In this guide, we’ll share:
Let’s jump in and explore what eNPS surveys are and why they’re a must-have for companies that want to understand their employees and create a better experience.
This employee-focused survey is built on the foundations of the Net Promoter Score (NPS), created by Fred Reichheld of Bain & Company. But instead of measuring customer loyalty and customer satisfaction, the eNPS helps us understand employee loyalty and happiness. It’s a simple survey that can help you foster feedback culture.
An eNPS survey asks respondents one key question: “On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our company as a place to work?”
From this, your team members’ answers filter into three categories based on how they scored you. These categories are:
To get your eNPS score, you then use a simple eNPS formula:
eNPS score = total % promoters – total % detractors
If your score is positive, you have more promoters than detractors. That’s a good eNPS score to have. If it’s negative, you have a company or team culture problem on your hands: more unhappy employees than satisfied ones.
The distinction between neutrals and promoters is that the promoter group is more likely to recommend your company to their friends and family members. It’s your promoters who might suggest a friend for a role with you or encourage their friends and family to stay loyal to your company for a number of years.
While neutrals (also known as passives) are generally happy, they’re not likely to promote you — but they’re not likely to complain or give negative feedback either. Instead, these employees tend to remain consistent in their sentiment and represent the majority of people at your organization.
The group you need to pay the most attention to is your detractors. Employees who score your organization in the bottom half of the scale are unhappy, dissatisfied, disengaged, and unlikely to recommend you to others. A high number of scores at this end of the scale should prompt you to take action swiftly to build positive employee relations and create a better work environment.
Some of the key benefits of running eNPS surveys include:
eNPS surveys give you a way to measure employee loyalty and happiness in a quick, simple format. They’re anonymous, highly engaging, and take only a minute or so to complete, which makes it easier to encourage your employees to take part. And although they’re simple, they give you useful data that you can use to benchmark progress over time.
You could set up and run an annual eNPS on autopilot, but to get the best results, you need to invest time and energy into the process. Here’s how to optimize the way you work to get the most from your employee Net Promoter Score surveys.
With Polly, running (and completing) an eNPS survey couldn’t be easier. Our Employee NPS template lets you get answers from your team members inside Slack, so there’s no need for them to leave the app to share their feedback. Plus, you can set this as a recurring polly and never worry about forgetting to send your monthly or annual eNPS survey again.
Most eNPS questions are similar: an employee-focused variation on the customer NPS’ “How likely are you to recommend us to others?” But sometimes, wording matters. Consider whether what you’re asking is clear to everyone, and keep your single question as short and concise as possible.
It’s tempting to add a lot of follow-up questions to your eNPS to try and get more data. Instead, add a single open-ended question if you want to understand the reasons behind their score. Simply ask, “Why have you chosen to give this score?”
If you want a streamlined, user-friendly version of the eNPS, leave the second survey question out completely.
Just as you don’t want your eNPS survey to become long and complicated, you don’t want follow-up surveys to introduce survey fatigue, either. Be strategic about how and when you send any further surveys, so you can get the best engagement possible.
A great opportunity for a follow-up pulse survey or employee satisfaction survey is when you’ve noticed a big change in your eNPS score. Use a thoughtfully crafted survey to try and understand any underlying reasons why, so you can take action to return your eNPS score to its previous levels.
Create a space on your company intranet, newsletter, or Slack channel to share your eNPS score. Choose to share your current score now, or for the ultimate transparency, you could share both current and historical scores.
Beyond simply sharing your eNPS, you should look to act on the feedback you’ve received too. It’s not enough to share that your score has dropped or risen — you should take action and talk about what you’re doing (or have done) to make things happen.
If your score has dropped, inform your employees that you’d like to hear their ideas for future initiatives and talk about what you’re doing to resolve any known issues. If it’s increased, celebrate your team members’ hard work and thank them for engaging with projects you’ve run with creating a better employee experience in mind.
When your eNPS score is on the rise, that’s great news. It means your team members are happier, more satisfied, and more engaged than before. If it’s decreasing, it’s time to take action. Run surveys to understand employee sentiment, host real-time or asynchronous Q&A sessions to gather feedback, and introduce features to allow you to collect more feedback, like an Open Forum.
The eNPS helps you understand how your employees feel about working for you, but it’s not the only measure of success. Be inspired to adopt a company culture of feedback and enjoy the benefits that this approach brings you.
Encourage your employees to give and receive feedback honestly and regularly. Introduce your feedback culture right from the onboarding process. Here are a few practices to incorporate that will help you build the culture:
These strategies will allow you to focus on continuous improvement, check in with employees regularly, and enjoy an environment with more loyal, happy, and engaged employees.
eNPS surveys are one of the best tools for capturing a picture of your employees’ satisfaction levels. Use this guide to help you understand the method, what the results mean, and how you can achieve better scores across your organization.
If you’re ready to make feedback a priority in your company, add Polly as your employee feedback co-pilot. Our collection of feedback and coaching features help you collect feedback, support your team members, and build a company culture centered around transparency and honesty. Bring Polly onboard and sail towards a future with more engaged employees.