FAQ: How Should I Interpret the Rating Scale When Answering a Survey?

Methodology

Peakon uses NPS methodology to help analyze and interpret the scores, with zero being the lowest and 10 being the highest score.

The NPS scale splits scores into 3 groups: 0-6 are detractors, 7-8 are passives and 9-10 are promoters. These groups aren't a framework or even guidance on how to respond to surveys, but rather a way of analyzing the already collected survey scores at segment or company level.

NPS research demonstrates that while some people tend to rate lower and some tend to rate higher, these tendencies average out across the group.

NPS scale groups can predict differences in employee behavior. Peakon ran a study using aggregated data, which validated the academically proven relationship between engagement and attrition. The study suggested that detractors (employees scoring 0-6) are 6 times more likely to resign than promoters (employees scoring 9-10).

Because all Peakon customers use the same methodology, benchmarking provides meaningful context to your survey scores. Example: We observe that the Reward driver typically has lower scores than Goal Setting, so whether a driver score is good depends on the benchmark.

Recommendation

Keep in mind that the goal of your company is to gain meaningful and actionable data that they can use to improve their employee's engagement.

Only provide a score on questions that you have an opinion on and press

Skip question

on any questions that you can't answer. Example: If you’ve recently started your job and you haven’t had discussions on growth and development, you can skip the question and answer it in a future survey instead.

Avoid scoring a question with a zero or a 5 if you don't have an opinion on it. Low scores will bring down the overall team score and might identify the specific driver as a focus area for the team.

Don't use the NPS groups as a framework to answer survey questions. Instead answer in the way that feels right to you.