Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) As Employee Branding Method

What is Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)?

Like Net Promoter Score (NPS) is used to measure customer loyalty, employee NPS measures employee loyalty towards an organization. 

Rather than asking about products and services, an eNPS survey will ask employees:

“How likely are you to recommend our organization as a place of work?”

Responses are ranked on the same scale of 0-10, and are split into three categories: Promoters, Passives and Detractors. 

The eNPS formula looks like this:

% Promoters – % Detractors = eNPS score between -100 and +100

An organization’s eNPS score indicates employee engagement and is a progressive measure of the employee experience over time. 

And for the record, a good eNPS score will be between 10 and 30. Anything above 30 is brilliant!

To Follow up or Not To Follow Up?

When the NPS was originally designed by Fred Reichheld, the survey claimed to measure customer satisfaction with one question. 

The methodology was quickly criticized for being too simple, and not exploring why customers felt a certain way.

Nowadays, many NPS and eNPS surveys include an open ended question to dig a little deeper into the way customers and employees feel. 

Want to know everything there is to know about the NPS methodology and how it’s used? Check out our definitive guide to Net Promoter Scores. 

Top Benefits of Measuring Net Promoter Score for Employees

So why should you measure eNPS?

Well unless you’re running the regional office at Dunder Mifflin, you probably want to know what your employees are thinking.

Employee feedback can be an incredibly valuable tool, and shouldn’t be limited to human resources suggestion boxes and performance reviews.  

Here are 5 reasons why you should make eNPS a priority for your organization.

It Has High Response Rate

The employee net promoter score methodology is one of the fastest and easiest employee engagement surveys around. 

A straightforward question answered on an 11-point scale, accompanied by a follow-up question, takes literally seconds to respond to – meaning that response rates can be high. 

In fact, depending on your company size, you can expect between 65% and 90% of your staff to respond to an eNPS survey. 

A high response rate is a good representation of employee satisfaction and results in plenty of great feedback that you can use to improve employee engagement. 

It Provides a Benchmark Over Time

Whether you set out to improve employee engagement, or just understand employee turnover, what better way to measure trends than to conduct regular eNPS surveys?

It’s natural that employee engagement may ebb and flow, depending on what’s happening in your organization. 

Regular eNPS surveys help identify trends over time which show that you’re moving in the right direction and can be used to predict employee turnover.

Aim to measure employee engagement at least once a quarter – where I work, it’s measured every month!

It Creates Accountability

eNPS is a good way to measure employee loyalty generally across the organization, but it’s really great at helping you dive deeper into what’s going on in individual departments. 

A low eNPS score from a specific department can be a sign of problems in that area of the organization and should be investigated. 

This makes the employee experience the responsibility of every team and manager, not just the human resources department.

Measuring net promoter scores for employees also gives companies a chance to right wrongs. 

If the responses to the follow up questions point to the same issue, then acting on this employee feedback gives you a chance to show you genuinely care about fixing the bad experiences of your employees. 

It Increases Productivity

Everyone wants to be heard. Without exception. 

Your employees spend a third of their waking lives at work. If they’re spending that time in a place that values their opinions, then they will be happier and more engaged. 

And a happy and more engaged worker is a more productive worker. 

Research shows that a highly engaged workforce can increase productivity by 17%!

 And the icing on the cake?

They also have a 21% higher profitability.  

It Helps Recruit Top Talent

Ever wondered why your competitor is able to hire the best talent?

Could it be that they have more engaged employees than you?

A company with high employee loyalty is in a unique position. It’s created a workforce of brand ambassadors who will spread the positive word about the company they work for. 

As the eNPS question suggests, they’ll recommend their company as a good place to work to their own networks, making recruiting a lot easier. 

What’s more, publishing eNPS scores or testimonials from employees on your website shows how highly your employees think of you.

Don’t believe us? Check out our employee testimonials on our careers page. 

Now, if you were a candidate, wouldn’t you rather work for a company which has happy, engaged employees? 

I know I would. 

Find out how to use employee experience as a resource for recruiting. 

How to Run an eNPS Survey

The simplicity of the employee net promoter score makes running an eNPS campaign a piece of cake – especially when you have the right tools in place to support your research. 

Let’s run through the key steps to successfully gathering eNPS data:

Step #1: Get Buy In

Your employee net promoter score can provide you with a wealth of useful information about the internal health of your business. 

But to make best use of this data, you need to get internal buy in. 

Everyone from senior management down to individual line managers need to be committed to improving the employee experience. 

