Turn your engagement survey into action people can see, and see where you are losing people
A complete employee listening and retention toolkit for HR teams: listening strategy, survey design, honest results reading, driver analysis, turnover analytics, manager action planning and 'you said, we did', with privacy built in.
- A 10-chapter e-book teaching listening as a system, from survey design to the six weeks after results, with one fictional company running through every chapter
- The Engagement and Retention Workbook: 16 sheets with census import, favourable % by item and group (groups under 5 suppressed), engagement index, driver correlations, a priority matrix, turnover by group, exit reasons, an action tracker and two dashboards
- A 8-sheet Turnover and Retention Risk Calculator and an 8-sheet Listening Strategy Planner, plus 4 fillable PDF forms
- 8 Word templates including 90 survey items, 40 messages and scripts, 10 'you said, we did' templates and 25 AI prompts with limits, plus three cheat sheets, a 29-event calendar and a 28-task CSV
The Engagement and Retention Kit · Bodhih Pro Kits · 222 by Bodhih Training, trainers to 2,000+ companies since 2008.
How do you act on employee engagement survey results?
Read the results honestly (response, spread by group, margin of error), use driver analysis to find low scores that move with engagement, let leaders commit to two or three priorities, give managers results for groups of five or more, agree one to three actions per team and tell everyone 'you said, we did' within six weeks. The Engagement and Retention Kit from Bodhih Training gives you a file for each step.
Want the full free guide first? Read How to Analyse Employee Engagement Survey Results and Act on Them.
You already feel the problem. Here is what it is costing you.
One headline number and nothing else
The index goes into the board pack, staff hear nothing, and next year fewer people answer. The people you most need to hear from stop talking first.
An average that hides a group in trouble
Engagement looks fine overall while one function or site is struggling and losing people. Nobody looked at the spread before the headline.
Twelve low scores and money for two
Every item looks like a problem, so the loudest voice in the room decides. There is no shared way to see which scores matter most.
Turnover numbers that start arguments
One leader quotes a team's leavers, another quotes the company rate, and neither knows whether the people leaving were the ones you wanted to keep.
Managers who dread their results
Results arrive as a ranking, managers feel graded, and team conversations become defensive or do not happen at all.
Privacy you are not sure of
Someone asks for results for a team of three, or wants to know who answered 1 on a question. You know it is wrong but have no written rules to point to.
Picture the next few weeks with the kit open beside you.
Picture the week before launch. You open the Start Here map, type your organisation into the workbook's Settings and publish the confidentiality statement, so when someone asks 'is it really anonymous?' you send a clear, honest answer from the script library.
Now it is the Monday after the survey closes. As you paste the export into the Census sheet, the workbook hides every group under five, shows the spread by function and site, and flags the one group well below the rest. You write the honest headline first, with the margin of error beside it.
Imagine the leadership briefing. You show the priority matrix, the turnover by group and the labelled cost estimate, and leaders choose two or three priorities with owners, plus an honest list of what they will not do this year.
And then week six. Managers have held their team conversations, the actions are on the tracker, and 'you said, we did' goes to everyone on time. Whether you start with the e-book tonight or the workbook tomorrow morning, your next survey starts from trust you have earned.
22 files that do the work for you
The e-book shows you how. The tools make it happen. Here is exactly what you download.
The Engagement and Retention Kit (e-book, PDF)
The guide: methods, worked examples, scripts and exercises
Start here: engagement and retention map
The whole job as ten steps from listening strategy to 'you said, we did', with the file to open at each, your first hour, a 30/60/90 day use plan and links to measure your starting point.
Engagement and Retention Workbook
16-sheet workbook: settings, item results with margin of error, anonymous census import, favourable % by group with groups under 5 suppressed, function-by-site cross-cuts, comment themes, engagement index, driver correlations, priority matrix, turnover by group with regretted and first-year shares, exit reasons, an action tracker and two dashboards with charts. No names anywhere.
Turnover and Retention Risk Calculator
8-sheet calculator: voluntary, regretted and first-year turnover on average headcount by group, ranking against the organisation, a cost estimate with labelled low, central and high assumptions, retention scenarios and a group-level risk view with a chart. No individual flight-risk scores.
