The e-NPS, Employee Net Promoter Score, is an important ingredient in measuring employee engagement but is not a robust measure of employee engagement on its own.
In this article:
- What is e-NPS?
- The Origin of NPS
- Does e-NPS Measure Employee Engagement?
- How is the e-NPS Score Calculated?
- e-NPS & Benchmarks
- e-NPS Best Practices
What is e-NPS?
The e-NPS, Employee Net Promoter Score, is a common metric used by organizations to measure and understand employee engagement.
Where the NPS score asks customers if they would recommend an organization to a friend or colleague; the e-NPS asks an organization's employees if they would recommend their organization as a great place to work.
The e-NPS is an important ingredient in measuring employee engagement but is not a robust measure of employee engagement on its own.
This article is designed to help organizations know when and how to best use e-NPS.
The Origin of NPS
To understand e-NPS, it's helpful to understand what it evolved from- the Net Promoter Score (NPS).
In 2003, Fred Reichheld, a partner at Bain & Company, wanted to find the best question as an indicator of customer lifetime value. The question, "How likely are you to recommend Company X to a friend or colleague?" was found to highly correlate with customer loyalty, i.e. repurchases, referrals, etc.
Since then, NPS has been widely used in customer and market research.
Does e-NPS Measure Employee Engagement?
Asking if an employee recommends their workplace to others is a common measure in an employee engagement survey, including Quantum Workplace's recommended Engagement survey.
Employee engagement, as defined by Quantum Workplace, refers to the level of mental and emotional connection that employees have towards their team, work, and organization.
However, a survey question alone does not fully measure employee engagement. An employee may recommend their workplace to others but still leave for another job.
Conversely, an employee may love the work they do but hesitate to recommend the organization to others if they feel it's not widely appealing.
How is the e-NPS Calculated?
The e-NPS is measured and reported in one of two ways:
Via Traditional 0-10 Scale
Similar to the customer research version of NPS, the following question is asked:
On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend [Organization Name] as a great place to work?
Based on the responses, employees are categorized as:
- Promoters: responses that are between 9 and 10
- Passives: responses between 7 and 8
- Detractors: responses between 0 and 6
The e-NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters, resulting in a score that ranges from -100 to +100.
Higher scores indicate higher advocacy for the organization.
Via a Question Scale Aligned with Quantum Workplace's Survey
Using a consistent survey scale already in place throughout Quantum Workplace's survey and familiar with customers who have completed prior Engagement surveys, the following question is asked:
I recommend this organization as a great place to work.
With Quantum Workplace's 6-point agreement scale, responses are categorized as:
- Favorable: responses of 5 or 6, corresponding with Agree and Strongly Agree
- Neutral: response of 3 or 4, corresponding with Somewhat Disagree and Somewhat Agree
- Unfavorable: responses of 1 or 2, corresponding with Strongly Disagree and Disagree
For organizations who strongly prefer having consistent employee and customer metrics:
Quantum Workplace research has demonstrated that responses from the 6-point agreement scale can be converted to the traditional e-NPS reporting, if needed.
- Promoters: Percentage of favorable responses (Agree & Strongly Agree)
- Passives: Percentage of neutral responses (Somewhat Disagree & Somewhat Agree)
- Detractors: Percentage of unfavorable responses (Strongly Disagree and Disagree)
e-NPS & Benchmarks
Quantum Workplace offers benchmarks for the question, "I recommend this organization as a great place to work."
Asking this question with a 6-point agreement scale, along with the other best practice survey questions allows you to use benchmarks for organization size, industry, and when applicable, sub-industry.
Benchmarks are not available for the question, "On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend [Organization Name] as a great place to work?"
e-NPS Best Practices
- Ask "I recommend this organization as a great place to work" using Quantum Workplace's 6-point agreement scale to take advantage of several benefits:
- The response scale and analytics are consistent with other survey questions- making it easier for survey-takers to respond and for analytics users to understand
- Allows for benchmarking with other organizations
- Aligns with Quantum Workplace's research-backed measure of employee engagement
- Including Engagement Outcome questions in the survey for a more robust and reliable measure of overall employee engagement
- Avoid frequent pulse surveys asking the e-NPS question- Quantum Workpace's research suggests that a pulse survey approach such as this can risk "lack of action fatigue" and lower response rates over time, learn more about survey fatigue