What’s a Good eNPS Score? (And How to Track It)

You’ve calculated your eNPS score. Now what?

Here lies a problem often seen in the people data world: leaders aren’t sure if their data is “good” or “bad,” or even what to do with it.

That uncertainty or inaction can cost you in the long run. Disengaged employees result in decreased profits, higher absenteeism, and increased turnover. Moreover, the emotional toll of low morale is detrimental to your organization’s culture and processes.

But luckily, you can get a pulse on your people – and act on their feedback – by using eNPS surveys.

Below we tackle eNPS, including what it is, how to calculate your score, determining a preferred score, and how to sustainably track it.

What is eNPS?

Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) is a feedback metric used to measure and improve employee experience. It's based on the same net promoter score surveying tool used to track customer loyalty, but is tailored to focus on employee sentiment.

Many organizations use eNPS surveys to measure employee engagement, job satisfaction, and overall well-being in the workplace. It's a simple yet effective way to track how happy your employees are in their role, retention efforts, and how likely they are to recommend your workplace to others (and as we all know, the most powerful form of referrals is word of mouth).

A Quick Recap: How to Find Your eNPS Score

Even eNPS all-stars need refreshers. Here are three simple steps to help you uncover your organization’s eNPS score.

1. Send Out eNPS Surveys

The first step to finding your organization’s eNPS score is surveying employees and gathering their individual scores. A basic eNPS survey asks employees how likely they are to recommend their organization as a place to work on a 0-10 scale.

eNPS surveys are simple and take seconds to answer, which is why they’re often a survey of choice.

Employee responses are divided into three categories:

• 9-10: Promoters. Employees who are highly engaged, fulfilled at work, and loyal to the organization.
• 7-8: Passives. Employees that are neutral, meaning they’re engaged but not necessarily fully committed to staying at the organization.
• 0-6: Detractors. Employees who aren’t engaged or satisfied with working at the organization.

2. Use an eNPS Calculation to Find Your eNPS Score

Once you've gathered the responses, use the following formula to calculate your current eNPS rate:

This eNPS calculation is an effective way to set your eNPS benchmark and track progress over time.

3. Create Follow-Up Questions to Glean Insights

To really get a bang for your buck, take your eNPS survey a step further and build upon your initial question. By asking people to explain their scores – or answer targeted questions about specific topics – you can continuously monitor and improve aspects like employee engagement, retention, and productivity.

This practice is something Caitlin Golden, VP of HR at Screencastify, implements to ensure she understands how her people are feeling. She says, “I find that allowing comments or adding in open ended questions give a lot of insight into how people are feeling. Also, depending on your size, looking at different cuts of the survey – by department, tenure, manager – are helpful in seeing where more attention may be needed.”

Make building and sending out eNPS surveys a breeze by doing it all in one platform.

What's a Good eNPS Score?

Think of your eNPS as a temperature check: on a scale from -100 to 100, it gives you an idea of how likely employees are to spread the good word about your organization and how likely they are to remain in their role.

However, what constitutes a "good" eNPS score varies from company to company (and industry to industry). In fact, Michaela Kolackova, People Ops Lead at Runecast, argues that “comparing eNPS across companies is not as beneficial as comparing your own eNPS over time.”

That being said, you should aim for an eNPS score above 50. Sure, anything in the positive range is fine, but is that really how you want employees to talk about your workplace? And if your score is 70 or above, start planning a parade thrown in your honor.

But … note that your preferred eNPS score is indicative of where you’ve been and where you want to go. For example, a score of 62 is great, but if it was 74 the previous quarter, you’ll want to dive into the metrics to see what happened.

Therefore, it’s essential to track and monitor your eNPS on a regular basis to see if your initiatives are working and if your people are truly happy.

How to Track eNPS

Track your eNPS score over time to gain insight into the overall satisfaction and engagement levels of your employees. Doing so helps you identify problem areas and prompts the development of plans to address surfaced issues.

But don’t just track the eNPS score of your whole organization. Yes, you’ll want that information, but arguably more importantly is knowing your eNPS scores of different employee demographics. Gender? Check. Ethnicity? Check. Department? Check. Age? Check.

Kolackova understands the importance of breaking down eNPS scores – in her case, specifically by team. She explains: “One of our teams was consistently scoring low compared to the rest of the company. We explored all points of view, tried different things, and the team was still scoring much lower. We therefore decided not to compare the team to the rest of the company but the team to the score from the previous month, to see whether there was an improvement.”

Ready to start tracking your eNPS score? After finding your baseline, preferred best practices look like:

1. Sending out eNPS surveys every four to six months. Sending out eNPS surveys every one to two quarters helps keep a pulse on new initiatives and employee sentiment in real-time. Furthermore, routine surveys flag any potential issues for you to address before they get out of hand.
2. Comparing eNPS scores over time. Analyze and compare your eNPS scores to the results of past surveys. This practice not only allows you to see employee satisfaction and engagement trends over time, but also note which initiatives caused ebbs and flows in your scores.
3. Analyzing your eNPS data for trends. Run your eNPS data through filters (such as by gender, level, age, and department) to spot any trends in collected feedback.
4. Developing strategies to positively impact your people. It’s important to not only collect data, but to also take action. For example, if your eNPS score dips after a round of layoffs, you’ll want to invest in practices to boost morale and retain your current employees.

When your people data is kept in one place, you can run your eNPS survey scores through a variety of filters to make informed decisions for future initiatives.

Use Your eNPS Score to Help Create a Strong Employee Experience

You want to know how your people are feeling, but also know employees may not take the time to answer a 20-minute survey. eNPS surveys are your new best friend, as you can glean insights and determine an accurate picture of how people feel about their workplace experience quickly and effectively. And by tracking it over time (holistically and categorically), you can pinpoint areas of strength and growth opportunities to help plan for the future.

Ultimately, knowing and using your eNPS score to build a healthier work environment will improve your employee experience, improve morale, and positively impact your people’s personal and professional wellbeing.

All people deserve to have a positive employee experience, no matter their organization's size or budget. Hear from four leaders in the space on how they support their employees’ whole selves, at any growth stage or budget.