We all know that employee engagement is a key factor when it comes to workplace performance. We also know that organisations that regularly monitor their workforce’s sentiment and morale often outperform those that do not. That’s why we provide employee surveys to businesses across the world — we’re on a mission to improve the employee experience and create better workplaces.
While we’re a big fan of annual engagement surveys, and while they can certainly have a drastic and meaningful impact on organisations, we’re equally passionate about the lesser-known employee pulse survey. An employee pulse survey provides a more dynamic and frequent way to measure the mood and engagement levels of staff — and with all that data, you’re better able to bring about meaningful organisational change.
Let’s take a look at the employee pulse survey — what are the business benefits? How can a pulse survey go wrong and how can you go about implementing a pulse survey in the best possible way?
If you’d like a quick overview, here’s Kate Pritchard, our Head of Consultancy here at People Insight, discussing the value of pulse surveys:
First things first — let’s explore the real benefits a pulse survey could offer your business, your people and your processes.
With employee pulse surveys, organisations can really keep a finger on the pulse (so to speak) of employee wellbeing. By conducting surveys more frequently, employers can quickly identify trends and emerging issues that might be impacting engagement, stress levels or productivity. This level of insight allows businesses to make timely interventions to address problems before they affect overall performance.
Pulse surveys can work as part of your employee voice strategy to create a culture of continuous feedback, where employees feel heard and valued. Regularly seeking feedback through pulse surveys demonstrates to employees that their opinions matter, which in turn increases engagement and loyalty. As employees see their concerns being addressed, they are more likely to feel invested in the organisation’s success.
Check out our Brewin Dolphin case study and how they built an involving and inclusive culture through surveys
Leadership teams benefit from employee pulse surveys by having access to data that is current and relevant. This helps leaders make informed decisions about people management, policy changes and resource allocation. For example, if a pulse survey reveals dissatisfaction with a particular policy, leaders can adapt and respond more swiftly, avoiding potential negative impacts on morale.
Annual surveys are great to measure employee engagement, diversity and inclusion, culture or employee wellbeing in depth. However, you may have an ad hoc need for specific feedback. During lockdown organisations like London South Bank University used regular pulses to measure how effective the transition to working from home had been, and what tools and wellbeing support people needed.
You can use a pulse survey to assess, the impact of new programmes. For example, the introduction of new vision and values. It will help you track how quickly your people understand and adopt your values and behaviours, and what impact this has on how people feel about their role, their manager and their loyalty to the organisation. As you tweak the vision and values programme, and it becomes more embedded, you can track the impact of your actions with pulse surveys at frequent intervals. This data is fantastic for keeping your programmes on track, and providing evidence to leadership teams.
An employee pulse survey is also a brilliant way to report on pilot programmes tested in one business division, giving you evidence to roll it out elsewhere. See how Fuller’s did this here.
If you ask for lengthy feedback too frequently or people will get fed up and either not respond at all or give poor quality feedback.
People won’t participate if nothing happens as a result of their feedback. You’ll erode trust. Act on feedback and communicate the changes being made so people see the value of taking part in the survey process.
Lloyds Banking Group changed up their pulse survey approach after realising that managers were left with little time to take any action between surveys:
“…the problem with conducting such frequent surveys “was that [the firm’s approximately 8,000] line managers weren’t gaining any new insights and didn’t have time to digest that much data and take action” on what the latest employee polls told them.”
David Littlechild, previously Head of Culture and Engagement at Lloyds
Pulse surveys are great for diving into specific topics, while annual surveys can cover more depth. Keep your pulses short to gather focused insights you can do something about.
Quantitative responses are great for analysis and benchmarking. However, including a couple of open-text questions in your pulse survey will provide additional insight into employee sentiment and suggestions for change. Leave these optional so the survey doesn’t feel strenuous.
While annual engagement surveys provide a comprehensive view of employee sentiment over a longer period, employee pulse surveys offer more frequent insights, allowing for real-time feedback. Here are the key differences:
Annual engagement surveys, though valuable for long-term planning, have their limitations. They can quickly become outdated as employee sentiment changes over the year. By the time results are collected and analysed, organisations may have already missed opportunities to address pressing concerns. What’s more, the length of these surveys can lead to survey fatigue, inevitably worsening participation rates and creating less accurate reflections of how employees truly feel.
