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Understanding Relative Impact on eNPS

Last updated on Nov 11, 2026

Relative Impact on eNPS helps you see which experience areas matter most to how employees rate your company overall.

You’ll find it in Key Driver Analysis after your eNPS survey is closed.

1. What is Relative Impact on eNPS?

In every eNPS survey, employees answer:

  1. The overall eNPS question — How likely are you to recommend your company?

  2. Driver questions — Areas like Manager Support, Career Growth, Recognition, and so on.

Relative Impact shows each driver’s share of influence on eNPS, as a percentage.

Example: If Career Growth has 35% Relative Impact; it accounts for a larger share of what separates promoters from detractors than a driver with 8%.

All driver percentages add up to about 100%.

2. How is it calculated?

Peoplebox looks at patterns across completed responses in the same survey:

  • People who gave higher or lower eNPS scores

  • How those same people rated each driver

From that, we estimate how strongly each driver is linked to eNPS, then share that influence across drivers as percentages.

In simple terms: Relative Impact answers: “Of the drivers we asked about, which ones best explain differences in eNPS?”

A few important notes:

  • It uses responses from this survey only

  • Only respondents who answered both eNPS and the driver questions are included

  • It is a relative share among your drivers — not a forecast of how many eNPS points you’ll gain

3. How should you use it?

1. Don’t act on impact alone

Ask two questions for each driver:

  1. Does this driver strongly influence eNPS? → Look at Relative Impact

  2. Is there room to improve? → Look at the driver score

The best places to focus are usually drivers with high impact and lower scores.

2. Pair it with Opportunity

Opportunity combines Relative Impact with room to improve. High Opportunity drivers are typically your strongest levers for leadership action.

A useful rule of thumb:

  • High impact + low score → Priority to improve

  • High impact + high score → Strength to protect

  • Low impact + low score → May still matter locally, but is less likely to move overall eNPS

3. Turn insight into action

For your top 1–2 priority drivers:

  1. Read related open-text comments for context

  2. Share findings with the owners of that experience (e.g. managers, HRBPs, leadership)

  3. Pick a small set of concrete actions

  4. Re-measure in the next survey cycle

4. Use it to focus, not to overload

You don’t need an action plan for every driver. Relative Impact helps you choose where limited leadership attention will matter most.

Example

Driver Score Relative Impact Opportunity Career Growth 2.2 / 5 35% High Manager Support 4.3 / 5 20% Medium Infrastructure 3.1 / 5 6% Low

What this suggests:

  • Career Growth is the clearest priority — it strongly influences eNPS and has room to improve

  • Manager Support is important and currently a strength — protect it

  • Infrastructure may still deserve local attention, but it’s less likely to move company-wide eNPS right now

4. FAQs

  • When does Relative Impact appear?

Ans: After the survey is closed (or completed) and Key Driver Analysis is ready.

  • Why don’t the percentages always add to exactly 100%?

Ans: Values are rounded. They should add up to about 100%.

  • Can Relative Impact change from survey to survey?

Ans: Yes. As employee experience changes, the drivers most linked to eNPS can shift. Always interpret it in the context of the current cycle.

  • Does a high-impact driver mean employees are unhappy with it?

Ans: No. Impact only means the driver is strongly linked to eNPS. Check the score to see whether it’s a strength or a problem.

  • Should I ignore low-impact drivers?

Ans: Not always. They may still matter for specific teams or for other goals. Relative Impact is mainly a guide for what is most likely to move overall eNPS.

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