Listening Strategy Planner
8-sheet planner: moments that matter from joining to leaving, a channel-by-question matrix that suggests the best fit, a channel register with owners and privacy rules, a 12-month listening calendar, a survey-load check and a dashboard with a chart.
Survey design checklist
One-page fillable checklist to sign off any engagement survey or pulse before launch: items, scale, demographics, confidentiality, suppression, accessibility, translation and timing.
Stay conversation record
Two-page fillable record for a manager's stay conversation: the five questions, what the person said, what the manager can act on, the agreed follow-up within two weeks and themes for HR without names.
Team action planning sheet
Two-page fillable sheet for a manager and team after the survey: team results (groups of 5 or more), what we heard, one to three actions with owner, date and measure, and the you-said-we-did date.
Focus group facilitation guide
Three-page guide and fillable note template for a 60-minute focus group that explores a survey result: planning, ground rules, a timed run sheet with questions, and a themes record with no names.
Survey question bank
90 original survey items in 10 driver groups (engagement outcome, manager, workload, growth, recognition, belonging, leadership, enablement, flexibility, speak-up), 16 marked as a starter census, with 12 item-writing rules, open questions and group questions.
Listening and confidentiality statement
Ready-to-publish survey privacy and confidentiality statement: purpose, anonymous versus confidential, who sees what, the small-group rule, comments, group data, storage and retention, AI use and the escalation route for disclosed harm.
Results briefing pack
Leader briefing and manager results pack templates with a 90-minute agenda, a slide-by-slide outline, 10 honest-reading notes, a manager cover note and a team conversation plan.
You said, we did communication templates
10 ready-to-edit templates for results, action and progress communications: the all-staff results message, 'you said, we did', function and team versions, 30 and 90-day updates, what we will not change, pulse updates and the annual round-up.
Engagement message and script library
40 messages and scripts in 7 groups: before launch, launch and reminders, questions during the survey, manager results conversations, action updates, stay conversations and escalation.
Retention plan for critical roles and regretted-loss hotspots
Retention plan template for a function or the organisation: critical roles, regretted-loss hotspots by group, drivers from the survey and exit data, actions by lever, stay conversations, measures, costs and governance. Group-level, with no individual flight-risk lists.
Worked example pack: from census to action at Larkspur Digital
One fictional 400-person company's census, results reading, driver analysis, turnover analysis, priorities, a completed team action plan, a stay conversation record, the you-said-we-did message and the first 90 days of action, all matching the sample data in the workbooks.
AI prompt pack for survey analysis, with limits
25 tool-agnostic prompts in 6 groups (plan and design, items, anonymised comments, reading results, action and communication, retention), each with what to paste in and the limit to check, plus 6 limits that apply to every prompt.
Driver analysis in plain words
One-page card: what correlation means in survey data, the four quadrants of the priority matrix, what driver analysis cannot tell you and an if-X-do-Y decision table.
Engagement and retention mistakes to avoid
Fourteen common failures (ranking managers on scores, flight-risk lists, no action, benchmark worship, small groups and more), why each hurts, what to do instead and the file that prevents it.
Employee listening privacy notes by country (October 2026)
Dated notes on survey privacy, works councils and consultation, AI rules and analytics limits in the EU, Germany, the Netherlands, France, the UK, the US, India, Singapore, Australia, Canada and five more countries, with the source to open for each.
Annual listening cycle calendar
29 calendar events for one listening year: planning, census launch and close, results, focus groups, action planning, you said we did, stay conversations, three pulses and action reviews, each naming the file to open. Import into a new calendar and move to your dates.
Action planning task board import
28 tasks for the six weeks after survey results, ready to import into Trello, Asana, Notion, Planner or Jira, with week, owner, file to open and due date.
Chapter by chapter
Each chapter opens with a real situation, gives you a method and ends with something to do today, using the tools in your kit.
- Format
- PDF e-book + XLSX + fillable PDF + DOCX + printable PDF + ICS + CSV
- Files
- 22 files plus a one-click ZIP
- E-book
- 61 pages
- Workbooks
- 16-sheet engagement and retention workbook, 8-sheet turnover calculator and 8-sheet listening planner, with sample data, visible formulas and dashboards
- Works with
- Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice, Word, Google Docs, Acrobat Reader, GoodNotes, Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar, Trello, Asana, Notion, Planner, Jira
- Best for
- Organisations of roughly 50 to 5,000 people running a census or pulses, in any country
Listening that leads somewhere
Why most organisations are good at asking and poor at acting, what this kit does, and the ten-step listening loop.