Employee needs and concerns can shift pretty quickly, depending on various environmental, financial and political factors. An employee pulse survey provides a more agile solution, allowing employers to track shifts in sentiment in real time. This proactive approach helps organisations stay ahead of issues, preventing dissatisfaction from taking root. Pulse surveys are more suited for the modern workplace, where continuous improvement is necessary to maintain engagement and productivity.
Go external to provide reassurance for staff about data confidentiality and data security with an experienced third party. Choose a survey provider that fits your needs – you might want the survey technology only, or you want support to design and build your survey, and expertise to get the right analysis and insights for your organisation.
When designing an employee pulse survey, it’s important to focus on topics that can drive immediate action. These might include questions on workload, work-life balance, communication with managers, or team collaboration. The goal is to target areas where changes can quickly be implemented, leading to improvements in morale and productivity.
To encourage participation, employee pulse surveys should be brief, typically no longer than five to ten questions. The shorter the survey, the more likely employees are to complete it, providing a more accurate representation of overall sentiment.
Combining both rating scale questions and open-ended responses can provide deeper insights. While quantitative questions (e.g., rating satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 10) allow for easy data analysis, qualitative questions (e.g., “What could be improved in your department?”) offer valuable context that helps explain the numbers.
Collecting feedback without acting on it can erode trust between employees and management. It’s essential to not only review pulse survey results but to implement changes based on the insights gathered. This shows employees that their input leads to real outcomes, reinforcing a positive feedback loop.
The success of an employee pulse survey often hinges on the tools used to administer it. Modern survey platforms allow for automation, making it easy to send out regular surveys, collect responses, and analyse data in real time. Automated pulse survey systems can provide immediate feedback to leadership teams, highlighting trends and areas of concern without the need for manual data collection or analysis.
Whilst you’ll have specific, unique questions to ask in your pulse survey, we suggest the Pearl™ framework as the starting structure, as mentioned above.
Based on robust organisational psychology research, these 5 engagement questions (or statements) from Pearl™ are proven to indicate how engaged a person is. Use these in every survey to track engagement over time:
1 I am proud to say I work for <organisation>
2 I would recommend <organisation> as a good place to work
3 Working here makes me want to do the best work I can
4 I would still like to be working at <organisation> in two years’ time
5 I care about the future of < organisation> to measure changes in engagement
We recommend the statistically proven 5-point response scale for each statement in your survey:
Consider very specific questions / statements for your pulse survey focussing on the key issues that you want feedback on and relate these to your specific performance metrics. It might be something that you’ve take action on since your last survey, a new programme you have introduced or structural changes within the business.
For example:
6 Since the ‘Leadership4Future’ programme was introduced in June, I’ve had 1:1s with my line manager at least every fortnight.
7 Since the ‘Leadership4Future’ programme was introduced in June, my 1:1s with my line manager have been well structured.
8 Since the ‘Leadership4Future’ programme was introduced in June, the quality of feedback I get from my line manager has improved.
9 I believe action will be taken as a result of this survey.
The belief in action question shows how much people trust your organisation to act on their feedback. We recommend always including this question in every survey you run. Combined with your survey response rates, this can help measure survey fatigue – are people fed up with being asked, and do they trust you to deliver change.
Finally, again you’ll want to include 1-3 open text questions specific to your key issues. For example:
10 ‘What changes have you seen, if any, since the ‘Leadership4Future’ programme was introduced?
11 What else could your line manager do to support your development at the moment?
12 Is there anything else you would like to tell us about?
The right pulse survey tech can make your team’s life easier and speed up post-survey action. Look out for these features when comparing survey tech:
Employee pulse surveys are a powerful tool for understanding and improving employee engagement. They provide real-time insights into employee sentiment, allowing for quicker and more effective responses to emerging issues. By facilitating a culture of continuous feedback and leveraging the right technology, organisations can create a more engaged, motivated and productive workforce. Regular pulse surveys not only help track engagement but also serve as an essential resource for decision-making and shaping a positive workplace environment.
To carry out an employee engagement survey and really understand what is motivating and inspiring your team, get in touch today to organise a demo of our survey platform.
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