Why are the European and US eNPS differerent from each other?

If you want to create a strong HR policy, it is important that you use useful measurement tools to generate data. Based on data, you can make better informed decisions and monitor whether interventions have the right consequences. The eNPS is one of the ways to retrieve fast, useful data about the perception of employees in your organization. This measuring instrument originates from America and has been translated to Europe. But to make the data accurate, there had to be an adjustment in the method. Why are the European and US eNPS differerent from each other? And how does the eNPS offer useful insights? You can read about it in this blog.

The history of the American eNPS

The original NPS (Net Promoter Score) method was invented in 1993 by Fred Reichheld, and implemented by his employer in 2003. Back then, it was not used in relation to the employee experience. The NPS was intended as a tool to measure how satisfied customers were with a company’s service and thus how loyal they were. Namely, they were asked:

How likely are you to recommend company X to a friend or colleague?

Customers can give a rating between 1 and 10. The resulting data is used to predict customers’ purchasing and referral behavior. After conducting extensive research, Reichheld’s research team found that this question showed the most correlation with customer behavior. It has since become a widely used tool for many organizations to collect customer feedback.

But you can also use the NPS to survey the experience of employees. By modifying the question slightly, the American eNPS (employee Net Promoter Score) was created. This is used to generate data on how satisfied employees are with the employment practices of the organization they work for. In the case of the eNPS, the question is asked as follows:

How likely are you to recommend [organization] as a good employer to others?

With this question, you can easily take stock of how employees perceive your employership. You can read more about how to analyze the results in the blog.

The difference between the European and American eNPS

The eNPS gives you useful insights about the employee experience with just one question. And although the European eNPS is based on the American eNPS, there is an important difference in the calculation method behind the question. To find out how well you score, participants are divided into three categories: detractors, passives, and promoters. To calculate the eNPS, you do the following math: the % promoters – the % detractors = the eNPS. For the American version, the following distribution applies:

American eNPS

The people who answer with a 1 through 6 to the above question are considered critics or detractors. With them, they are unlikely to recommend you as an employer to others. The people who give a 7 or 8 are the passives or passives. They are actually seen as impartial – they are not necessarily critical, but neither will they speak of their employer with praise. Those who give a 9 or 10 are the ambassadors or promoters in your organization. These are the ones who are very satisfied with your organization as an employer and will also tell others that they recommend the company.

So, imagine that the outcome of your question has the following distribution: 20% promoters, 20% passives and 60% detractors. Then you get the following math: 20% promoters – 60% detractors = an eNPS of -40.

But what is the difference with the European eNPS? You can see that in the breakdown below:

European eNPS

Here you see that the detractors are only the people who give a 1 to 5, the passives are those with a 6 or 7, and the promoters are 8 to 10. Although the sum remains the same, a different score then comes out. Because more people are counted as promoters, and fewer as detractors. Therefore, the percentage of detractors is smaller, and the percentage of promoters is larger than in the American eNPS calculation.

If the same answers are given as for the American eNPS question, with this scale you will end up with the following distribution: 50% detractors, 20% passives and 30% promoters. That means an eNPS of 30% promoters – 50% detractors = -20. That’s quite a big difference from the American scale, isn’t it?

Why is the scale of the U.S. eNPS different?

So, the change in scale leads to a different answer. But why is that so? It has mainly to do with the cultural differences between America and Europe. Americans are much more likely to give a 9 or 10 than Europeans will. Just look at school culture, for example: Americans expect their children to come home with an A (10), while in Europe an 8 is already considered very good.

Stichting KIRC (Customer Institute Research Center), a Dutch knowledge institute, conducted research on the NPS scale based on this fact. They concluded that customers who gave an 8 were just as loyal to a company as customers who gave a 9 or 10. Therefore, it was decided that in the European scale, customers giving an 8 would also be counted as promoters. And you can’t sell a 6 as insufficient in Europe, so it counts as passives. And so, you end up with a different scale and thus a different outcome, which is more appropriate to European culture than the American distribution of the eNPS scale.

What do you do with the eNPS?

Nice that you can ask such a question to know how your employees rate your employership. But what do you do with it next? That’s the most important step. Because you get important data with one simple question, but then you’re not done yet! Maybe your score is disappointing, or maybe you want to score outstanding (don’t we all?). Then it is important to work with the results of the question.

With 2DAYSMOOD’s tool, you let employees quickly and simply answer the eNPS question and, after an automatic calculation, you receive your score. But then, of course, you want to take steps to improve! To this end, 2DAYSMOOD has developed a baseline measurement in which employees answer questions about 15 important drivers for happiness at work. Smart dashboards show you exactly where you can improve. And with the tool you send out in-depth modules to employees, which they can answer in just 15 seconds per week. You always have relevant data, and you can immediately measure whether your interventions bring improvement. After a while you ask the eNPS question again, and you will see that your score has gone up!

Want to see if your employees recommend you as an employer to others? Try 2DAYSMOOD’s tool and get useful insights, smart dashboards and happy employees!