Engaged employees create engaged customers. Engaged customers create repeat and referral business. Success with employees – and ultimately your customers – allows your company to grow and sustain itself over the long haul. With your employees you create the first tier of experiences that make the second tier – those with your external customers – possible. Employee engagement is a strategically crucial issue. But how do you measure employee satisfaction? With the eNPS – the Employee Net Promoter Score.
NPS – the one question customer satisfaction survey
Let’s start with some background on where this tool started – measuring external customer loyalty. Many businesses use a one-question survey to determine the extent of external customer satisfaction. It’s called the NPS, or the Net Promoter Score. Here’s the question:
“On a scale of 1-10, how likely would you be to refer a friend or family member to do business with us?”
Promoters – Customers giving ratings of 9 or 10 are considered Promoters. They are the ones out there talking about how much they like your company, your products, their buying experiences, etc. These are your unpaid salespersons in the community.
Passives – Raters who score your business 7 or 8 would be considered Passive. They aren’t talking trash about your company, but they aren’t loyal to you either. They are susceptible to considering other offers that might look attractive.
Detractors – Anyone who answers your one question survey with a 1-6 is considered a Detractor. Count on the fact that these folks are sharing with their connections just how much they do not like your business, your service, your faulty products, etc. Unfortunately, Detractors can be the most vocal of these three categories of external customers.
To calculate your NPS score, set the Passives aside. Now subtract the Detractors (%) from the Promoters (%) and you will come up with your NPS number.
eNPS – using the net promoter question to measure employee satisfaction
Some studies indicate that 70-80% of employees are not engaged at work. Imagine what impact that disengagement has on productivity, quality, and employment longevity! if you want to know where you stand. apply the NPS question in an employee-focused way.
“On a scale of 1-10, how likely would you be to refer someone to work for us?”
In the employee version of this tool you come up with the same categories of respondents – Promoters, Passives, and Detractors. Then you calculate an eNPS score by subtracting the share of Detractors (%) from the share of Promoters (%). For example, if your results showed 20% of your respondents were Promoters and 10% of your respondents were Detractors, your eNPS score would be 10. Track your eNPS score over time and you can see trends on how your management methods are impacting employee perceptions.
It’s not enough to measure what employees think about your company. If you want the full benefit you need to DO something in response to your score. Determining HOW to influence the eNPS in a positive way is a post for another day. But if you want employees to work harder, stay with your company longer, and make the workplace a more pleasant place to invest your time, ask this question. Scoring your company’s eNPS performance is a good first step to take.