Staff advocacy score

Employees who believe in an organisation often express that confidence in customer interactions, operational care and what they tell friends or relatives. Their recommendations can affect both demand and the organisation’s ability to attract talent.

When to use it

• Answer the performance question: “To what extent are our employees advocates of our business?”
• Assess advocacy within the employee perspective.
• Specify the collection method, formula, reporting frequency and data ownership required for the KPI.
• Compare results with an internal trend, relevant target or cautiously selected benchmark.

Origins

Staff advocacy adapts customer-loyalty measurement to the employment relationship. After Fred Reichheld introduced Net Promoter Score in the early 2000s, organisations applied a similar recommendation question to employees, often calling the result employee NPS or eNPS. The adaptation is simple to administer but does not replace a validated engagement survey. Anonymity, cultural context and the reasons behind a rating are essential to interpretation.

What it is

Perspective: Employee perspective.

Key performance question: To what extent are our employees advocates of our business?

Employee views can travel widely through professional and social networks. In a competitive talent market, public accounts of working life influence whether candidates see an organisation as a credible employer.

Treating employees as internal customers draws attention to their own expectations and experience. The core survey asks: “How likely is it that you would recommend this company as an employer to a friend?” The answer provides a compact signal of satisfaction, loyalty and potential word of mouth, but it does not explain the cause.

Responses are grouped into:

• Advocates
• Passives
• Detractors

The resulting index gives management a visible measure of employee advocacy and creates accountability for how the organisation treats its people.

How to use it

Measurement

Protect confidentiality, define the eligible population and establish how results will be reported when teams are small.