Aligning the organization to why you’re measuring eNPS scores creates an environment that is receptive to feedback, and eager to implement change.

Step #2: Surveys At The Ready

Once you have buy-in from the internal team, it’s time to get your eNPS survey ready. 

The eNPS question is pretty straightforward but your follow-up questions may want to explore key business areas like communication, values, or trust in senior management. 

Just remember to keep the survey short and make it anonymous to maximize the likelihood of honest feedback. 

Then it’s time to think about how to share and communicate the survey with your employees.

For example, an eNPS email campaign that reminds employees to take the survey could help increase responses. It can also be used to close the loop, by automating a thank you message once the survey has been completed. 

There are some great NPS and eNPS tools on the market that automate the collection process for you. 

Trustmary, for example, lets you collect eNPS via email, but also with website pop ups, and SMS, which is handy if you have a workforce that isn’t reliant on email.

You can even customize your survey’s colors and fonts, so it aligns with your brand!

Don’t forget to support the gathering of employee Net Promoter Scores with training for managers. 

After all, they are the ones who will be encouraging their teams to provide feedback. 

Step #3: Analyze the Data

When your eNPS survey results start rolling in, it’s time to celebrate 🎉

Just kidding. 

This is when the real work starts. 

It’s time to analyze the results to calculate the Net Promoter Score for your employees, and to get better acquainted with your Promoters, Detractors and Passives. 

Looking for trends in the data helps you identify the common negative and positive experiences of your workforce. 

It may be that those who talk negatively about management feel that they have no other channel to provide feedback. 

Or that most of your Promoters sit within a high performing team. 

Opening up the data gives you insights that you can act on to improve employee experience. 

Tools like Trustmary speed up this process too, by providing real-time analytics in an easy-to-use dashboard. 

You can even analyze results by offices and teams, and create customizable reports to share across the business. 

What’s more, the eNPS answers are differentiated from any customer NPS campaigns you’re running, so you can view the loyalty of both customers and employees separately. 

Step #4: Act On The Feedback

This is perhaps one of the most important steps in this list. 

Collecting and analyzing the data is one thing, but acting on the feedback is quite another. 

Let your respondents know that they’ve been heard. 

Analyzing the data will have identified areas of improvement – share this information with the business and outline the steps that you’re taking to make improvements. 

You could even go as far as inviting the organization to be part of that change.

The eNPS of one company I worked for found that their onboarding process was failing new employees so they arranged a welcome committee to show new starters the ropes. 

By acting on feedback, and sharing this information with the company, you may even be able to turn your Detractors into Promoters. 

And while you’re at it, make sure you’re utilizing the positive feedback from your Promoters too. 

Check out how Staria displays employee testimonials on its careers page:

Employee testimonials are incredibly valuable and can be collected directly from feedback from your Promoters.

Trustmary even lets you display these on your website at the click of a button! 

Find out everything you need to know about collecting employee testimonials to boost your employer brand. 

Step #5: Rinse and Repeat 

The value from employee net promoter score (eNPS) comes from the trend, rather than each individual score.

You could score a +56 in an eNPS survey measured after a funding round, but if your score is consistently +10 at other times, then there’s much work to be done. 

Regularly surveying employees creates a benchmark against which a business can measure its progress. 

Trustmary’s dashboard helps you monitor trends over time, so that you can quickly build a picture of how your employee engagement efforts are working. 

6 Ways to Improve eNPS

Your eNPS Score is in and it’s not good news. 

The number is low, indicating that there are major problems, or even worse, it doesn’t reflect what you know to be true about your company culture. 

The thing about eNPS is that it’s never too late to make meaningful changes that can help improve your score. 

Here are 6 ways you can boost your eNPS score, the responsible way:

1. Improve Communication Between Management and Employees

When many of the top reasons employees quit their jobs are related to communication, it’s not hard to see how good communication can create more Promoters in your business.  

Start by looking at lines of communication between senior management, mid-level managers, line managers and the employees. 

Are employees receiving information down the right channels? 

Do line managers reinforce information shared by senior management, and vice versa? 

Is enough information being shared to keep everyone informed at the right time?

Improving communications not only impacts your eNPS, but helps you build a better working environment.

2. Encourage Employees To Provide Feedback 

Does it feel like your eNPS score doesn’t reflect what’s actually going on in your organization?

Perhaps your score is low, but anecdotal evidence shows a happy and productive workforce. 

Then it might be worth looking at your response rates. 

