The ADP Research Institute designed a reliable metric, the Connection XPerience Score (ConnectionXPS), to measure people’s feelings of being seen, heard, and valued. Starting with qualitative interviews and focus groups, we then identified possible items with which to measure Connection and fielded these items to over 12,000 U.S. respondents. Ultimately, we found twelve items that yielded a reliable method for measuring someone’s sense of Connection.

In our measurement of Connection, we found that it is comprised of three distinct themes: feeling seen, feeling heard, and feeling valued. With the new 12-item metric, we are able to reliably measure an individual’s sense of Connection within their organization, provide insights for which demographics do or do not drive Connection (such as age, gender, race, or identifying as LGBTQ+), and provide a far greater understanding of how organizations can increase Connection within individuals.

Companies are already able to measure Diversity by quantifying how much representation of different groups they have in their organization. Likewise, companies can see if they are paying people fairly and thus reliably measure their Equity efforts. Focusing on Inclusion can be beneficial for the organizations that choose to concentrate their efforts on improving it. With the ConnectionXPS metric, we are now able to measure a person’s feeling of being seen, heard, and valued; and, over time, determine if efforts at increasing these feelings are actually working.