Employee Net Promoter Score Explained + Tips for Improving It

A Gallup study found that quiet quitters constitute about half of the U.S. workforce. One of the tools for finding out if you're running a team of engaged employees or quite the opposite is the employee net promoter score metric.

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Admittedly, an eNPS survey is just the tip of the iceberg that represents employee satisfaction and happiness levels. Nonetheless, it's a great point to get started because it's a simple and quickly trackable metric—especially if you pick the right tool for measuring it.

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Read on to find out how employers measure employee satisfaction levels with eNPS. We'll teach you how to calculate your score and improve employee engagement.

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What is the employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)?

If you've heard of NPS surveys for measuring customer loyalty, an eNPS will sound familiar. The only difference is that instead of asking your customers whether they'd recommend your product or service, you're asking your employees if they would describe your organization as a good employer. While eNPS and NPS measure satisfaction rates from different groups, they're often correlated.

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Employee net promoter scores help gauge how loyal and satisfied employees feel within your organization. The rating system divides your team into:

• Promoters—people who mark a nine or above
• Passives (or Neutrals)—people who select seven or eight
• Detractors—those who rate their answer as six or below

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To calculate your score, first send out an eNPS survey. The main topic should be—how likely the employees are to recommend their organization as a good employer. For each question about the company, employees should receive a scale of 0 to 10 and rate how strongly they agree with the statement.

Source: Freepik

At the end of eNPS surveys, tally ratings for the whole team. Subtract the percentage of detractors from the promoter percentage. You’ll get a score from -100 to 100.

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For example, if you have 50 employees and these scores:

• Detractors: 10 (20%)
• Passives: 25 (50%)
• Promoters: 15 (30%)

Your score would be 10 = 30% - 20%

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Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS): Pros

An eNPS score is easy to understand and acquire. The surveys are short, so you usually get a high response rate.

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You can send eNPS surveys regularly to track worker satisfaction levels and trends. Comparing keywords in questions to average scores for them can give you an idea of areas that need improvement. It's a quick way to measure employee loyalty and check if you can get good referrals when looking for new candidates.

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Another advantage is that you can benchmark your result against the industry average, as eNPS is a popular metric.

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Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS): Cons

The main drawback of measuring employee engagement this way is its quantitative nature. They only show you the surface but not the context. An anonymous eNPS survey doesn't consider demographic groups or the "why" behind the "what."

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How to improve your Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)

Ask follow-up questions to understand your eNPS better

You can ask for more in-depth feedback in live meetings, Slack threads, emails, online forms, or feedback surveys. Whatever you settle on, keep it concise.

Use these questions to make your employees feel like you genuinely care about their opinions:

• Would you like to have more development opportunities?
• Do you feel recognized and appreciated for the work you do?
• Are you always sure what's expected of you?
• What do you value most about your role in this company?
• What is the biggest challenge you've come across in your work?
• What would make you more satisfied with your position?
• Do you feel your manager motivates you to perform to the best of your abilities?

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Regularly conduct employee satisfaction surveys

We suggest making collecting (and acting on) feedback a habit in your company if you want to improve the employee experience. One solution is Effy AI—simple and fast performance review software. It helps you save time on both gathering and analyzing feedback. You get AI-generated summaries, valuable feedback reports, and zero routine in improving employee engagement.

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These are the features that will help you get frequent employee feedback:

• Customizable survey templates with a vast question bank, so you don't have to worry about coming up with new ideas
• Automated reminders sent to all participants to bring your response rates up
• Anonymization that lets all your employees feel free to give honest feedback
• Possibility to fill in reviews directly in Slack without switching apps—this makes it easier, faster, and more accessible
• AI-generated summaries based on employee responses that help you identify areas for improvement

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Here is what the dashboard looks like (yes, you can use it for collecting other key metrics, too).

A good frequency to conduct eNPS surveys is every quarter. Send out additional surveys after implementing changes in company culture or strategy and upon reaching milestones.

