The employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) is a popular metric within employee engagement. The metric is based on one simple question: “How likely are you to recommend your employer to a friend?".
Employees respond by choosing a number from 0 to 10 and the responses are segmented into three categories:
- Detractors (those who gave a score from 0 to 6)
- Passives (those who answered 7 or 8)
- Promoters (those who answered 9 or 10)
To calculate your overall eNPS score, you simply subtract the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters (ignoring the neutral Passives). So, if 20% of your respondents are Promoters and 20% are Detractors, your eNPS is actually 0.
What is considered to be a good score?
The most common answer to this question is that a score higher than 0 is good, having more promoters than detractors is a good sign. An eNPS around 20-30 is very good, and anything above that is excellent. The average eNPS varies from industry to industry, country to country, and is affected by many other factors. Therefore, we recommend you to focus on your score internally and set up goals in relation to your team or organization.
Why should you use the eNPS-question in &frankly?
eNPS is by no means a comprehensive way to measure employee engagement. It's a useful and simple metric to track at a regular frequency over time. It's a great way to start working on employee engagement and a number you can bring to the table at the next board meeting.
With the rising popularity of eNPS surveys, it has become an effective way to benchmark satisfaction across organizations. Most importantly, it provides managers with a tangible starting point to tackle issues in their team.
Keep in mind that the eNPS-question only indicates how a company is doing but not why. Therefore, we recommend you to also ask more in-depth questions to get a better understanding of the engagement within your team or organization.
The eNPS in my team is low, what can I do?
Here are a few things you can do to work on your team's or organization's eNPS:
Be transparent.
Most employees are aware when there are problems within the organization. People can lose respect for you and your organization if they feel that issues are being sugar-coated or deliberately not communicated. Open communication is one key to improving employee wellbeing. It creates trust and engagement, two vital factors of employee performance. This means you shouldn't shy away from communicating issues, challenges, or even mistakes that you or the business have made. Be sure to highlight what steps you are taking to solve problems and overcome troubles.
Give attention to promoters and detractors.
If you want to see a better eNPS, you must engage with your detractors and address their concerns. Don't be afraid of criticism. Chances are that they have valuable feedback for you or management as a whole. To improve their happiness, develop steps and strategies to solve the issues they highlight. Turning Detractors into Promoters (or at least Passives) is the most effective way to improve your score.
It is also important to maintain the happiness of your Promotersalso. When it comes to improving your score, it's easy to neglect Promoters and only focus on Detractors. This is a mistake. Promoters can have plenty of valuable input when it comes to improving practices. Listening to their reasoning can highlight things that other employees may have missed out on but that greatly impacted others' satisfaction. Everyone needs to be included in your action plan to improve eNPS.
Feedback is king.
The more feedback you can get from your employees, the better. Make sure you allow comments when you send your survey and follow up results with open discussion sessions. Ideally, you offer both anonymous and public ways to deliver feedback. This way you are most likely to discover more personal issues that employees feel uncomfortable discussing with others as well as major issues highlighted by a discussion. Feedback can be the deciding factor when it comes to developing your eNPS Improvement Action Plan.