While we encourage employers to do regular, consistent employee surveys to gauge the mood of the workforce and the perception gap (the difference between management’s view of the organization and employees’), there is sometimes a reluctance to do so because management believe surveys are just an opportunity for employees to gripe about their individual circumstances rather than a proper reflection of the organization. Alternatively, employers point to the poor response rate and difficulty in running the process successfully as reasons not to do the survey.
An alternative to a full survey is the Net Promoter Score (NPS). This is a single question survey developed by Fred Reichheld and adapted by Bain & Co. Originally intended to judge customer’s perceptions of the company it can be equally applied to employees.
The NPS asks a simple question, “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend the company to a friend or colleague?” Anybody answering with a 9 or 10 is a promoter, 7/8 are neutral and anybody from 0 to 6 a detractor. The net score is calculated by taking the percentage of promoters less the percentage of detractors.
Example: In a survey of 100 people, 50 are promoters and 15 are detractors. The NPS is 50% (50/100) less 15% (15/100) which is equal to 35%.
A score of 50% is considered good.
Using a simple survey, the employer can assess engagement over time and assess whether things are improving or deteriorating. It won’t give all the answers, but it will be likely to get a better response rate, is easy to design and can more easily show the trend.