Ask an HR Expert: Making the Most of eNPS Survey Data

According to a global survey by Slack, 82% of employees cite satisfaction and engagement as key productivity factors. But how do you know what your employees really think about your company? How do you find out what you need to change to create a better work environment?

Measuring employee satisfaction can answer these questions. It helps you understand your employees’ most urgent concerns and take action to improve the employee experience and your business results.

Employee satisfaction and engagement go hand in hand. Satisfied employees are often more passionate about their work and more invested in the company’s success. They also contribute to an attractive brand image for potential applicants. Dissatisfied employees, on the other hand, tend to be less engaged and cost the global economy $8.8 trillion.

In our series "Ask an HR Expert," we talk to the HR professionals who make IceHrm a great place to work. In this article, Cassie Whitlock, our former HR Director, explains how to make the most of your eNPS® survey data and develop effective HR strategies that boost employee satisfaction.

What is eNPS?

The Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) is a rating system that allows you to measure your employees' satisfaction with your company. This workplace survey method is based on the Net Promoter Score℠ (NPS®), which was originally developed by Fred Reichheld at Bain & Company to measure customer satisfaction.

• Promoters (9 or 10 points): Satisfied and engaged employees who are likely to see your company as an attractive employer.
• Passives (7 or 8 points): These employees, also called neutral, are satisfied with their tasks but not overly engaged.
• Detractors (6 points or less): These employees are less likely to recommend your company, which means they are at risk of leaving the company or having a negative influence.

After evaluating the ratings, the system calculates a final score between -100 and 100, reflecting the majority opinion (% promoters - % detractors = eNPS).

What is a good eNPS score?  

Good eNPS scores typically range between 10 and 30, with anything above considered excellent. The closer your score is to 100, the more advocates your company has. If your score is on the lower end, your workforce may primarily consist of detractors – in this case, it's time to take a closer look and find out how you can improve employee satisfaction.  

In the IceHrm employee satisfaction survey, we also ask a follow-up question: What changes could your company make to become a better workplace? These responses are anonymous, making it easier for respondents to speak openly and honestly about opportunities for improvement within the company.

HR managers can view the overall score and its development over time in their HR software. This makes it easy to compare the data and assess the impact of changes.

How often should an eNPS survey be conducted?

The timing of the survey is crucial for obtaining meaningful data. We recommend conducting the survey at least twice a year – that’s also how often we do it at IceHrm – but no more than once per quarter. Otherwise, there is a risk of survey fatigue, which can negatively affect the quality and quantity of responses.

Pay attention to how often you send out surveys or ask your employees for feedback. If you ask so frequently that you don’t have time to respond, your employees might lose confidence that you are listening to them.

Is there an unfavorable time for employee surveys?

Carefully consider when to conduct the eNPS survey in relation to the seasonal pressures in the company. For example, it would not be advisable to send a survey during the week of bonus payments, during the peak season, or in a period of strong sales. Instead of capturing your employees' opinions on the overall development of the company, you could distort your results and merely measure their reactions to current events.

Even though you need to understand how these factors affect your employees, this is not the purpose of an employee satisfaction survey. Therefore, it is best to send the survey at neutral times to obtain the most accurate results.  

How do you motivate employees to participate in an employee satisfaction survey?  

As with all data, the more information you gather about employee satisfaction, the better. Ideally, you want as many employees as possible to answer the questions about the Employee Net Promoter Score (ENPS).  

However, any form of direct urging can be counterproductive. From the employees' perspective, the anonymity of the survey is the most important aspect. If you put pressure on them to complete it, the survey quickly loses its anonymous and voluntary nature.

We learned this lesson early on at IceHrm. We tried to encourage participation by sending more email reminders and having managers bring up the topic in their daily stand-up meetings. However, we encountered resistance from employees, as they felt monitored and controlled regarding their participation.

Although unintentional, we knew we had to make a change. As a leadership team, we met and set an acceptable benchmark for participation: 60% to 75%.

This benchmark gives us the reassurance of worrying less about the participation rate as long as we reach or exceed it. It also helps us respond if we don’t meet it. Keep in mind: Even a participation rate below the expected benchmark is important feedback and can indicate potential issues.

For example:

• Employees distrust the HR department and management.  
• Something is preventing them from participating (e.g., lack of time during the busy season).  
• Employees have already contributed ideas but feel they are not being heard.  

