Employee net promoter score: why it’s not the best measure by itself

These days, we’re all used to ratings. From Uber drivers and restaurants, to blockbuster films and online purchases, it seems like everything can be scored on a scale of 0 to 10. 

That includes your organisation, and you as an employer. When you ask your team to rate you, it’s called your employee net promoter score (eNPS). As a metric, it’s got its limitations, but in combination with other data it can be a useful tool to understanding your workplace.

What is eNPS?

eNPS is a score based on your employees’ rating from 0 to 10, where the percentage of detractors (those who rate you from 0 to 6) is minused from the percentage of promoters (those who score you 9 or more).

That gives you your eNPS, meaning you can get a quick understanding of how your organisation is viewed by its people – and if they’d recommend you as an employer. 

What your eNPS score won’t tell you

It’s a popular metric, eNPS, partially because it’s so simple. It’s a quick answer to an – arguably – oversimplified question: how would you rate your employer. But the problem is, it doesn’t explain why you’ve received the score you have.

As a standalone score, as with most eNPS tools, there’s three major things missing:

• Nuance between different ‘levels’ of detractors: someone scoring you as 0 is going to feel a lot more negatively than someone scoring you with a 6 – but eNPS lumps them together as detractors, without considering the level of discontent.
• Individual employee experiences and opinions: an overall positive eNPS makes it easy to overlook the negative experience of particular team members, something you need to look at written comments to understand fully
• Overall organisational strengths and weaknesses: again, an overall score doesn’t give you enough to go off – you don’t know what’s driving that high score, or which areas of your organisation are dragging it down
  

How to get the most out of ENPS survey questions 

Just because eNPS has its limitations, it doesn’t mean it can’t still be useful. You just need a way of understanding your score in context. So the best way to effectively use an eNPS question when asking for employee feedback? By combining it with other survey questions, ones that can add context and meaning. 

For example, you could consider eNPS when doing a full scan of your business, using a survey like our Organisational Fitness framework. By doing that, you’ll get a high-level metric you can track over time, on top of deep insights into why people score you the way they do.

Our new feature: employee net promoter survey widget

When you’re using our platform, you can now add an eNPS question to each and every survey template. Here’s everything you need to know:

• Add an eNPS question to any survey, custom or template
• In your results, filter by specific scores – to see all data from ‘detractors’ for example
• See your score, and breakdown of detractors, passives, and promoters using a helpful widget:

Use our platform for free to find your eNPS score (and the reasons behind it)

Our platform is designed to help you listen insightfully to your people. That’s because we know they’re the secret to your organisational success. With our shorter, smarter surveys, it’s fast and easy to get the answers you need – including your eNPS. 

Sign up today and try it for free: