Is Your eNPS Lying to You? A New Framework for Truly Understanding Your Employees

If you’re like most internal communicators, this might sound familiar: spending weeks on a campaign, curating perfect visuals, achieving soaring open rates – only to receive a lackluster reaction when presenting your results to the C-Suite.

Our research shows that 92% of IC professionals can’t prove their ROI. It’s much easier to report on surface-level metrics than to demonstrate true value – to tell your leadership team how many people saw a message, rather than showing them how that message moved the needle on the business.

To bridge this gap, IC professionals need to start acting like strategic architects. In a recent Workvivo webinar, Joanna Parsons (The Curious Route), Idris Mustafowski (Bounce), and Megan Ford (Fishbowl) came together with our Partner Lead, Jazz Hanley, to explore exactly that. 

Here are our top takeaways from the session.

1. The $750,000 town hall

One of the most profound takeaways from the session came from Joanna Parsons. She recalled a CEO at a scaling tech firm who was "gung-ho" about a weekly, one-hour town hall.

From an IC perspective, it felt like too much noise. But telling a CEO they "yap too much" rarely ends well.

Instead, Joanna reframed the problem. She didn’t talk about "engagement fatigue." She calculated the cost of shutting down the entire business for an hour every single week: a grand total of $750,000 a year. 

When she was able to demonstrate that expense to the CEO, their perspective shifted instantly and the meeting moved to once a month. 

When you speak the language of the C-Suite – which is almost always some combination of money, time, and risk – you stop being a cost center and start being a consultant.

2. The "baseline rule": You can't measure progress in a vacuum

Many IC pros find themselves in a "measurement flap" in December, trying to justify their year. The problem? They don't know where they started.

Joanna, who studied sociology before comms, advocates for the “baseline rule”: that you cannot measure the difference you made if you don't have a measurement from before your intervention.

She shared an example from her time with the Irish Police Force during COVID-19. where compliance with face-mask policies was low. Instead of just launching a "wear a mask" campaign, she used the existing compliance data (the baseline), which sat at 25%. After the campaign, compliance was measured again at 85%.

Because she had that starting number, she could claim direct credit for a 60% increase in safety compliance. Her lesson: before you create a single piece of content, find out what the "before" state looks like.

3. Is your eNPS lying to you?

The Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) is a staple of HR and IC reporting, but Idris Mustafowski argues it can be dangerously misleading – if a score is low, is it because the CEO's vision is poor, or because the coffee in the breakroom is cold?

At Bounce, they split the question in two:

• How likely are you to recommend the Brand?
• How likely are you to recommend your Specific Site/Venue?

This "quadrant reporting" creates a map of where the communication is actually failing. 

• High brand score but low venue score? You have a local management problem that no amount of global newsletters will fix.
• High venue score but low brand score? Your "support office" messaging isn't landing. 

By narrowing the focus, you make the data actionable for the board.

4. Systemize, emotionalize, ritualize

To move people, you have to understand the "ecosystem of noise" they live in. Idris uses a three-layer framework to ensure communication leads to behavioral change:

• Systemize: These are your SOPs and technical updates. The "what" and the "how."
• Emotionalize: This is the "why." At Bounce, it’s not just about a shift schedule; it’s about a customer having the best birthday party of his life.
• Ritualize: This is where you celebrate the behavior until it's a habit.

Leaders don't care about "clicks"; they care about alignment to mission. When you can show that your comms are emotionalizing the company’s goals, you show that you’re building a culture that lasts.

5. Reach vs. practical truth

Megan Ford of Fishbowl said that "post reach" is her obsession – she thinks about it constantly despite knowing it’s a vanity metric.

When Fishbowl rolled out a new cleaning procedure across 60+ sites, the goal wasn’t "video views" – the goal was a clean restaurant and a safe customer. Megan tracked the views, yes, but the true measure of success came from the lead trainers’ reports on their practical assessments in the kitchens.

When the trainers reported that consistency had improved and confusion had vanished, that was the ROI.

Lifting the fog

Measuring what matters isn't about adding more dashboards or reporting more data – it’s about curiosity. It’s about "making a nuisance of yourself," as Joanna puts it – getting out of the office, sitting in the canteens, and understanding the operational reality of your people.

When you align your metrics with the business's top three to five priorities, the "polite nodding" in the boardroom stops. In its place, you get a seat at the table, a protected budget, and the recognition that internal communications is a critical part of the engine that makes the business run.

Watch the webinar back here.