Enabling Employee Advocacy with Network Insights
By: Togy Jose
Tags: Ona, Advocacy, Influence, Communitie, Nps

Advocacy of a firm has, for a long time, been associated with measuring how individual employees would respond to an NPS (Net Promoter Score) question like the one given below and then collating that data to drive individual-oriented actionables. Depending on the score provided — the difference between the % of Promoters (individuals who have given a high score) and % of Detractors (individuals who have given a low score) gives the overall NPS of the organization.

Measuring NPS has the advantage of simplicity — two-thirds of Fortune 1000 companies, considered this a benchmark for measuring customer / stakeholders advocacy with just one question. On account of the simplicity of this question — it guarantees a minimum volume of response.

Why this isn’t relevant anymore.

This approach would have worked in a time or place where collaboration between employees is minimal and the individual’s perceptions were formed primarily by the sociological construct of Agency (i.e. an individual’s capacity / willingness to act independently).

Having said that, while the NPS framework is simple — it does not account for Structuralism i.e. the impact of the individual’s community / network on his / her decisions. With the advent of the “Social Organization” — this has now become a major factor on account of the complex, networked and highly engaged workplace of today. Understanding the social graph of the organization is key to track and leverage these structural forces. A sample network with key personas given below.

Sample Network with Key Personas

What’s the alternative?

It is no longer feasible to take the linear approach of addressing advocacy at an individual level. Leveraging “Key Employees” who are central to the Social Graph, to drive Advocacy — is a sustainable and efficient way of engaging with the entire organization, at scale.

The only way to do this, is by looking at the NPS scores and “Influence Scores” (from the Social Graph) — simultaneously.

The idea is that, in addition to looking at the count of Promoters, we also point out how effectively these promoters can create new Promoters using their influence. These “Promoter Influencers”, even if they are not many, are centrally positioned to create a disproportionate impact on the overall levels of Advocacy in the firm.

How should an organization implement this approach?

The key to implementing this approach is to create a feedback loop. Following these steps will help in doing that:

Step 1 — Identify Promoter Influencers (PI) looking at NPS scores and the Social Graph.

Step 2 — Enhance visibility for these PI through organizational programs.

Step 3 — Identify Locations / Departments / Business Units with Low Advocacy and create targeted interventions using these PI.

Step 4 — Incentivize Locations / Departments / Business Units with High Advocacy levels by recognizing leaders within these units.

Step 5 — Periodically refresh the PI list by collecting latest NPS data and repeat the cycle.

If you would like to see how this framework can help your organization - reach out to me at togy@orglens.com.