A listening system, not an annual event
Designing listening as a set of channels, each chosen for the question it answers, with one calendar and a survey-load check.
Trust comes before questions
Anonymous versus confidential, the small-group rule of five, comments, consultation and the escalation route for disclosed harm.
Writing a survey people can answer honestly
Eight rules for items people can answer honestly, fixed-list group questions, length and a pre-launch test with real people.
Launching without pressure
Raising response honestly: reasons, time, access and reminders to everyone, never pressure on individuals.
Reading results honestly
Favourable %, the engagement index, response rate and the margin of error, read in the right order: spread before headline.
Driver analysis in plain words
Correlation in plain words, the priority matrix and its four quadrants, and what driver analysis cannot tell you.
Turnover and retention analytics
Voluntary, regretted and first-year turnover on average headcount, exit reasons with coverage, and cost estimates with labelled assumptions.
From results to action in six weeks
The seven steps from results to 'you said, we did' in six weeks, team conversations, focus groups and action tracking.
Stay conversations and retention plans
Stay conversations with five questions and a two-week follow-up, counter-offers, and group-level retention plans for critical roles.
Ethics, AI and the yearly rhythm
Four lines not to cross (flight-risk scores, ranking managers, re-identification, unsafe AI), the yearly rhythm and how to tell if listening works.
What to keep when everything else slips
The four things to keep when everything else slips, and your first hour.
Formulas and definitions
Every formula and definition used in the workbooks, with a worked check.
Where AI helps, and where it must not
Where AI helps in listening and retention work, six rules that apply everywhere and a checklist before relying on any output.
Not just reading. Tools you will actually open again.
E-book
- The Engagement and Retention Kit: 10 chapters, 2 appendices and 6 hand-drawn figures (PDF)
Start here
- 00-Start-Here-Engagement-and-Retention-Map: the job as ten steps with the file to open at each, your first hour, a 30/60/90 day use plan and links to measure your starting point
Spreadsheets
- Engagement and Retention Workbook (16 sheets): Start here, Settings, Items, Census, Results by Group, Group Pairs, Comments, Drivers, Priority Matrix, Headcount, Leavers, Turnover, Exit Reasons, Actions, a Dashboard with 19 live measures and a Retention Dashboard, each dashboard with a chart
- Turnover and Retention Risk Calculator (8 sheets): voluntary, regretted and first-year turnover on average headcount, group comparison and ranking, cost assumptions and estimates, retention scenarios, a group-level risk view and a summary
- Listening Strategy Planner (8 sheets): moments that matter, a channel-by-question matrix, a channel register, a 12-month listening calendar, a survey-load check and a dashboard
Fillable PDF forms
- Survey design checklist: one-page sign-off before any survey or pulse launches
- Stay conversation record: the five questions, the agreed follow-up and themes for HR without names
- Team action planning sheet: team results, what we heard, one to three actions with owners, dates and measures
- Focus group facilitation guide: planning, ground rules, a timed 60-minute run sheet and a themes record
Word templates
- Survey question bank: 90 original items in 10 driver groups, 16 marked as a starter census, with 12 item-writing rules
- Listening and confidentiality statement: ready to publish with your survey
- Results briefing pack: leader briefing agenda and slide outline, manager pack, team conversation plan and 10 honest-reading notes
- You said, we did communication templates: 10 templates for results, actions and progress
- Engagement message and script library: 40 messages and scripts from announcement to escalation
- Retention plan template for critical roles and regretted-loss hotspots
- Worked example pack: one fictional 400-person company from census to its first 90 days of action
- AI prompt pack for survey analysis, with limits: 25 prompts, each with what to paste in and the limit to check
Cheat sheets
- Driver analysis in plain words: correlation, the priority matrix, what it cannot tell you and an if-X-do-Y table
- Engagement and retention mistakes to avoid: fourteen common failures and the file that prevents each
- Employee listening privacy notes by country, dated October 2026
Calendar and import
- Annual listening cycle calendar (ICS): 29 events for Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar
- Action planning task board (CSV): 28 tasks for the six weeks after results, for Trello, Asana, Notion, Planner or Jira
When you have worked through it, you will be able to…
Every outcome is practised with a worked example and a tool, not just described.