Low response rates will skew your eNPS results and won’t give you a true picture of what’s going on in your business. 

Encourage your employees to provide feedback with regular reminders to get a better sample of sentiment.

But don’t push too hard – one study found that 100% response rate can be a sign of coercion, resulting in a low eNPS. 

3. Create Opportunities For Personal Development

Business growth is great – after all, it’s what we all strive for.  

But don’t forget to create opportunities for growth for the people who work for you along the way. 

Learning and development (L&D) is a key driver of employee engagement.

80% of employees said that learning and development opportunities would help them feel more engaged at work.

Take an interest in your employee’s personal growth to help them feel valued and motivated. 

4. Offer Competitive Compensation and Benefits 

64% of people want a significant improvement to their pay and benefits in their next role, according to one study. 

It’s a job seeker’s market and even if your employees aren’t actively seeking other employment, chances are they’re seeing job ads for similar roles. 

And nothing leaves a bitter taste in the mouth like finding out you’re being underpaid. 

A competitive remuneration package can improve engagement and loyalty amongst current employees, as well as enticing new talent too.

Google not only has a very competitive benefits package for its employees but also uses video testimonials from employees to explain how they care for their teams both in and out of work: 

5. Improve Work/Life Balance 

Work/life balance is becoming increasingly important for the workforce.

87% of employees expect their employer to support them in balancing work and personal commitments.

While no one expects you to manage your employees’ social calendars, you can empower them to have a life outside of the office. 

How?

By leading from the top.

For example, flexible working has increased as a result of the pandemic, and more employers have had to trust employees to do their roles remotely.

By giving a little trust, companies have built mutual respect with their staff, which in turn increases employee loyalty. 

In fact, 96% of employees believe showing empathy is an important way to advance employee retention.

6. Build a Positive Company Culture 

When aiming to improve your eNPS, ask yourself this: 

What do you want to increase your score for?

Are you just interested in getting those digits up, or do you really want to improve the experiences of the people who work for your business?

It must be said that improving your eNPS shouldn’t be the main goal of your employee engagement efforts. 

Whereas if your intention is the latter, then your focus should be on building a positive company culture for everyone. 

By fully committing to make your business the best place to work, you stand to make your internal team happy. 

And with that, eNPS improvements will come. 

A good employee recognition program can help you in the process.

3 Surprising Effects Improving eNPS Has On Your Entire Organization 

Creates a Roadmap For Change

A company that regularly measures eNPS will inadvertently create a roadmap of actions that need to be taken to improve employee satisfaction. 

As changes are made across the organization and major pain points are dealt with, new feedback creates a new focus for improvements. 

And this cycle of continuous improvement helps improve employee retention, as the workforce knows that they can influence their working environment. 

Improves the Customer Experience

Companies with high employee engagement had 89% greater customer satisfaction and 50% higher customer loyalty.

Funny, isn’t it?

Employee satisfaction means increased productivity and more likely to focus on the task at hand – delivering better customer satisfaction. 

If your employees feel valued and heard, they will be more willing to go the extra mile and will reflect in the way they deal with customers. 

Employee Loyalty Increases

Ok, so this might not be that surprising but as you improve eNPS (and providing you’re improving it for the right reasons), employee loyalty also rises.

Why is this important?

Well, loyal employees stick around longer. 

And when it costs $5,000 on average to hire and onboard each new employee, can you really afford for your workforce not to be loyal?

Loyalty employees are more likely to advocate your organization, not just by recommending it as a place to work but also for its products and services too.

Improving your eNPS can create a team of people who will happily sip from (and share) the company Kool-Aid. 

Try Trustmary Method

Michael Scott would say: 

“Would I rather be feared or loved? Easy. Both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me.”

It seems like Mr Scott has much to learn about employee engagement.

Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) is a useful tool for any business that genuinely cares about the people that work for it. 

It helps you measure employee engagement and gather useful feedback that can boost retention, aid recruitment, and even increase productivity and profitability. 

Tools like Trustmary simplify the process of collecting and measuring your eNPS, giving you actionable insights into how to improve your company culture and your employee value proposition. 

Ask yourself, do you really want to make your company a great place to work? 

Trustmary method teaches:

• Best way to gather feedback (from employees but also from customers)
• How to best use the feedback to improve processes
• How easy it is to showcase the public comments and attract talent or even more customers

Further Reading

The definitive guide to Net Promoter Score

5 Employee Testimonial Templates to Help You Recruit More

Employee experience as a resource for recruiting

Employee testimonial best practice

FAQs