Linked list lookup "percentage" converts to number

Hello all, this is my first post here and I don't spend a whole lot of time in excel but I am familiar with it and to a degree, programming in general so I can usually piece together things and make it work.

I have created a workbook for my office that combines 4 engineer's project lists into a compiled sheet that can be sorted/filtered in many ways. I found that after standardizing the column layout I could link it the 4 engineer's sheets, assign my own formatting and merge them into the main sheet.

The problem I am having is that one of the columns, who's data is the status of a project which I've established a drop down list of the options: RFP, Proposal Sent, RTS, In Progress, 60%, 90%, 100%. This list is established both in the engineer's workbook and the compiled workbook. The link only brings in the 60%, 90%, and 100% as .6, .9, and 1 even when the cell/column category is set to percentage. The columns that the data is merged to are also linked to a copy of the list within this workbook. I cannot seem to get it to display the percentage again without manually selecting each cell and assigning it.

Is this an issue with the link. I would have thought that it would bring over the same data and the cell category would correct the percentage part but it does nothing. Being able to sort by this is still possible but the look isn't quite right. I haven't yet added an auto filter button yet to sort out only active (non-100%) jobs but I imagine that this might become an issue when I do.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Try this:

In your cell/column that's not displaying percentages. . .
HOME. STYLES. CELL STYLES.. NEW CELL STYLE. format as desired.

I didn't test it. Try it on your data.

Pete