- Design a listening system that asks the right people the right question at the right time
- Write a confidentiality statement and small-group rules you can actually keep
- Write survey items people can answer honestly, and keep a trend you can trust
- Read results with response rates, the spread by group and the margin of error
- Use driver analysis and a priority matrix to choose what to explore first
- Calculate voluntary, regretted and first-year turnover and estimate its cost with labelled assumptions
- Lead managers and teams from results to 'you said, we did' within six weeks
- Run stay conversations and build group-level retention plans without flight-risk lists
Know your starting point. Prove your progress.
People who measure before and after improve faster and can show it. AssessAll, our sister assessment platform, has AI-graded assessments that pair with this kit. Take one now, work through the kit, then re-take it.
Employee Engagement Driver and Priority Assessment
Take the assessment →AssessAll assessmentExit and Stay Conversation Assessment for Managers and HR Teams
Take the assessment →AssessAll assessmentSurvey and Questionnaire Design Assessment
Take the assessment →JobularyTurn what you learn into a measured development plan (Jobulary)
Make it a growth plan →A taste of Chapter 5
Every survey result is an estimate. The margin of error tells you roughly how far it could move by chance. For Larkspur's whole-company items, with 296 answers out of 400, it is about plus or minus 2.8 points. The Items sheet of the workbook shows the margin for every item, corrected for the size of your organisation. That correction matters in a census, because a large share of everyone you could ask has answered. Two practical rules follow. First, when you compare two surveys, a change smaller than about 1.4 times the margin is not clear evidence of change: say "about the same". Second, small groups swing. In a team of eight, one person changing their answer moves a score by about twelve points. Never rank small teams, and say "about" whenever you quote them.
The honest comparison
| Free templates and typical advice | This kit | |
|---|---|---|
| Listening | One annual survey | A planned system of channels, each chosen for its question, with a survey-load check |
| Privacy | 'It's anonymous', with no written rules | A published statement, a small-group rule of five built into every report, and an escalation route |
| Reading results | The headline index and a benchmark of unknown origin | Response, spread by group, margin of error and trend, read in that order |
| Choosing priorities | The loudest voice in the room | Driver correlations and a priority matrix, tested in focus groups |
| Turnover | Leavers divided by year-end headcount | Voluntary, regretted and first-year rates on average headcount, by group, with costs labelled as estimates |
| Action | A slide of priorities and silence | Team action plans, a tracker and 'you said, we did' within six weeks |
| Ethics and AI | Flight-risk lists and manager league tables | Group-level analysis, support for managers, AI on anonymised data only, dated country notes |
Made for you if…
- HR business partners and people teams who own the engagement survey
- People analytics leads in small and mid-size organisations who need working formulas, not a platform
- HR and operations leaders worried about regretted turnover in one function or site
- Founders and general managers who want to listen properly without breaking trust
- Organisations surveying people across countries, languages and shift patterns
- Teams who ran a survey last year and want this year's to lead somewhere
Probably not for you if…
- Anyone looking for legal advice: the kit teaches good practice and keeps country specifics in one cheat sheet dated October 2026; check your privacy lead, employee representatives and local law
- Teams wanting survey software: the workbooks analyse exports from your survey platform, they do not replace one
- Readers looking for individual 'flight-risk' scoring: this kit works at group level on purpose
Built by trainers, tested in real rooms.
Bodhih Training has designed and delivered corporate programmes since 2008. Bodhih Pro Kits package what works in those workshops into a guide plus the exact tools we use, so you can apply it the same day without a facilitator in the room.
From here to using it in three steps
- STEP 1
Tap Get the kit
Name, email and country. UPI, card or netbanking in India; international cards everywhere else. No account to create.
- STEP 2
Download instantly
Your download page opens at once, with every file and a one-click ZIP. A permanent link lands in your inbox too.
- STEP 3
Open the first tool
Start with the quick-start chapter, then the main spreadsheet or planner. Most buyers use something from the kit the same day.
Your next survey can be the one people believe in.
Open the Start Here map, type your organisation into the workbook and book the three dates that matter. Whether you begin with the e-book this evening or the confidentiality statement with your privacy lead tomorrow, the first hour is already planned.
