What is the Employee Net Promoter Score?

The Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) is an internal measurement based on the Net Promoter Score (NPS) used to measure customer experiences. This gives you a way to track how employees feel about your company.

Think of it as a specialized employee satisfaction survey. It’s a short, one-question survey with some variation of a simple question: How likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or an acquaintance? The results can provide valuable insight into employee engagement and satisfaction.

What is a good ENPS score?

eNPS scores range from -100 to +100, with high scores indicating positive sentiment and low scores indicating negative sentiment. An employee net promoter score of +100 indicates every employee you have is happy and motivated.

In general, a good eNPS score usually ranges from +10 to +30. If your score is above +30, you’re likely doing a great job turning employees into promoters.

How to gather data

eNPS surveys use a numerical scale, usually from zero to 10. You can use a scale of zero to five, but the 11-point system usually gives more accurate results, both on the positive and the negative sides. Based on the answers, employees are grouped as promoters, neutrals or detractors.

Here is a breakdown of each category:

• Promoter: Anyone who chooses nine or 10 as their score is a promoter, meaning they’re generally happy and motivated. Promoters enthusiastically recommend the organization to other people.

• Neutral or passive: Scores of seven and eight fall into the neutral or passive category. Neutrals don’t actively promote the business, but they don’t spread negativity about your organization either.

• Detractor: Anything from zero to six falls in the detractor category, indicating that they may be unhappy or unmotivated. Detractors are likely to have a negative opinion about your company.

Calculating your organization’s employee promoter score

After surveying your team, calculate the percentage of employees who fall into each category. The people in the neutral category don’t factor into the actual eNPS, so you can ignore that number for now. However, it’s still good to know how many employees are in the neutral zone.

To calculate your eNPS, subtract the percentage of distractors from the percentage of promoters. For example, if 58% are promoters and 22% are distractors, your eNPS is 36 (58-22 = 36).

Pros and cons of using the eNPS metric

No metric is perfect, so it’s important to understand the pros and cons of using eNPS to evaluate employee loyalty and motivation. Understanding the metric can help you determine whether it’s the right measurement tool for your organization.

Pros of using eNPS include:

• Quick administration: eNPS surveys have just one question, making them easy for employees to complete. Once you receive all survey responses, calculating your eNPS score takes very little time.

• Simple, concrete numbers: Using a scale ranging from zero to 10 gives you a concrete measurement of employees’ opinions and makes the numbers easy to calculate.

• Ongoing tracking: By repeating the survey question regularly, you have the opportunity to gather data over time, making it easier to assess how motivation and enthusiasm fluctuate.

• Benchmarking: Because eNPS is simple and concrete, it’s ideal to use as a benchmarking metric. Benchmarking makes it possible to compare your company’s performance to the performance of other firms in your industry.

Cons of this metric include:

• Limited data: Since you’re only asking one question, you may not get a well-rounded view of how employees truly feel. Asking follow-up questions and doing more in-depth employee surveys can help.

• Unnecessary score emphasis: Employee motivation and enthusiasm can’t always be determined by a single number. Managing employees effectively, interacting with them face-to-face and observing them can often give you a better idea of how happy they are.

• Comfort: If your score is high, it’s tempting to become complacent. Getting too comfortable with how your employees feel now can cause you to miss out on opportunities to improve your workplace.

Best practices for using the eNPS metric

Using this metric effectively helps you get more out of the evaluation. Here are some best practices to use:

• Use it with other metrics: Don’t rely only on eNPS to measure employee motivation and satisfaction. Create a more comprehensive system focusing on employee retention and happiness to make the numbers more meaningful.

• Take action: If the results aren’t what you expect, take action immediately. Follow up with employees to uncover why they wouldn’t recommend your organization. Work on improving company culture and making your company a better place to work.

• Don’t ignore passives and promoters: Just because someone is a promoter now doesn’t mean they’ll always promote your organization. Your neutral employees may also turn into promoters or detractors. Continue keeping those employees happy and finding ways to nudge everyone a little higher in their rating.

• Be transparent: Let your employees know the survey results, even if they’re not great. This will give you an opportunity to discuss what changes employees want to see in your organization.

How to maximize the value of your eNPS

Gathering data and calculating eNPS scores takes time, so it’s important to maximize the value of this metric. One way to make your eNPS score more useful is to track it across departments to assess employee satisfaction and engagement on a smaller scale. This may help you target specific, departmental issues preventing employees from efficiently performing their tasks.

Another way to maximize the value of your eNPS score is to conduct additional surveys throughout the year. eNPS surveys have just one closed-ended question. Employees choose a number ranging from zero to 10, but they don’t provide any information about why they responded the way they did.

If you aren’t sure why your eNPS is low, send out a new engagement survey with open-ended questions. Open-ended queries give employees the chance to provide more details, giving you additional insight into what your company needs to change to improve its eNPS.

FAQs about the Employee Net Promoter Score

How often should you measure eNPS?

You can measure as often as you’d like, but calculating your eNPS every three months can give you a good opportunity to use the metric successfully. This makes it possible to track changes each quarter without making employees frustrated with frequent surveys. Calculating eNPS quarterly also gives you time to act on previous results and see potential changes in the next survey.

Should you allow employees to submit data anonymously?

While mini satisfaction surveys don’t have to be anonymous, your eNPS will likely be more accurate if they are. People tend to be more honest if the survey can’t be linked to them in any way. They might worry about the potential repercussions of being honest if they know that managers and HR staffers will see their responses.

What other metrics can you use to measure employee loyalty?

Using a variety of evaluation tools gives you a better view of what’s really happening. Pulse surveys are one option. They’re a little longer than eNPS surveys, usually with no more than 10 questions. Conducting a pulse survey makes it easier to assess employee satisfaction and motivation.

One of the biggest benefits of conducting a pulse survey is that you don’t have to stick to a specific topic. For example, you can ask about motivation one month and work-life balance the next month. For best results, perform pulse surveys at regular intervals, such as monthly or quarterly.

Asking for feedback, either formally or informally, can give you more insight into how employees feel about your organization. Your turnover rate, organizational productivity and employee performance can also give you clues about how satisfied individuals are with their jobs.