A guide to employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)

We have long measured customer loyalty, but many organisations are now recognising the importance of also measuring employee loyalty. Organisations that are armed with their employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) are better positioned to retain talent and maximise productivity. This guide explains why.

What is employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)?

Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) is a measure of how likely your employees are to recommend your company as a place to work. It is based on the Net Promoter Score (NPS) measure associated with customer satisfaction surveys, and asks just one question – “How likely are you to recommend our company as a place of work?”

The reasons eNPS is effective

What makes employee Net Promoter Score effective is that you can work out your score with just one question. This simplicity benefits both those creating the survey and the employees because they can contribute quickly and easily. Once you know your score you can then take the right steps to improve or maintain how satisfied your employees are.

How is eNPS measured?

Your employees respond by stating their likelihood to recommend your company on a scale of 0-10. That score is then categorised as Promoter, Passive or Detractor.

Detractor (0-6)

They are not particularly satisfied with you or their work and could spread negativity towards the company.

Passive (7-8)

Generally happy with the company but would be receptive to offers from other employers.

Promoter (9-10)

They are loyal and like working for your company. Actively promoting the business through word of mouth.

To calculate an eNPS score the passive scores are disregarded. It is simply the percentage of promoters minus the percentage of detractors.

%PROMOTERS

minus

%DETRACTORS

equals

YOUR ENPS

Here’s an example; company X sends an employee net promoter score survey to its 1,000 employees and gets the following response:

200 (20%) were Detractors

450 (45%) were Passives

350 (35%) were Promoters

35% -20% = an eNPS score of 15

What is a good eNPS score?

An eNPS can range between -100 to 100. A score above zero is widely considered as acceptable. But a good employee net promoter score typically ranges between 10–30 and anything above that figure suggest a very loyal, happy, and driven workforce.

eNPS benchmarks by industry

While it is always interesting to compare your eNPS with other organisations, there is little value in doing so. There are so many variables that could influence an eNPS – size of organisation, age, location, culture – the comparison is likely to just leave you with questions.

Instead, we recommend to our clients that they benchmark against their own data. This direct comparison keeps you focused on your employees and helps you establish how to make improvements.

How often should an eNPS survey be completed?

While a consistent cadence is important, the most important factor is how you respond to the results. For an organisation with good engagement, open channels of communication and the processes in place to effectively react, our recommendation is to run an eNPS every quarter. This takes a consistent temperature check and enables you to react quickly to any fluctuations.

But one size does not fit all. Before you embark on quarterly eNPS surveys it is important to consider all factors. How engaged are your employees? How likely are they to respond? Do you have the right internal communication channels in place to involve everybody? How quickly can you and your colleagues react to the results?

The latter point is perhaps the most critical. If you cannot analyse and respond to the results within a 3-month window expand your timescales. Your employees must feel as though the employee Net Promoter Score is being used for them to continually want to be involved.

How to improve your eNPS score

Measuring your eNPS is just the start. In essence, it is a signal of how much work you have to do and how quickly! No matter what your score, we recommend you undergo the following four steps so that your eNPS survey successfully contributes to your employee engagement strategy.

1. Explore

Wherever your score lies, initiate further tactics to explore the reasons behind that score. You could carry out a deeper survey, hold face-to-face conversations or send further pulse surveys. This also gives you an opportunity to quiz the passive employees to understand what is making them ‘sit on the fence’. What you ask will depend on your eNPS results but these follow-up questions are commonly used:

What is one thing we could do to improve your score?
What is stopping you from referring friends to the company?
Describe what you enjoy about working here?

At this stage you want to ask open ended questions that will give you thorough insight. Avoid yes/no questions such as “Do you see yourself working here in 5 years?” because they just won’t give you the information you need to evolve your engagement strategy.

2. Communicate

Keep your employees informed at every stage to help them feel part of the process. Once the initial eNPS survey is completed let everyone know the results and the next steps. Likewise, when you complete the follow-up investigations, explain the reasons for the survey and the results. This is easy to overlook, particularly if the results are not as good as you hoped, but honest and transparent communications are critical. They not only evidence the organisation’s commitment to employee satisfaction but also encourage employees to take part in future initiatives.

3. Act

Perhaps the most important aspect of the process. Employees will quickly disengage if they do not see actions being implemented following their input. No matter how big or small, ensure the actions are effectively carried out. Some actions will take time to implement so it is always worth reminding your employees why you are doing what you are doing. Simple statements such as “you told us this, so we are doing this”, all help to reaffirm that there is value in participating in employee surveys.

4. Repeat

Keep the cycle going. Once you have decided the cadence of your employee Net Promoter Score be consistent, not just with the timing of the survey but also with all the actions above. The more familiar and routine the process becomes, the more natural and effective your eNPS surveys will be.

The most important aspect to remember with your eNPS

The employee Net Promoter Score is an extremely valuable tool to measure employee loyalty but, it should always be a contributor towards a wider employee engagement strategy. By combining the eNPS with more detailed surveys and other employee engagement tactics you will have a very solid picture of how to better engage your employees.

At VRAMP we recognise the value of this combined effort which is why our eNPS survey software sits side-by-side against other survey tools and internal communication channels. This gives our clients all the tools and data they need within a single system for fast, effective employee communication and engagement. If you would like to discover more about how VRAMP can help you measure and bring eNPS into your engagement strategy, contact us today.

Daniel Wright

Marketing Assistant

With a desire to grow personally and a wish to improve working lives through employee engagement, I am thrilled to be part of building an internal comms system that connects everyone.