productivity·Published 2025-02
Manager Fitbit Ownership and Direct Report Manager NPS Score Inflation: A Positive Correlation
Principal investigator: Dr. Augustus Crane, Director of Advisory Services.
Employees whose managers own and visibly wear fitness trackers give their managers higher Net Promoter Scores, independent of managerial quality.
Methodology
One thousand and eighty-eight manager-team pairs across 156 organizations participated in a six-month observational study. At enrollment, each direct report was asked to rate their manager's fitness tracker visibility on a five-point scale. Manager NPS scores were collected via an anonymous pulse survey administered by the Institute six months after enrollment. Organizational HR teams were not informed of the hypothesis under investigation and were told the study concerned 'workplace wellness indicators,' which the Institute considers accurate.
Funding disclosure: Funded by the Institute's Productivity Measurement Research Division. A wearable device manufacturer provided no funding and was not aware the study was occurring.
Instruments cited in this study
Full citation
Crane, A. (2025). Manager Fitbit Ownership and Direct Report Manager NPS Score Inflation: A Positive Correlation. Institute for the Study of Pointless Metrics. r = 0.73, p < 0.001, n = 1,088.