Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS): The Ultimate 2024 Guide
Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) is a powerful tool that helps companies measure and improve employee satisfaction and engagement. It is a simple yet effective metric that allows companies to assess how likely their employees are to recommend their organization as a great place to work.
This article will unpack how to calculate eNPS, analyze the data and strategies to help improve your company’s eNPS.
Contents
What is the employee net promoter score (eNPS)?
Why should you measure eNPS?
How can you measure eNPS?
Employee net promoter score calculation
Examples of employee net promoter score
What is a good employee net promoter score?
Employee net promoter score benchmarks
How to improve employee net promoter score
Employee net promoter score (eNPS) questions
Tips for successfully using eNPS
What is the employee net promoter score (eNPS)?
Employee net promoter score is a useful metric for assessing an organization’s employee engagement. It measures how likely your employees are to recommend your organization as a good place to work to their friends or family.
The metric offers a glimpse into how happy and satisfied your employees are and the likelihood of them staying and promoting your company to others.
In a recent Gallup survey, companies with a highly engaged workforce are 21% more profitable and 17% more productive than those with disengaged peers. This illustrates the importance of understanding your employees’ engagement and identifying potential problems before they impact business profitability.
eNPS vs. NPS
eNPS mirrors NPS, an approach used to evaluate customer loyalty and satisfaction by asking customers how likely they are to recommend a company’s products or services to their family and friends. Though eNPS and NPS assess the satisfaction rates of different groups, scores are usually correlated.
An organization with high eNPS is likely to also have high NPS because, oftentimes, happier employees are more likely satisfied with their jobs and are therefore more willing to provide a better service to their customers.
Why should you measure eNPS?
eNPS score can indicate your employee engagement levels quickly so you can take action immediately.
Using it to measure your employees’ thoughts and feelings about working for your company has both its advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages of employee net promoter score (eNPS):
- Ease of use: It doesn’t take employees too much time and effort to complete.
- High participation rates: Because the eNPS is quick and easy to answer, you can expect 100% of your staff to answer the survey.
- Quick action: eNPs survey data can also be collected and analyzed fast, so sharing results and drawing of the action plan can be done sooner. The immediate response allows for addressing issues promptly before they escalate.
- Genuine feedback: The response to the question ‘how likely the employee is to recommend the company as a place of work’ accurately reflects employees’ sentiments about their employer. Individuals can answer the survey anonymously, making them more likely to be upfront about their work satisfaction and dissatisfaction.
- Continuous measurement of employee engagement: Since eNPS survey is quick to deploy, you can conduct it more frequently, allowing for effective and ongoing employee engagement monitoring.
Disadvantages of employee net promoter score:
- Limited results: The question excludes other aspects of employee engagement like employee motivation and employee retention. eNPS doesn’t cover these concepts, which are critical to the organization’s people strategy and engagement.
- Restrictive methodology: Passives are left out of the picture, and if they are the majority of the respondents, then the eNPS score doesn’t precisely paint the company’s engagement level.
- Focuses too much on the score: When you only have a single number to represent your employee engagement, there is no context available for understanding the result. HR doesn’t have qualitative data to support the quantitative data (which is the eNPS score).
How can you measure eNPS?
Here are the steps to follow when conducting and measuring your eNPS:
Step 1: Conduct a survey
HR can use a standardized eNPS questionnaire that asks employees to rate the likelihood of recommending their company on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being “not at all likely” and 10 being “very likely.”
Step 2: Categorize responses
Once the survey is completed, HR should categorize employee responses and calculate them (will be discussed in the section after this).
HR pro tip
Group feedback by themes: Review the feedback from employees and group similar comments together based on themes. This will help you identify common issues and areas for improvement.
Step 3: Analyze the results
Once eNPS has been calculated, HR should analyze the results and identify areas for improvement. It can involve looking at trends over time, comparing eNPS scores across different teams or departments, or using open-ended survey responses to identify specific issues that need to be addressed.
By regularly measuring eNPS and taking action to address areas for improvement, HR can help to improve employee engagement and satisfaction, which can lead to improved retention, productivity, and business outcomes.
HR pro tip
Seek feedback from managers and leaders: In addition to the employee NPS survey, seek feedback from managers and leaders in the organization. This can provide valuable insight into the areas where the workplace is excelling and where improvements can be made. Additionally, managers and leaders can be key stakeholders in implementing action plans based on the survey results.
Employee net promoter score calculation
eNPS is calculated with the employees’ responses on a scale of 0-10 divided into three categories:
- Promoters: Employees that gave a score of 9 and 10, which means they are happy and satisfied with your company
- Passive or Neutral: Employees that gave a score of 7 and 8, which means either they’ll promote the company or say something bad about it
- Detractors: Employees that gave a score between 0 to 6, which means they are dissatisfied and unhappy with the company
Then, look into the number of employees in each category and their share of the total is.
