Analysis Finds Meaningful Relationship With EEI, Employee and Customer Satisfaction Scores
Across the 17-industry, 49-publicly held company study, companies with higher EEI scores generally also produced stronger Glassdoor employee ratings and customer satisfaction scores, although the relationship was noticeably stronger in customer-facing and knowledge-based industries than in sectors driven primarily by patents, commodities, or regulation.Big Box Retail Shows One of the Clearest Patterns
High Tech Also Shows Strong Alignment
Restaurants and Consumer Brands Show a More Nuanced Picture
Biotech Reveals the Most Important Exception
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One of the clearest findings from the analysis of the companies in the Enterprise Engagement Alliance EEI™ (Enterprise Engagement Index) is that companies showing strength across productivity, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and growth simultaneously also tend to produce the strongest
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overall long-term performance profiles. The evidence suggests that the EEI framework may be capturing something broader than simple profitability alone. Companies with stronger EEI scores frequently also demonstrate stronger stakeholder indicators independent of the financial metrics themselves.At the same time, the exceptions may be even more important than the correlations. When companies generate extraordinary financial productivity while employee or customer indicators lag peers, the results often appear tied to patents, pricing power, scale, regulation, network effects, or temporary market advantages rather than fully durable stakeholder alignment.
That may ultimately be one of the most valuable uses of the EEI framework: not simply identifying winners but pinpointing where operational performance and stakeholder signals diverge. One of the most important questions in the Enterprise Engagement Index analysis is whether the financial and productivity metrics underlying the EEI also align with independent stakeholder indicators such as employee satisfaction and customer loyalty. Based on the available Glassdoor and ACSI/customer satisfaction data across the 49-company dataset, the answer appears to be yes—though imperfectly.
The strongest relationship appears in industries where workforce quality, customer experience, innovation, and culture are central competitive differentiators, particularly high tech, retail, restaurants, and several consumer-facing businesses. In those industries, companies with stronger EEI scores frequently also show stronger Glassdoor ratings, stronger customer satisfaction scores, and superior stock performance.
Big Box Retail Shows One of the Clearest Patterns
The retail sector may provide the clearest evidence of alignment between EEI, employee satisfaction, customer loyalty, and shareholder performance.
| Company | EEI Score | Glassdoor | ACSI | Relative Stock Performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Costco | 74–77 | 4.0 | 81 | +95% vs. S&P |
| Walmart | 60–65 | 3.4 | 72 | +60% vs. S&P |
| Target | 50–55 | 3.5 | 78 | -25% vs. S&P |
Costco leads the peer group not only in EEI score, but also in customer satisfaction, employee ratings, and stock performance. Walmart shows moderate performance across all dimensions, while Target lags significantly in stock performance and EEI score despite respectable customer satisfaction.
High Tech Also Shows Strong Alignment
The high-tech sector demonstrates another strong relationship between EEI scores and employee/customer indicators.
| Company | EEI Score | Glassdoor | Customer Satisfaction Proxy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft | 95.6 | 4.0 | ~85/100 |
| Alphabet | 93.7 | 4.4 | High-80s |
| Oracle | 64.5 | 3.5 | Lower peer rankings |
The relationship here is particularly strong because the companies with the highest EEI scores also generate the strongest employee ratings, customer satisfaction proxies, and shareholder performance. Alphabet and Microsoft significantly outperform Oracle across almost every dimension measured.
Restaurants and Consumer Brands Show a More Nuanced Picture
Fast food and coffee produce more complicated results.
| Company | EEI Score | Glassdoor | ACSI | Relative Stock Performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| McDonald's | 76–82 | 3.5 | 70 | +38% vs. S&P |
| Dutch Bros | 72–78 | ~4.0 | N/A | +92% vs. S&P |
| Starbucks | 58–63 | 3.7 | 78 | -18% vs. S&P |
Here, customer satisfaction alone is not predictive of shareholder performance. Starbucks produces the strongest customer satisfaction score, yet significantly underperforms McDonald’s and Dutch Bros in stock performance and EEI scores. Dutch Bros combines strong employee sentiment with exceptional revenue growth and stock performance, despite lacking a major public customer satisfaction benchmark.
Biotech Reveals the Most Important Exception
Biotech may provide the single most important caution flag in the entire study.
| Company | EEI Score | Glassdoor | Relative Stock Performance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Argenx | 100 | 3.3 | +125% vs. S&P |
| Vertex Pharmaceuticals | 96 | 4.0 | +27% vs. S&P |
| UCB | 73 | N/A | -27% vs. S&P |
This sector highlights one of the study’s most important findings: exceptionally high productivity, margins, intellectual property advantages, or hypergrowth can sometimes outweigh weaker employee sentiment in the short to medium term. Argenx produced one of the highest EEI scores and strongest stock performances in the study despite lower employee ratings than Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
Enterprise Engagement Alliance Services
Celebrating our 17th year, the Enterprise Engagement Alliance helps organizations enhance performance through:1. Information and marketing opportunities on stakeholder management and total rewards:
- ESM Weekly on stakeholder management since 2009. Click here to subscribe; click here for media kit.
- RRN Weekly on total rewards since 1996. Click here to subscribe; click here for media kit.
- EEA YouTube channel on enterprise engagement, human capital, and total rewards since 2020
Management Academy to enhance future equity value for your organization.3. Books on implementation: Enterprise Engagement for CEOs and Enterprise Engagement: The Roadmap.
4. Advisory services and research: Strategic guidance, learning and certification on stakeholder management, measurement, metrics, and corporate sustainability reporting.
5. Permission-based targeted business development to identify and build relationships with the people most likely to buy.
Contact: Bruce Bolger at TheICEE.org; 914-591-7600, ext. 230.
