Our net promoter score matters. But it doesn't tell the whole story.

Everybody in HR knows that the eNPS is a big deal. But at Tymeshift, we look at the bigger picture.

The net promoter score (or eNPS) is the current gold standard on engagement in the workplace.  It’s the score companies get when they ask their team:

“How likely are you to recommend our company as a great place to work?” 

Here’s the problem with the net promoter score. People might be very willing to recommend a company as a great place to work for the wrong reasons. If it’s a great place to work because it’s fun and there is no pressure to perform, then it’s absolutely the wrong place for high performers who want to make their mark. When we combine “Would you recommend?” with “Are you proud to work here?” and then ask, “Have you applied for another job in the last 3 months?”, then we have a more comprehensive picture. 

Our vision is “to be the Zendesk of WFM”

To achieve that  we need people who are truly passionate about that vision. For our team members to be truly aligned and able to perform at their best, Tymeshift needs to remove any obstacles and fuel that passion.

We need to be doing our jobs right. And creating a great company culture.

That's why for us, the eNPS just isn't enough.

That's why at Tymeshift, we have 15-20 statements on our survey that give us a more comprehensive picture of how we are doing. These statements range from “I feel valued for my contributions” to “My fellow team members focus their energy in the right areas” (Focused Energy is one of our values). And we repeat the survey semi-annually. Some of the statements may change over time but our goal is continuous improvement for our teams and for the company.

It’s not just about people being happy.

Taking the engagement survey to the team

It may be ‘old school’ but I believe you need to get people together and share the results of the survey with them. Then you need to ask them more about what they meant when they answered a specific question. 

I have been conducting focus groups like this for literally decades. I can honestly say that every time I have sat down with people in an organization, I have learned something new. 

Tymeshift team members are naturally open and so we get a lot of honest and well-intentioned feedback when we get together.

It’s not about complaining. It’s about looking for opportunities to improve. We are fortunate to work with very bright people who solve problems daily. Our teams frequently present a challenge accompanied with a solution. Or maybe they’ll work together to come up with a solution on the spot. 

The team knows that their feedback is anonymous and they know that we will be sharing their comments, questions and ideas with the leadership team.

Deliver the Report to Senior Management

The next step in the process is to take the feedback to the leadership team and let them digest the information and respond to the feedback. There is often a lot of information generated and management is honest about what they can or cannot do. 

Our leadership team takes the feedback very seriously and objectively. If that is what people are saying, then it is true for them. Their perception is their reality, so we need to address their concerns. 

During our last cycle, our engineers wanted to understand better what our customers were asking for.  i.e. why are we working on what we are working on?  The leadership team took this feedback to heart and came back to the team with ideas and action plans.  Developers were invited to calls with customers; we added lunch’n learn topics to bring the customer experience closer to everyone in the company; and we encouraged the engineering team to ask more questions in meetings and on slack.

We will follow up informally on how actions like these impacted people and where necessary, make adjustments.

A good net promoter score is not good enough

Sure, we have a company goal for eNPS but even when we achieve it, we know there is more to be done. This truly is a cycle with no defined ending. As soon as we implement actions to improve the experience for our team, another survey is just around the corner. There may be celebrations along the way but we never stop improving the experience for our team members.

Our culture is one of our competitive advantages.That’s why we keep striving to be the best place to work, learn, grow and have fun. 

Corey Dalton:

Corey is Tymeshift’s Head of People and a great Executive Coach with over 30 years experience. He is married, has two lovely kids, a grandchild and a love for coffee that has stopped him from transitioning to matcha. Corey is based in Canada and has been one of the forces helping our people grow and develop in their careers: he says he is happy when he can be a small part of their success.

About Tymeshift:

We’re Tymeshift, an effortless WFM solution made exclusively for Zendesk to make workforce managers’ lives easier. Our workforce management tools include shift scheduling, forecasting and analytics. A perfectly intuitive Zendesk integration makes your CX agents’ lives easier. Learn all there is about us and our product on tymeshift.com