The formula for calculating Employee Net Promoter Score is:
eNPS = % promoters – % detractors
Examples of employee net promoter score
For a more detailed explanation, here are examples of eNPS score calculation based on different scenarios:
Example 1:
eNPS conducted on a company of 60 employees:
Promoters: 30 employees Passives: 20 employees Detractors: 10 employees eNPS: eNPS = (30 – 10) / 60 x 100
eNPS = 33.3Analysis: The eNPS score of 33.3 indicates that there are more promoters than detractors in the company, which is generally a good sign. However, a score of 50 or higher is considered an excellent eNPS score, so there is still room for improvement.
Example 2:
eNPS conducted on a company of 1000 employees:
Promoters: 400 employees Passives: 150 employees Detractors: 450 employees eNPS: eNPS = (400 – 450) / 1000 x 100
eNPS = -5 Analysis: The eNPS score of -5 signifies that there are more detractors in the company, which means most employees are disengaged with the company. The organization must prioritize employee engagement initiatives to boost employee morale.
Example 3:
eNPS conducted on a company with regional offices:
Let’s assume that this company has four regional offices in various parts of the country, and it wants to measure the eNPS score for each office.
Office 1: New York Promoters: 30 employees Detractors: 20 employees eNPS: 10 Office 2: San Francisco Promoters: 40 employees Detractors: 30 employees eNPS: 10 Office 3: Chicago Promoters: 50 employees Detractors: 15 employees eNPS: 35 Office 4 Texas Promoters: 20 employees Detractors: 25 employees eNPS: -5 Analysis: These results show that Office 3 has the highest eNPS score, indicating that it has the most loyal and satisfied employees who are likely to recommend the company as a great workplace.
On the other hand, Office 4 has a negative eNPS score, indicating that it has more detractors than promoters, and its employees are unlikely to recommend the company to others.
What is a good employee net promoter score?
Employee net promoter score can range from -100 to 100. eNPS scores between 10 and 30 are considered ‘good,’ while those between 50 and 70 are considered excellent. Above 80 eNPS score is likely in the top percentages in almost any industry.
Anything above 0 is deemed an acceptable score, which means an equal split between Promoters and Detractors. The only thing to be conscious of is if you have too many Detractors compared to Promoters.
What’s more important than a ‘good’ score or a negative score is that your current score is higher than your previous records. Or at least maintain an acceptable or good score.
Employee net promoter score benchmarks
Employee net promoter scores are different across sectors. Research by Perceptyx indicates that the overall eNPS benchmark is 12, while other reports indicate the average eNPS at 14 across all organizations gathering staff data that measure eNPS.
Their research includes eNPS benchmarks for the following sectors:
- Telecommunications: 27
- Manufacturing: 13
- Information technology: 26
- Healthcare: – 6.5
Although the average eNPS benchmark for tech companies is 26, many have eNPS scores of 75 or higher.
Benchmarking your organization’s eNPS
Benchmarking ENPS scores can be complex. Scoring varies not only across industries but also across different types of organizations and professions.
Hence benchmarking against other companies is not an ideal practice. Getting accurate scores is tricky. Plus, the information from the results might not apply to your company. A higher score than your competitors does not indicate that you have an excellent eNPS score. Why? Because every organization has its strengths, challenges, circumstances, culture, and even regulatory requirements, which may take priority over employee satisfaction or experience.
Benchmark your organization’s current eNPS scores with previous performance. Comparison of scores over time can help you spot trends in how employees feel about your organization. There could be peaks and valleys in your eNPS scores due to different business priorities and events. Benchmarking your scores can help you analyze the other factors that impact your score so you’ll know the areas you need to enhance.
Your goal should be to improve your eNPS score. For example, if your eNPS was +10 in 2023, aim for +15 this 2024.
Best practices for benchmarking eNPS
For best results, here are tips on benchmarking your scores:
- Conduct eNPS surveys every quarter, bi-annually, or after important company, milestones to measure how such decisions affect employee engagement. For example, roll them out after changing company policies, reorganizational structure, company incentives adjustments, or business direction updates.
- Carefully review the survey channel to conduct your eNPS survey because it affects your eNPS score benchmark. Consider whether you want to perform it via SMS, email, app, paper, phone call, or online form, as some channels may perform better than others, especially if you have regional offices or remote workers. Keep in mind not only the accessibility of your survey but also the accuracy of how it tracks the progress of your eNPS scoring benchmarks.
