Employee Net Promoter Score: A Good Measure of Engagement?

Employee engagement should matter to you because engaged employees stay longer with the organization and work harder to show their loyalty to the organization. This article talks about how you can effectively use eNPS to measure employee engagement, writes Sophia Madhavan, Senior Director, SurveySparrow

In today’s competitive world, retaining talent and keeping employees engaged is extremely challenging.

When employees are enthusiastic about and interested in their work, they tend to give their best. Good work environment, better opportunities, open communication channels can help keep the employees engaged. If they aren’t interested, their performance dwindles. This, in the long run, affects the outcomes, productivity, and profitability of the business. Simply put, disengaged employees can cost your business a lot.

So, how do you know whether your employees are engaged enough or not? With what tool can you measure employee engagementOpens a new window ? Employee Net Promoter Score or eNPS is one of the most widely used tools for this purpose. 

What is eNPS?

It is a measure of how likely your employees are to recommend your organization as a good place to work. It comes from the Net Promoter Score (NPS)Opens a new window measure which is generally used for customer satisfaction surveys. Since it was so effective for measuring customer loyalty, companies applied the same concept internally to measure employee engagementOpens a new window .

For NPS Score, the employees are asked how likely they are to recommend the company as a place to work. They are supposed to give ratings on a scale of 1 to 10. On the basis of their answers, they are categorized into ‘Promoters’, ‘Neutrals’ or ‘Distractors’. These are defined below:

• Promoter – An employee who scores either a 9 or a 10. It means they are happy with the organization. Common mistake business owners do is not focusing on promoters. These employees can point out the positives of the company according to them. EmployeeOpens a new window feedbackOpens a new window can help you attract and retain more talent. You can even ask their suggestion about how the organization can improve.
• Neutrals – An employee who scores either a 7 or 8. It is assumed that they are neither going to promote or talk negatively about the organization. Don’t ignore their promoters and work them to turn them into promoters. 
• Distractors – An employee who scores anywhere from 0 to 6. Find out what are their concerns and show them that you genuinely care. Listening to their issues and addressing them can turn them into promoters.

To calculate eNPSOpens a new window , you need to first calculate the percentages of distractors and promoters. Then you need to subtract the percentage of distractors from the percentage of promoters. The result is your organization’s eNPS score. 

What is  Considered as a Good Employee Net Promoter Score?

An eNPS score can range anywhere from -100 to 100. However, any score above zero is acceptable. Different companies may have different standards. Generally, a score within the bracket of 10 to 30 is considered good and a score of 50 is excellent. Anything less than -10 should be a warning sign for you.

Learn more: 

What Is an Employee Engagement Survey? Definition, Process, Vendors, and ExamplesOpens a new window

Is Employee Net Promoter Score Effective in Measuring Employee Engagement?

eNPS is very popular because it is simple and quick. However, most of the companies only ask these quantitative questions and focus exclusively on the score. In order to extract more valuable data, you should also ask ‘Why’. You need to get an eNPS score with these three questions:

1. On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this organization as a place to work?
2. On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this company’s services or products to a friend or colleague?
3. Why?

The last question can be customized on the basis of what answers are given for the first two questions. For promoters, the question can be altered to – ‘What is the top reason for you to recommend this company?’ For distractors, the question can be changed to – ‘What is the reason for your score?’

These questions can help you extract important data with which you can shape the growth trajectory of your business.

How Often Should You Do This Survey?

If your survey is longer, it is highly likely that few people will complete it. The chances of results being accurate in such a scenario are also less. Since the eNPS comprises only three questions, you can do it more often. Some companies do it every three months, whereas some do it only twice a year.

An ideal choice would be to do this survey consistently every three months. This can give you sufficient data to work with for improvement.

In a nutshell, Employee Net Promoter Score can prove to be a highly effective tool to measure employee engagement if improved continuously over time. This needs to be done with the help from your employees. It is also important to remember that you should benchmark your results against yourself only and not against competitors.

Learn more: 20 Fresh Employee Engagement Ideas for 2020Opens a new window