Eddy’s HR Mavericks Encyclopedia
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Employee Net Promoter Score
Some people call the Employee Net Promoter Score the ultimate survey question. The research behind this question has built its credibility over time. It can be very telling of your employees feelings about your company and how likely they are to recommend your company to friends and colleagues as a place of employment.
What Is an Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)?
The Employee Net Promoter score was built from the Net Promoter Score. The Employee Net Promoter Score is a very specifically worded question, “On a scale from 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our organization to your family or friends?” This question helps understand how happy or unhappy employees are at your company.
Why To Consider Using eNPS
There are a few benefits of using the eNPS survey question to get to know your employees better.
- Simplicity. The question is easily understood and does not need a lot of instruction to answer it. Upper management easily understands the result of the question. It’s simple to calculate, quick for employees to respond to, and easily benchmarked and repeated.
- General opinion evaluation. This question has been useful in determining loyalty and predicting growth within a company.
- Employee satisfaction. This question shows whether or not your employees are happy, and understand part of what they are experiencing at your company.
Drawbacks of Using eNPS
There are potential drawbacks to using eNPS to keep in mind and plan ahead for.
- Lacking specifics. While the eNPS question helps you understand how positively an employee feels about working for your company, it does not give specifics as to why the employee may be feeling that way.
- Lacking knowledge of calculation. Employees who choose a 7 or 8 when responding to the eNPS question are not used in calculating the final score. This is explained in another section but those reviewing the results may not understand calculation criteria and why the score is so low.
- Staying in the comfort zone. Sometimes when employers get a high score, they may become lazy because they feel like they are in a safe zone. It is important to learn how to maintain such a great score.
- Only measuring one part of the employee experience. Employees can recommend your company to others but still not be committed or motivated to do so.
How to Measure Employee Net Promoter Score at Your Organization
The following steps will help you be the most successful in surveying your employees:
Step 1: Communicate
Communicate to upper management and employees why the survey is being administered. Take time to think through and write out a plan for how to follow up on responses.
Step 2: Utilize Software
Find a tool or software that allows employees to easily access and respond to the survey with hand-held devices.
Step 3: Keep It Anonymous
Keep the survey anonymous. If employees know their answers won’t be tied back to them, you will receive more, authentic responses and help employees to be more open and unbiased.
Step 4: Decide on Survey Interval
Decide how often you will administer the survey. This will help you benchmark and understand how your company is doing overtime. Some companies administer this survey once a quarter.
Step 5: Score the Survey
As explained earlier, the Employee Net Promoter Score is a very specifically worded question, “On a scale from 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our organization to your family or friends?” When responding to this question, an employee indicates their willingness to recommend the company on a 0-10 scale with 0 meaning not likely and 10 meaning extremely likely. Employees who choose 9 or 10 are considered “promoters.” Those who choose 7 or 8 are passive and aren’t counted in the final score. Those who choose 0-6 are considered “detractors.” The eNPS score is computed by subtracting the detractors from the promoters. The detractors (0-6) tend to be employees who are unhappy with the company and speak openly about how negatively they feel towards the company. The passives (7-8) tend to be employees who are not emotionally invested or engaged in their work. The promoters (9-10) tend to be employees who are loyal to the company and openly speak about how positively they feel about the company.
How To Act on Your Findings
The most critical step in the process is acting on your findings. Without resulting action, administering the survey slowly eats at the company's credibility and employees begin to feel the company does not value their feedback.
Step 1: Encourage Continuous Feedback
Create a culture of continuous feedback where employees feel safe to share their opinions freely. Find out why your employees are happy or unhappy. Get to the bottom of every issue to find out what your employees are thinking.
Step 2: Track Every Score
Pay attention to every score received. You want to maintain the promoters, engage and convert passives into promoters, and work with detractors to improve the company. A follow-up question could be, “What’s one thing holding you back from referring friends and family to the company?”
Step 3: Communicate
Communicate to employees how you care and value their feedback. Acting on the feedback immediately will show them you are genuine.
Topics
Emily Kranendonk
Emily is the HR Manager for PatientBond. She is the excited for the opportunity of creating an HR department with her current employer. Emily pursued a Master's in Human Resources from USU and comes with 4 years of experience from various companies. Emily serves as the Director of Social Media for the Salt Lake SHRM chapter.
