How eNPS Can Be a Game-Changer for Startup Growth

In the world of startups, where growth is the flag every team member gathers around, understanding your team’s pulse can make all the difference. Enter the Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS), a simple yet powerful KPI that startups are embracing to help keep their ships pointed in the right direction from an early stage.

Here’s why you should care:

1. Effortless feedback: eNPS makes understanding your team’s sentiments a much easier than asking everyone in the room.
2. Direct correlation with growth: Happy employees are the best brand ambassadors.
3. Actionable insights: eNPS provides real data (quantitative and qualitative) that can guide impactful action.

eNPS in a Nutshell

Before we dive deep, let’s understand what eNPS stands for. In the simplest terms, it measures employee loyalty, answering the question: “On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely is it you would recommend this company as a place to work?” or some close variation of that question to your employees.

The beauty of eNPS lies in its simplicity, transforming employee feedback into tangible data. It segments employees into three categories:

• Promoters (score 9-10): Loyal enthusiasts who will keep fueling growth and bringing positivity into the workplace.
• Passives (score 7-8): Satisfied but unenthusiastic folks who could sway with the wind.
• Detractors (score 0-6): Unhappy campers who might hinder growth through negative word-of-mouth.

Wondering what a good eNPS score is for your industry?
Check out industry averages here.

But why has eNPS become the new talk of the town in startup culture? Here’s the lowdown.

1. Unearthing Honest Feedback

Startups need to pivot fast, not just in product development or market strategy, but also in keeping their teams engaged and aligned. eNPS’s magic lies in its anonymity, providing a safe space for honest feedback and can be administered automatically on any schedule you’d like though monthly or quarterly may be best. Larger employee engagement surveys should be kept to once or twice a year though.

How?

• Encourages openness: Employees often fear backlash for honest criticism. Anonymity in these surveys can help mitigate this fear, allowing for more honest and constructive feedback because this is what will allow you to grow and improve internally.
• Quick insights: eNPS isn’t a lengthy survey. It’s a quick pulse check that can be more frequent and less cumbersome, encouraging more participation and ongoing insight into team morale. The written feedback isn’t as quick to review depending on the size of your company, but is critical in understanding why the score is what it is.

2. The Ripple Effect on Growth

A happy team doesn’t just build a positive work environment; it creates ripples that extend to your customer base and beyond. Your employees are your first and most credible brand ambassadors. If they speak highly of you, congratulations, you’ve just earned the most authentic marketing strategy. While that is one piece, they will also be more likely to be engaged in their efforts to grow your company.

Talent acquisition: Boasting a high eNPS score can help your business attract top talent. The best folks in the industry want to work somewhere known for a great employee experience. This can help you competitively so you get better talent than your competition and having more engaged employees will only fuel your startup’s growth.

Customer happiness can also be linked with happy engaged employees.

3. Turning Data into Action

Here’s where it gets real. eNPS isn’t just about gathering data; it’s about what you do with that data. Here are some keys to your post-survey action. And if you want to dive deeper on this topic, we have a complete guide to it here.

• Identify trends: Keep an eye on your eNPS over time. Is there a consistent issue dragging your score down? Or something boosting it that you can capitalize on? Correlating events in the business to changes in your score will help you tell the tale when reporting and analyzing trends. Beyond that, you can mark off key initiatives you implemented and when they launched to see how they affect your score over time.
• Employee journey: Understand different stages of the employee lifecycle. Are new hires becoming detractors? Are your long-term team members your strongest promoters? Most eNPS tools should be able to get you this level of detail. At Peoplelytics, this can be tracked if you implement the Hire Date field when adding and managing employees.
• Prompt action: eNPS can highlight issues in real-time, allowing for quick action. Maybe a recent policy change is causing discontent? Maybe it’s time for a rethink on that or digging into other areas that are top of mind for employees lately?

Companies with engaged employees outperform those without by up to 202%

Gallup

Bringing It All Together with eNPS

Implementing eNPS is just the start. The real game-changer is fostering a culture where feedback is welcomed, and actionable change is pursued.
Start planning how to implement surveys today. Starting with a standard eNPS survey with 2 or 3 questions can reveal insights right away. As you embark on this journey, remember, no company scores a perfect 100 score overnight. It’s about consistent effort and genuine care for your employees’ voices. It’s about recognizing achievements and acknowledging and working to resolve challenges.

In the startup world, small changes can have a significant impact with smaller teams where changes can be felt even more on a person to person level. A tool like eNPS (like the one offered by Peoplelytics) isn’t just a measure of employee satisfaction; it’s a catalyst for growth. Each piece of feedback is a stepping stone, guiding you towards creating a work environment that not only attracts top talent but retains them.

Calling All Startups

Ready for the eNPS journey? Sign up for Peoplelytics to send better employee surveys, improve employee satisfaction, engagement, and retention. The growth you’ve been striving for is just around the corner!