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Identify and address key pain points

The questions and automations listed above will help you gather the information you need to identify your employees' key pain points and create a culture of continuous feedback. One of the best practices is to group feedback into themes of similar comments. Seeing how popular each aspect is will help you prioritize improvement areas.

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Recognize and reward performance

Psychology experts identify these four elements as the most crucial to effective employee recognition:

• Communication—establish clear criteria and a transparent reward system. When praising or rewarding someone, be specific in your reasoning. Get inspired by our examples of good appraisal phrases.
• Consistency—stick to your employee recognition program. You can set up automation or reminders with Effy AI and make others accountable for praise by establishing a peer recognition system.
• Fairness—don't focus only on results. These may be difficult for new employees or people with non-typical circumstances. Recognize unique strengths and growth.
• Reassessment—try out different rewards (tangible or intangible), assessment frequencies, and criteria to see what works best for your team.

Bonus tips: Use employee recognition software to show appreciation or get inspired by these employee recognition examples!

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Invest in employee professional development

Studies show that companies investing in employee development see an 11% rise in profitability and 2x employee retention than those that don't. Provide diverse and relevant learning opportunities such as workshops, online courses, conferences, and mentorship programs.

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Create professional development plans aligned with the individual's goals and your company's objectives. You can craft these automatically with Effy AI based on the surveys you send about employee sentiment.

Here are the four strategies characteristic of a highly productive workspace focused on development, as identified by Gallup:

1. Constantly working on improving employee engagement parallelly to creating learning opportunities.
2. Allowing people to understand and develop their unique strengths with roles and projects that fit them best—not necessarily promotions.
3. Redesigning the managers' roles to a coaching leadership style.
4. Fostering a leadership style centered around development, backed by actions—lower hierarchy levels tend to mimic the behavior of C-level executives.

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Promote work-life balance

A feeling of well-being is individual for everyone, so prioritize talking to your employees and asking them what they need to feel fulfilled.

Source: Medium

Here are some tips from experts who shared what they do to implement better work-life balance at their companies:

• Set a clear separation between work and free time—and respect their time off.
• Encourage frequent breaks during working hours and acknowledge the need for longer leaves throughout the year.
• Provide resources for stress management and mental and physical health assistance (anything from gym memberships to healthcare benefits).
• Facilitate flexibility, e.g., remote work, choosing working hours etc.
• Organize social activities and meetings outside of the office to build a sense of community and connection.

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Create a safe and positive working atmosphere

The tips we've included above sum up to a positive workplace culture. To take it further, you can look into physically making the office a more pleasant space to be in. That means:

• Natural lighting
• Ergonomic furniture (maybe a standing or walking desk?)
• Temperature regulation
• Spaces for collaborative work and downtime
• A great coffee machine
• Plants for a calming effect and better air quality

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To create more positive experiences for your team, encourage diversity hiring and make everyone feel a part of the community. Encourage open communication and be open to upward criticism, too.

Source: Monash University

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Conclusion

When people feel valued at work, other positive emotions follow, such as motivation, engagement, and loyalty. Maintaining a high employee net promoter score helps to improve employee retention and happiness.

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One of the best tools for getting to know your team spirit (no, not the Nirvana song) is Effy AI, performance review and 360 feedback software. With AI-generated summaries and development plans, an extensive question bank, automated reminders, and a Slack integration, you'll minimize the time spent on reviews and maximize your understanding of employee morale.

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Sign up for free to run your employee NPS survey in minutes.

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FAQs

What is the eNPS score in HR?

The employee net promoter score is a simple quantitative metric for assessing employee engagement, loyalty, and satisfaction.

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How do you measure NPS for employees?

You can measure employee engagement with an eNPS survey and a rating scale of 0-10 for answering. The main thing to ask is the likelihood of recommending your company as a good employer, with 0 being “not at all likely” and 10 “very likely.”

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What is a good NPS for employees?

Good eNPS scores are between 10 and 30. Anything above 50 is an excellent result.

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How is eNPS calculated?

The formula for calculating eNPS is % promoters minus % detractors. Subtract the number of detractors from the number of promoters. Then divide that by your total number of employees and multiply the answer by 100.

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