Frequently asked questions
Other Related Terms
Eddy’s HR Mavericks Encyclopedia
Employee Net Promoter Score
Some people call the Employee Net Promoter Score the ultimate survey question. The research behind this question has built its credibility over time. It can be very telling of your employees feelings about your company and how likely they are to recommend your company to friends and colleagues as a place of employment.
What Is an Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)?
The Employee Net Promoter score was built from the Net Promoter Score. The Employee Net Promoter Score is a very specifically worded question, “On a scale from 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our organization to your family or friends?” This question helps understand how happy or unhappy employees are at your company.
Why To Consider Using eNPS
There are a few benefits of using the eNPS survey question to get to know your employees better.
- Simplicity. The question is easily understood and does not need a lot of instruction to answer it. Upper management easily understands the result of the question. It’s simple to calculate, quick for employees to respond to, and easily benchmarked and repeated.
- General opinion evaluation. This question has been useful in determining loyalty and predicting growth within a company.
- Employee satisfaction. This question shows whether or not your employees are happy, and understand part of what they are experiencing at your company.
Drawbacks of Using eNPS
There are potential drawbacks to using eNPS to keep in mind and plan ahead for.
- Lacking specifics. While the eNPS question helps you understand how positively an employee feels about working for your company, it does not give specifics as to why the employee may be feeling that way.
- Lacking knowledge of calculation. Employees who choose a 7 or 8 when responding to the eNPS question are not used in calculating the final score. This is explained in another section but those reviewing the results may not understand calculation criteria and why the score is so low.
- Staying in the comfort zone. Sometimes when employers get a high score, they may become lazy because they feel like they are in a safe zone. It is important to learn how to maintain such a great score.
- Only measuring one part of the employee experience. Employees can recommend your company to others but still not be committed or motivated to do so.
How to Measure Employee Net Promoter Score at Your Organization
The following steps will help you be the most successful in surveying your employees:
Step 1: Communicate
Communicate to upper management and employees why the survey is being administered. Take time to think through and write out a plan for how to follow up on responses.
Step 2: Utilize Software
Find a tool or software that allows employees to easily access and respond to the survey with hand-held devices.
Step 3: Keep It Anonymous
Keep the survey anonymous. If employees know their answers won’t be tied back to them, you will receive more, authentic responses and help employees to be more open and unbiased.
Step 4: Decide on Survey Interval
Decide how often you will administer the survey. This will help you benchmark and understand how your company is doing overtime. Some companies administer this survey once a quarter.
Step 5: Score the Survey
As explained earlier, the Employee Net Promoter Score is a very specifically worded question, “On a scale from 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our organization to your family or friends?” When responding to this question, an employee indicates their willingness to recommend the company on a 0-10 scale with 0 meaning not likely and 10 meaning extremely likely. Employees who choose 9 or 10 are considered “promoters.” Those who choose 7 or 8 are passive and aren’t counted in the final score. Those who choose 0-6 are considered “detractors.” The eNPS score is computed by subtracting the detractors from the promoters. The detractors (0-6) tend to be employees who are unhappy with the company and speak openly about how negatively they feel towards the company. The passives (7-8) tend to be employees who are not emotionally invested or engaged in their work. The promoters (9-10) tend to be employees who are loyal to the company and openly speak about how positively they feel about the company.
How To Act on Your Findings
The most critical step in the process is acting on your findings. Without resulting action, administering the survey slowly eats at the company's credibility and employees begin to feel the company does not value their feedback.
Step 1: Encourage Continuous Feedback
Create a culture of continuous feedback where employees feel safe to share their opinions freely. Find out why your employees are happy or unhappy. Get to the bottom of every issue to find out what your employees are thinking.
Step 2: Track Every Score
Pay attention to every score received. You want to maintain the promoters, engage and convert passives into promoters, and work with detractors to improve the company. A follow-up question could be, “What’s one thing holding you back from referring friends and family to the company?”
Step 3: Communicate
Communicate to employees how you care and value their feedback. Acting on the feedback immediately will show them you are genuine.
Topics
Emily Kranendonk
Emily is the HR Manager for PatientBond. She is the excited for the opportunity of creating an HR department with her current employer. Emily pursued a Master's in Human Resources from USU and comes with 4 years of experience from various companies. Emily serves as the Director of Social Media for the Salt Lake SHRM chapter.
Frequently asked questions
Other Related Terms
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