The net promoter score is a customer experience metric that was introduced by Frederick F. Reichheld in 2003 as the only number organizations need to grow, and has since become almost the industry standard. Customers' satisfaction with a product or service is evaluated based on the likelihood of recommending that product or service to someone else.

The employee net promoter score, on the other hand, is calculated in a similar way but by asking whether employees will recommend the organization to someone else as a place to work. NPS is used for the abbreviation of the net promoter score, and eNPS is used for the abbreviation of the employee net promoter score. The calculation method is the same for both. The respondents are asked to rate their likelihood of recommending (the product, service or company) on a 11 point scale ranging from 0 to 10. The (employee) net promoter score is then calculated by subtracting the percentage of the ratings from 0 to 6 from the percentage of ratings of 9 and 10.

Although NPS and eNPS are similar in measurement and calculation method, it is important to keep in mind that there are some fundamental differences between the two.

These differences are mainly due to the fact that the question is directed to two interrelated but different populations, namely, customers and employees. Whether or not a customer recommends a company, service or product is a relatively simple decision that will not place much responsibility on the respoendent. However, recommending an organization as a place to work or not is a slightly more difficult decision that requires more parameters to take into account and comes with more responsibility. This is partly why a typical respondent doesn’t rate the likelihood of recommending their organization as a place to work not as generously as they rate a purchased product or service. Therefore, we often see that NPS values are higher but eNPS values are lower on average.

Another common question when interpreting eNPS values is determining whether the score we get is “good” or “good enough”. Unfortunately, for this assessment, there is no magic formula that would make our life easier. eNPS values may vary according to employee profile, industry, geographical region, cultural characteristics and many other environmental factors. What we need to do here is to observe the change within the organization itself with a regular measurement schedule, rather than determining an absolute benchmark value. Monthly or quarterly eNPS measurements, especially when probed with open-ended questions, provide us with a regular flow of information about the view of the employees about the organization.

At this point, how to use the eNPS values we have obtained is of critical importance. When employees fail to see the positive results of this measurement in their daily lives, this can cast a shadow on both the current situation and the improvements we will make in the future. Therefore, any course of action that gives the message "we’re listening to what you have to say and value your comments" is essential after eNPS measurements.

In summary, eNPS is a metric that needs to be tracked and it gives us information about employee attitudes towards the institution. However, we should not limit our view only to its face value and fluctuations over time. With the implementation of measures that will have a positive impact on employees' lives and with the interpretation of eNPS together with the information we gather from other metrics related to employee experience, we would be ready to see nothing but an increasing eNPS and employees who have a generally positive relationship with the organization.

If you would like to know more about our employee experience surveys, including eNPS measurement, please click here: https://www.cloud4feed.com/index/contact