Measuring Employee Engagement- eNPS Survey

Introduction to NPS and eNPS…

When I started working as a Scrum Master back in 2017, I was exploring different ways for measuring employee happiness and motivation. Being a Project Manager in the past, I was conducting various surveys as part of the feedback from my customers and one of them was having Net Promoter System (NPS) in place.

The concept of NPS was created in 2003 by the consulting firm Bain & Co., to measure customer satisfaction. All you have to do is to ask a simple question to your customer:

“How likely are you to recommend our product to your family and friends?”

The customers provide feedback on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest, and then the companies used to calculate the NPS based on a simple calculation which is explained below.

Recently, organizations have also realized the importance of employee satisfaction and they now ask the same question to the employees but with a little twist:

On a Scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is not at all likely and 10 is extremely likely, how likely are you to recommend [Name of the company] to a friend or colleague?

And hence, the Employee Net Promoter Score, or eNPS, was created.

The respondents are able to rate based on their experiences in various aspects with the organization, and their inputs reflects their commitment.

Calculating eNPS!

eNPS, is basically the difference between the happiest employee and the least happy employee.

The responses received on the eNPS survey are categorized in 3 categories:

1. Promoters -> Scores of 9 & 10. Employees in this category are highly committed and are your company’s ambassadors.
2. Passives -> Scores of 7 & 8. Employees in this category are not having a negative experience within the company, but they are not actively engaged either.
3. Detractors -> Scores between 1 & 6. Employees in this category are highly disengaged and needs immediate attention.

The formula for calculating the eNPS is:

Net Promoter Score = (% of Promoters) — (% of Detractors)

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The eNPS scale ranges from -100 (all detractors) to 100 (perfect score with all promoters). A score above 0 is satisfactory, above 25 is good and above 50 is exceptional. This clearly indicates that the company has more promoters than detractors.

Benefits of eNPS…

1. It’s quick and simple. No need to worry about asking the right amount of questions as a manager, and no need to answer long surveys as an employee.
2. As per my experience, eNPS has higher participation and response rate than any other surveys.
3. As I mentioned earlier, it’s simple and easy to work with. You only get a single number as an input and the trend can be clearly tracked.
4. No cost involvement for survey executions. I have been using Google Forms for getting the feedback. Moreover, a couple of email reminders are sufficient for follow-ups.

Structuring eNPS execution…

1. Cadence — It’s really important to identify the timings and frequency. I used to have a monthly cadence with my scrum teams.
2. Anonymity — It’s best to keep the inputs anonymous. This ensures psychological safety and honest feedback from the employees.
3. Understanding the WHY — It’s really important that the employees understands the purpose behind this survey. They should be reminded that exaggerated ratings are not required and ask them to be honest in their inputs. It’s of no use if they give positive scores and don’t feel that way.
4. Reminders — Ideally, the participation should be high as this is not one of those long surveys which takes large amount of time to complete. However, still a couple of reminders during any scrum ceremony should suffice.

How does my team’s eNPS survey looks like…

As I mentioned above, I am using a Google Form for the eNPS execution. However, I am conducting the survey not only for the organization, but also for the team. Moreover, I also keep an open-ended question where the respondents can add their thoughts/feedback/suggestions in detail.

My eNPS survey form looks something like this:

Making eNPS Effective

1. A continuous cadence is necessary to keep the trend in check.
2. Make it transparent. Whatever the score is, don’t keep it to yourself. Let the team know where they all stand and how they have to improve.
3. Most important is to Take an Action. Make sure each and every comment/input is reviewed and worked upon in a timely manner. If the team feels that the inputs are of no use, they will stop sharing the feedback over a period of time.
4. Share your own feedback to the team. Help them understand your thoughts on the score and the comments which the team has shared. Moreover, be transparent on the actions you are planning to take or have taken to resolve the issues raised by them. This will motivate the employees to share openly and continue to participate in the surveys.

I highly recommend conducting eNPS as it helps the teams understand where they stand in terms of engagement and happiness. It’s a step towards creating great culture and working environment.

Do share your feedback in the comments section.

Cheers :D