Ultimately, your strategy for using the eNPS should be to view it as a tool with a specific purpose – measuring employee satisfaction – and use it in combination with other resources and metrics. You should not place unnecessary pressure on a single survey to capture every aspect of the employee experience or your company.

How can the balance be achieved between listening to employees and visibly implementing changes while maintaining the overall health of the company?

First, you should define your strategic framework for the eNPS survey: Why and how will you use it?

At IceHrm, the eNPS survey serves as a company-wide tool to measure employee satisfaction. The strategic responsibility for analyzing the data and feedback rests with the leadership team. We look for company-wide patterns. These may appear differently across various departments, but essentially, we focus on overarching trends.

Once you have clarity about the why and how, communicate these insights to your employees. They need to understand that the survey is not a democratic tool for running the company – it is impossible to address everyone's ideas.

But that doesn't mean you should ignore everything that isn't shared by the majority. Sometimes we come across individual comments that are worth responding to, whether because they highlight an urgent issue that needs to be addressed or simply because they're a good idea that no one has thought of yet.

How do you make business decisions based on metrics?

It is human nature to focus on the numbers, especially when it comes to critics and what others say about your performance. However, these distractions can take you away from what really matters.

When measuring employee satisfaction with IceHrm, you should primarily focus on identifying company-wide patterns and continuing to build on your strengths. Focusing on strengths can be more effective than focusing on weaknesses (unless they are severe). Here are three simple tips for evaluating the data:

1. Listen to the supporters and take the critics seriously.

Your supporters are the most engaged employees in your company and can give you a good overview of your strengths. However, if the majority of your employees are critical, this is obviously a serious issue that you need to address.

2. Pay attention to different employee experiences.

If you receive contradictory feedback within the same department or team, ask yourself what you can do to create a more consistent employee experience. For example, if your employees provide both positive and negative feedback on the same issue, you should review leadership behavior and emphasize the values more strongly so that everyone contributes.

3. Consider how to turn the undecided into advocates.

Don’t ignore your undecided employees – there’s a good chance they can be persuaded. Small changes can make a big difference and turn passives into advocates. Analyze the feedback to identify the most common issues.

How often do you analyze older data?  

We do not analyze survey data between collection periods. This is a deliberate decision that we made at IceHrm based on the reasons for collecting the data. We collected the data, our employees responded, and now we need to prove that we are listening to them by acting on their feedback.  

This means we use the time between surveys to implement changes and invest in solutions. Some changes are ongoing measures, such as improving communication or providing employee training. Other changes are one-time solutions, such as providing reusable utensils for lunch.

What should you keep in mind when making changes?  

After your employees have conducted a survey, they are now waiting for your feedback. An important step you should not skip is communicating the changes implemented during this feedback phase. Otherwise, you may repeatedly receive the same feedback, as employees may not understand a particular change as the one they wanted.  

For example, some employees wanted a fixed sick leave quota. However, we decided instead on more paid time off (PTO). This gives them more flexibility in using their time off. We made sure that employees were informed that there is now enough PTO available to cover the desired sick leave, to ensure that they felt their wishes were considered.

Key Insights

When measuring employee satisfaction with IceHrm, consider the purpose and goals of your survey and interpret the data in the overall context. Pay attention to company-wide trends, don’t get distracted by critics, and look for new ways to build on your strengths.

Remember: Communication is crucial. Let your employees know what improvements you are making and that their opinion matters. This way, you can better measure your impact, and your employees ultimately feel appreciated.

The eNPS survey is an invaluable tool for measuring employee satisfaction, provided it is conducted strategically and followed by visible action. Success hinges on ensuring anonymity, avoiding survey fatigue, and, most importantly, acting on the insights gained. HR must look beyond individual detractors to identify company-wide patterns and focus on turning Passives into Promoters by building on existing organizational strengths. IceHrm's employee satisfaction survey feature directly supports this process by allowing HR managers to easily measure the eNPS score and track its development over time, facilitating data comparison and impact assessment. By leveraging the comprehensive data and follow-up questions within IceHrm, HR can efficiently analyze feedback, implement targeted changes (like adjusting benefits or communication), and then communicate these improvements to employees, thereby demonstrating that their input is valued and driving a continuous cycle of engagement and betterment.