Personal licence for the buyer's own use (and use with your own team or clients where the kit says so). Please don't share or resell the files. Team and company licences: solutions@bodhih.com.
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The Bodhih family, when you are ready for more
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250+ AI-graded assessments to measure skills and earn verified credentials.
Jobulary
Individual development plans that start from evidence and stay yours.
Bodhih Training
Run this topic as a live workshop for your team, in person or online.
Pewple
Book a vetted coach for career, leadership or communication. Pay per session.
Bodhih.org pathways
Certification pathways in Applied AI, Workplace English and management.
The Engagement and Retention Kit: FAQs
Read the free guideAlready bought? Resend my linkHow do I analyse employee engagement survey results?
Start with response rates by group, then the spread of scores by group before the headline, then each item's favourable % with its margin of error and trend, then driver analysis to see which low scores move with engagement, and finally comment themes alongside the scores. The workbook does each step with visible formulas and hides any group under five.
What is a priority matrix in engagement surveys?
It plots each driver item by favourable % and by its correlation with engagement, split into four quadrants: Priority, Maintain strengths, Monitor and Lower priority. Priority items, low scores that move with engagement, are the ones to explore first. Correlation is a clue to test, not proof of cause.
How do you calculate voluntary turnover?
Divide voluntary leavers in the period by average headcount over the same period, not year-end headcount. Regretted share and first-year share are then shares of voluntary leavers. The workbook and calculator calculate all three by group and flag groups too small to report.
How do we keep a survey confidential?
Decide whether it is anonymous or confidential and say so honestly, report no group or cross-cut below five, block subtraction, have named people read comments and remove identifying details, and agree the escalation route for comments that disclose harm. The confidentiality statement template covers each point.
How soon should we share 'you said, we did'?
Share headline results within about two weeks and 'you said, we did' within six weeks of the survey closing, with owners, dates and an honest note of what you will not do. The kit includes a six-week task board and ten communication templates.
Can we use AI to analyse survey comments?
Yes, within limits: only anonymised comments, only in a tool your organisation has approved, and a person reads the comments and decides every action. Never use AI to identify writers, score individuals or rank managers. The prompt pack states the limit on each of its 25 prompts.
How do I measure my starting point?
AssessAll offers assessments that match this kit: the Employee Engagement Driver and Priority Assessment, the Exit and Stay Conversation Assessment for Managers and HR Teams and the Survey and Questionnaire Design Assessment. Take one before you start and again after a cycle. Links are on the Start Here map; they are separate products, not included in the kit.
How do I turn this into a development plan?
Choose one or two skills from the kit to build, such as reading results honestly or leading team action planning, and set them out with actions and dates. Jobulary explains how its individual development plans work, and the link is on the Start Here map.
Is this legal or HR advice for my country?
No. The kit is educational and teaches good practice; it is not legal advice. Country specifics on survey privacy, works councils and AI rules are kept in one cheat sheet dated October 2026. Check your privacy lead, employee representatives where they exist, company policy and local law.
Which software do I need?
The workbooks open in Excel, Google Sheets or LibreOffice and use no macros. The forms are fillable in Acrobat Reader and most PDF apps, the templates open in Word or Google Docs, the calendar imports into Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar, and the CSV imports into Trello, Asana, Notion, Planner or Jira.
How much does The Engagement and Retention Kit cost?
₹1,299 including 18% GST for buyers in India, or $34 for buyers outside India. One-time payment, no subscription, with an automatic invoice.
How do I get the files after paying?
Instantly. Your download page opens the moment payment succeeds, and a permanent download link is emailed to you. Download each file separately or everything in one ZIP.
What software do I need?
Any of the usual tools: Excel or Google Sheets for spreadsheets, Word or Google Docs for templates, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Preview, Xodo or GoodNotes for the fillable PDFs, and Google, Outlook or Apple Calendar for the calendar plan.
Can I get a refund?
Because it is a digital download, kits are not refundable once downloaded. We always refund a duplicate charge or a failed delivery, and if a file is corrupted and we cannot fix it within 3 working days. Full terms: bodhih.org/refunds.
Can my company buy this for a team?
Yes. Team and company licences, and workshops on this topic run by Bodhih Training, are available. Write to solutions@bodhih.com or call +91 99000 11601.
