative metrics were used for the survey. It is possible to report using the ‘Other’ answer option. Ensure that the ‘Other’ answer provided is not a duplicate or subset of another option.
The percentage of employees covered should be based on Full Time Equivalents (FTE) or headcount. Answers should be applicable at the entity, operator, and/or manager level.
Exceptions
Select Yes or No: GRESB is seeking to standardize the scope and boundaries of reporting to allow for more accurate benchmarking and to progressively move towards scoring of performance. If the scope of the data reported for this indicator does not exactly match the reporting scope (facilities, ancillary activities, and time period) as reported in “Entity and Reporting Characteristics” (EC3, RC3, RC4), then answer ‘No’ to this question and describe these exceptions in the “Exceptions” text box. Please note that if the entity answers 'No', then GRESB will not provide reporting-year performance data intensity values in the Benchmark Report.
Examples include:
Temporal: toll road includes data on energy consumption from its street lighting within its boundary, but due to a data glitch, it lost this data for a two-month period during the reporting year.
Physical: A power plant includes a switchyard facility within its reporting boundary but does not have data on water discharge for this facility.
Operational: An airport includes the operation of mobile equipment within its reporting boundary, but not for aircraft, since these are operated by airlines.
Terminology
Employee(s)
Someone who works directly for the asset and receives compensation in the form of an hourly wage or annual salary for their work. This can be both onsite or offsite (such as in an administration office). Employers typically have to pay specific benefits such as contributions to pensions or taxes for employees. Employees may be either full time or part time and may operate on a short term contract.
Employee Satisfaction Survey
Survey measuring overall and work-specific employee satisfaction at the individual and organizational levels. The survey should directly address employee concerns and include the opportunity to provide recommendations for improvement.
Environmental issues
The impact on living and non-living natural systems, including land, air, water and ecosystems. This includes, but is not limited to, biodiversity, transport and product and service-related impacts, as well as environmental compliance and expenditures.
Governance issues
Governance structure and composition of the entity. This includes how the highest governance body is established and structured in support of the entity’s purpose, and how this purpose relates to economic, environmental and social dimensions.
Independent third party
In the context of survey administration, an independent third party is an external organization that is financially and structurally independent from the reporting entity and is responsible for administering the survey in a matter that safeguards the impartiality, integrity, and quality of survey results. For a survey to be considered third-party administered:
The organization administering the survey must be a separate legal entity from the fund manager or reporting entity.
The administrator must ensure that the reporting entity cannot access, edit, or influence individual responses or aggregated survey results once the survey is launched.
Participant anonymity must be preserved, and the survey process must protect the integrity of the data and the resulting quantitative metrics.
The use of survey development tools, such as SurveyMonkey and SurveyGizmo, may not qualify as an independent third party unless the tool’s service explicitly includes independent creation and administration. This must be clearly specified in the evidence provided.
Net Promoter Score
The Net Promoter Score ® (NPS) is a customer loyalty metric developed by Bain & Company, Fred Reichheld, and Satmetrix. It divides customers, tenants or employees into three segments: passives, detractors and promoters, using the following question “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely would you be to recommend this company (or this product) to friends and colleagues?” The Net Promoter Score ® (NPS) ratings of 9 or 10 indicate promoters; 7 and 8, passives; and 0 through 6, detractors. The NPS is the percentage of promoters minus the percentage detractors.
Overall satisfaction score
An overarching metric in a satisfaction survey, with no prescribed scale, that measures how happy an employee or tenant is with the organization, lease, and/or services provided. The industry best practice is a 1-5 scale - very poor, poor, average, good, and excellent, respectively.
Professional training
Training that supports employees in advancing their careers and/or handling day-to-day work responsibilities. Examples of professional training topics include, but are not limited to: information security, annual compliance, leadership and project management, effective communication, technical tools and software, remote work best practice, customer service.
Training can be delivered in person, online or in other formats.
Social issues
Concerns the impacts the entity has on the social systems within which it operates. This includes, but is not limited to community social and economic impacts, safety, health & well-being.
Sustainability-related training
Training related to environmental, social and governance issues. Examples of sustainability-specific training topics include, but are not limited to: sexual harassment prevention, workplace discrimination and inclusivity, cybersecurity, health and safety, resources and waste management.
Training can be delivered in person, online or in other formats.
Quantitative metric
Any measure or parameter of satisfaction that can be represented numerically.
Validation: What evidence is required?
No evidence required. Only the 'Other' answer is manually validated.
Other Answer
Ensure that the ‘Other’ answer provided is not a duplicate or subset of another option selected. It is possible to report multiple ‘Other’ answers. If multiple ‘Other’ answers are accepted, only one will be counted towards scoring. Answers referring to evidence and/or other indicators will not be accepted.
Scoring
Does the entity engage with its employees through training or satisfaction monitoring?
Scoring: How does GRESB score this indicator?
Materiality-Based Scoring
The relevance of the 'Employee engagement' issue (determined by the GRESB Materiality Assessment (RC7)) defines this indicator's maximum score.
For more details, refer to the Asset Scoring Basics page or download the Asset Materiality & Scoring Tool.
Scoring Of Metrics
The scoring of this indicator is equal to the fraction assigned to the selected option, multiplied by the total score of the indicator.
Percentage number: The coverage percentage reported is used as a multiplier to determine the assigned score for the following metrics:
Percentage of employees who received professional training in the reporting year
Percentage of employees who received sustainability training in the reporting year
Note that the percentage of employees covered in the survey does not act as a multiplier but must be a number greater than 0 to receive the corresponding points.
Other Answer
The 'Other' answer is manually validated and assigned a score, which is used as a multiplying factor, as per the table below:
Accepted
1/1
Not Accepted
0
Duplicate
0
Frequently Asked Questions
Can GRESB recommend any reliable third-party company for the employee satisfaction survey?
Participants have historically used many different third parties to conduct the satisfaction survey. GRESB does not have a particular recommendation for a third-party company. However, it is important to note that the third party must oversee the creation of the content and the analysis of the results of the survey independently from the participant. Therefore, survey development tools, such as SurveyMonkey, are not accepted as third parties.
References
Bain & Company, Introducing: The Net Promoter System®
Alignment with External Frameworks
SAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) - 5.3.1 Training & Development Inputs
SAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) - 5.4.4 Trend of Employee Engagement
GRI Standard 102-43: Approach to stakeholder engagement
GRI Standard 404-1: Average hours of training per year per employee
Relevant UN Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth
8.6 By 2020, substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training
SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production
12.8 By 2030, ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature
SDG 13 - Climate Action13.3 Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning
Get Support: Solution Providers
GRESB Solution Providers are independent, third-party organizations within the GRESB Partner network that offer specialized products, tools, and services to support sustainability performance outside the GRESB Assessment process.
The organizations below deliver commercially available solutions designed to help drive improvement for this indicator. Engagement is managed directly between the reporting entity and the Solution Provider.
GRESB will continue to update this section as the GRESB Solution Provider network grows. Please check back regularly to find GRESB Solution Providers who can support your sustainability performance.
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