What is eNPS or the employee Net Promoter Score?

eNPS is short for Employee Net Promoter Score. It is a method for measuring how willing the employees are to recommend their workplace to friends and acquaintances. Another way to put it is that eNPS is the in-house counterpart to the popular NPS* method. NPS is short for Net Promoter Score and is a method for measuring customer loyalty, originally developed by Fred Reichheld, Bain & Co and Satmetrix during the 1990s and is built on the “ultimate” question: “Would you recommend (our company) to a colleague or friend?

The employee Net Promoter Score is built in the same way, using the “ultimate” question; ‘How likely is it that you would recommend your employer to a friend or acquaintance?’

In conformity with the NPS, the answers are then divided into three categories:

0-6 = ”Critics” or “Detractors”
7-8 = ”Passives”
9-10 = ”Ambassadors” or “Promoters”

How to calculate Employee Net Promoter Score

eNPS = share”Promoters”(%) – share”Detractors”(%)

How to use the employee Net Promoter Score

The major benefit with the eNPS is that it is a quick and easy way to get an overview of how loyal and engaged a company’s employees are. As an increasing number of companies are starting to use the method, a greater possibility for bench-marking is growing.

eNPS is an excellent over time measurement metric that gives the possibility to see if different factors affect the employees over e.g. a year. The method is much appreciated among both managers and employees because of the short format, which makes it very time effective. You may also use the results from the eNPS survey to find out how many promoters you have. Furthermore, by adding a follow-up question, you will get an answer to what makes them satisfied. Consequently draw guidelines to create as many promoters as possible at the workplace.

When using the eNPS method you should keep in mind that the values on how likely the employees are to recommend the company do not say anything about other variables that make the employees thrive. Using only the question without any follow up questions makes it difficult to find out why some do not want to recommend their workplace and why others do. With this said, by using the employee Net Promoter Score question alone you will get a quick overview which can be a good start. But to really understand the underlying reasons and be able to adjust problems, more comprehensive surveys are required. Or a few follow up questions connected to the eNPS question as a complement.

Tips on how to use the eNPS effectively

If the survey is responsive that makes it easier for the employees who are able to answer with their mobile phone. Distributing the survey through SMS can give a higher response rate and quicker replies.
Since it is an automatized process, the HR department does not have to spend time on administrating results. Instead can send them directly to e.g. regional- or department management. Who quickly can see their performance in comparison to others.

As in all in-house surveys, it is important that the employees can be completely sure about their anonymity when answering. One alternative is to distribute the survey through a link and include background data such as region or department. Another way is to let an external supplier administrate send out of the survey and results.