Unlock Your Employee Relations Potential with the ER/Q Maturity Model
Assess your organization’s ER processes with the first-ever maturity model built for employee relations.
The First Employee Relations Maturity Model
ER/Q reveals the maturity of your employee relations function based on your team’s purpose, processes and influence across the organization. Whether you’re part of a lean HR team or have a dedicated ER function, this model helps you pinpoint where you are today—and gives you clear, actionable steps to grow stronger and more strategic.
Leading Brands Trust HR Acuity
Introducing the ER/Q Maturity Levels
The ER/Q model outlines four stages of Employee Relations maturity—each a valuable step in your team’s evolution. It’s not about being ahead or behind, but knowing where you are to plan where to go next. By setting a clear baseline, you can identify strengths, close gaps and move toward greater consistency.
- Level One: The Dedicated Defenders – Early in your ER journey, teams are often stretched and refining processes, but there’s major growth potential.
- Level Two: The Reliable ER Investigators – ER is gaining traction and has consistent policies in place. The focus now shifts to process clarity and stronger data practices.
- Level Three: The Trusted ER Veterans – Your ER team is a valued partner with solid tools and processes. The next step: Shifting from reactive to proactive.
- Level Four: The Strategic ER Advisors – At Level 4, employee relations is a strategic, data-driven function trusted across the organization. Even here, there’s room to evolve and deepen impact.
Why Assess the Maturity of Your Employee Relations Function?
Regardless of organization size, employee relations lays the foundation for fairness, transparency and respect, keeping employees engaged and protecting your reputation. But to evolve your approach, you need to first understand where your ER function stands today.
With that insight, you can take intentional steps forward—earning employee trust, gaining executive confidence and shifting from reactive support to strategic impact.
By taking the completely free ER/Q assessment, you’ll get:
- Actionable Insights: Understand key areas to focus on and where to develop targeted initiatives.
- Clear Results Breakdown: We make your assessment results easy to understand and answer any questions you may have.
- Tailored Action Steps: Not sure what to do next? We provide a clear, three-step action plan based on your maturity level, so you’re never navigating it alone.
- A Shareable Score: Receive an overall maturity score with a report URL you can easily share with leadership and your team.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
ER/Q is the first Employee Relations maturity model, helping organizations assess the current state of their ER function across purpose, processes and influence. ER/Q shares actionable steps to improve and grow strategically.
-
We created this assessment for HR experts, employee relations teams and organizational leaders who want to get a snapshot into the maturity of their employee relations initiatives, whether they’re part of a small HR team or a dedicated ER function.
-
It takes 10 to 15 minutes to complete the ER/Q assessment.
-
No, there is no cost to take ER/Q. It’s a resource designed to help you assess where you’re at with employee relations maturity.
-
Not at all—you (and others on your team) can take the quiz as many times as you’d like. We actually suggest you take it multiple times! As your ER function grows and evolves, retaking the quiz can help track your progress and spark valuable conversations across your organization.
-
Yes! Anyone at your organization can take it individually, and we can share results across participants so you can see different perspectives within your team.
-
You’ll receive a maturity level score, a detailed breakdown of results, actionable insights and a three-step action plan with educational resources to help guide your next steps.
-
By establishing a clear baseline, you can identify strengths and gaps in your ER function, focus your efforts on strategic improvements, build trust with employees and gain executive confidence.
-
Absolutely. You’ll get a shareable report URL to easily distribute your score and insights with leadership and your team.
-
Not at all. ER/Q is designed to meet you where you are, highlighting growth opportunities rather than shortcomings. Every level is a step forward in your employee relations journey.