It’s hard to imagine a company that doesn’t have turnover rates. However, when they’re higher than normal, it’s a cause for concern. Especially when you see your competitors are retaining their employees better than you, you start to question what they’re doing differently. You’re putting money into your employees just to watch them leave. Then you have to start the process all over again by looking for employees, hiring them, and taking the time to train them, just in hopes they stay.
Thankfully, there’s a way to determine the satisfaction of your employees with one simple question. It’s called the employee Net Promoter Score also known as eNPS. It’s the best way to measure how your employees feel about your company.
This survey works because it’s a simple one-question survey that asks your employees on a scale of 0 to 10 how likely they are to recommend your company to their friends or colleagues. It provides quick and simple feedback for your company so you can take necessary action and its improvements need to be made.
3 Key takeaways you need to know
- Regular measurement and analysis of employee Net Promoter Scores are critical for continuous improvement and employee satisfaction.
- Addressing negative feedback is as important as celebrating positive feedback.
- eNPS is a reflection of company culture and management effectiveness.
What is an Employee Net Promoter Score?
An employee Net Promoter Score is a score that gauges how your employees feel about your company.
It’s based on one simple question: “How likely are you to recommend this company to a friend or colleague?”
Employees answer the question on a scale of 0 to 10, 0 being not likely to recommend and 10 being highly likely to recommend. This survey is based on employee experience at the company.
The survey then takes those results and distributes the ratings into three categories.
- Promoters – rated 9 or 10 (satisfied employees)
- Neutrals – rated 7 or 8 (content but not engaged in company)
- Detractors – rated 6 or below (dissatisfied employees)
To find your company’s employee Net Promoter Score, you’ll need to subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters.
eNPS = % of Promoters – % of Detractors
For example: if you had 10 employees respond with:
3, 8, 7, 6, 9, 6, 4, 8, 9, 10
Promoters – (3) 9, 9, 10
Neutrals – (3) 7, 8, 8
Detractors – (4) 3, 4, 6, 6
Your employee Net Promoter Score would then be 30% promoters – 40% detractors = -10
However, some programs will calculate the scores for you, so you don’t have to worry about it. For instance, Peoplelytics helps you send eNPS surveys to your employees, calculates the results for you, and provides you with immediate feedback.
Benefits of Employee Net Promoter Scores
This is a widely used survey within companies for many reasons.
Not just because it’s quick and simple for employers to send out and receive feedback, but it is also beneficial because:
- It’s easy to understand the results
- You can use it to compare insights to competitors
- You can ask follow-up questions to gain important feedback
- You’re able to provide these surveys to your employees frequently
- It helps business owners understand where improvements need to be made
- Provides anonymous results from employees so you can be sure they provide honest feedback
Using the employee Net Promoter Score survey will help you hone in on areas that your company needs improvement on.
This can be narrowed down to a specific department, the organization as a whole, or even where there are leadership issues.
Paying attention to these scores and acting on the feedback will improve your eNPS significantly over time.
Benchmarks for Employee Net Promoter Scores
Okay, so you’ve got the scoring down but how do you know if you have a good score or not? Since the scores can range from -100 to +100, it may be hard to gauge where your score should fall. While the scores vary according to industry, typically a score of +10 to +30 is a good score.
If your score is low, to begin with, aiming towards a score of +10 to +30 is a good start. Once you’re in that range, keep aiming for a higher score. To figure out your company’s benchmark, you will need to keep records every time you receive results so you can compare your scores each month or quarter. This helps spot trends over time. It’s also important to keep up with it.
This is not a one-time survey to see how your company is doing then forget about it.
This survey should be done either monthly, quarterly, or biannually to keep up with competitors, and your own company’s goals, and to save money in the long run by retaining current employees.
What Contributes to a Low Employee Net Promoter Score?
While there’s a multitude of reasons that contribute to a low employee Net Promoter Score, LinkedIn found these four contributors to be the highest reasons
- Poor Management and Leadership – “Ineffective or unsupportive management creates a negative work environment for employees”
- Poor Work-Life Balance – Increased workload and long hours interfere with employee’s lives, which causes dissatisfaction, stress, and burnout leading to poor employee engagement
- Inadequate Communication and Feedback – When employees are uninformed about decisions and updates that affect their work, they become dissatisfied and disengaged
- Toxic Work Culture – Gossip, favoritism, and lack of teamwork and respect are all contributors to a toxic work environment
The good thing about employee net promoter scores is that they can help weed out the reasoning behind employee dissatisfaction, and help foster a better employee experience.
Peoplelytics makes it easy for you to segment surveys to different departments, send a general question to them or it allows you to ask for anonymous feedback.
This helps you narrow down what needs to be worked on in your company first.
Strategies to Improve Employee Net Promoter Scores
Here’s the good news though, it’s feasible to increase your scores!
It may not happen suddenly, but with the right employee feedback, you’ll be a master at improving your employee Net Promoter Score in no time.
Based on your survey’s results, here are some things you can start with:
Foster a positive work environment
- Promote communication with leaders and manage
- Be supportive and flexible for your employees
- Be open and honest feedback
- Provide recognition to employees
Transparent communication and feedback
- Whether in person through meetings or online platforms, it’s important to keep your employees up-to-date with what they need to know especially when there are plans for change happening
Recognition and career development opportunities
- Allow your employees to grow with the company
- Invest in their careers
- Celebrate their wins, and assist with their losses
Implement feedback from your employees
- Address, employee concerns, and feedback with positivity
- Follow up with open-ended questions when necessary to understand the root cause of the problem
These are just a few ways to improve your employee Net Promoter Score.
Once you start receiving feedback from your employees it’ll be easier to know what exactly you need to work on to increase your employee Net Promoter Score.
Let’s Recap
Employee net promoter, scores are an easy way to get quick feedback from your employees on how likely they are to recommend your company to a friend or colleague. They are incredibly beneficial in every company, not just because of their ease of use but also because they help business owners understand where improvements need to be made within the company.
Once you start implementing the strategies above, you’ll start to notice your employee net promoter score skyrocket, especially over time with the more you act on your employee’s feedback from the scores. Now that you know what an employee Promoter Score is, it’s time to put it into action. Sign up for the free 30-day trial at Peoplelytics today, and start watching your company score to new heights.