- Perform a follow-up survey, especially if there is a significant increase or decrease in your eNPS score. Make it short to avoid survey fatigue and use open-ended questions to gain insights behind the score: what factors contributed to it but were not accounted for.
How to improve employee net promoter score
When you have low eNPS scores, here are strategies you can use to raise them:
- Discover the possible reasons for low ratings. Conduct meetings or email follow-up questions. Ask what management can do to help promote the company as an ideal workplace. Follow-up questions can also help to determine why employees are dissatisfied with the company. Make employees feel that the company is genuinely interested in hearing their suggestions to improve the working environment.
- Conduct regular employee feedback surveys: Conducting regular employee-feedback surveys is one of the best ways to assess employee satisfaction and engagement. Surveys help HR teams identify specific areas of the organization that need improvement, such as training, communication, leadership, and work culture. It’s important to share the survey results with the organization and communicate any action plans to address the issues.
- Take action on survey results: Based on the outcome, implement actions to address employee feedback. For example, if many respondents desire career advancement, boost your company’s learning and development initiatives. Explore different training delivery methods like mentorship or job rotation on top of classroom and virtual training.
- Foster a positive workplace culture: A positive workplace culture is key to high employee satisfaction and engagement levels. HR teams can create a positive culture by communicating positive messages, recognizing employee achievements, celebrating milestones, promoting work-life balance, and offering wellness programs. When employees are happy and engaged, they’re more likely to recommend your organization as a great place to work.
- Provide competitive salaries and benefits: Providing competitive salaries and comprehensive benefits packages is an essential factor in employee satisfaction and loyalty. HR teams should conduct regular salary reviews to ensure that salaries are competitive, and benefits packages are attractive to employees. Offering benefits such as healthcare, retirement plans, and paid time off shows that your organization values its employees’ welfare and contributes to a positive eNPS score.
- Invest in employee training and development: Employees want to work for organizations that offer opportunities for career growth and development. HR teams can invest in employees’ training and development by offering access to online courses, mentorship programs, and job shadowing opportunities. Investing in employees’ learning and development helps increase engagement and job satisfaction levels, resulting in higher eNPS scores.
- Communicate effectively: Effective communication is essential to maintaining a positive work culture and keeping employees engaged. HR teams should communicate open and transparently about company updates, changes, and policies. Regular communication helps employees feel connected to the organization and included in important events and decisions.
Employee net promoter score (eNPS) questions
To fully understand why an employee is recommending or not recommending the company to their friends and family, you should ask follow-up questions. These questions should be open-ended to receive qualitative data supporting their scores.
Here’s a list of questions to include in your eNPS survey:
- What’s the reason for giving that score?
- What can we improve as an employer?
- What is one thing you like the most about this company?
- What prevents you from recommending this company to your friends and colleagues?
- What is the biggest challenge you’ve experienced in this company?
Free employee satisfaction survey template
To get you started in running employee satisfaction surveys within your organization, we have developed a free Word employee satisfaction survey template, as well as an easy-to-use checklist.
Tips for successfully using eNPS
Here are different tactics HR can use to get the best results when using the employee net promoter score:
- Track and monitor your eNPS regularly. Conducting surveys haphazardly will make it difficult for the HR team to evaluate the changes corresponding to each score. Regular eNPS surveys help analyze the company’s eNPS trends and developments to determine if your actions produce the expected outcome.
- Filter your results. To get a complete picture of your employee engagement, go low-level so you can ‘zoom’ to specific areas like per team, line of business, or employee level. For instance, if you can filter by tenure, you’ll see how new employees perceive career growth opportunities inside your company. Segmenting your data can produce a granular view of your survey results and see the differences in the engagement level per employee population group.
- Focus on improving your employee engagement. Don’t forget to pay attention to your Promoters as well. Review their responses to understand why they’re highly engaged and why they recommend your organization to their friends and colleagues. Let’s say most Promoters appreciate the remote work the organization allows. The company can invest more in tech tools for more effective communication and employee collaboration. Or see if it’s possible to permit a flexible work schedule, meaning employees can report to work when they’re most productive as long as they hit their daily productivity targets.
Key takeaways
- Employee net promoter score allows organizations to quickly check their employee engagement levels
- HR can measure eNPS by asking employees to rate the likelihood of recommending their company on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being “not at all likely” and 10 being “extremely likely.” The score is calculated by subtracting Dectractors (employees who score 0-6) from Promoters (employees who score 9 and 10).
- Employee net promoter scores are different across sectors. Anything above 0 is considered acceptable. What’s more important than benchmarking your score with other companies is benchmarking it with your record. The goal is to be better than the previous performance.
- To get the most out of your eNPS survey, track and monitor your scores regularly, segment your eNPS across various groups in your organization, and continuously focus on strengthening your employee engagement strategies
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