Key takeaways
Pulse survey definition
As the name suggests, a pulse survey is a short questionnaire intended to gauge your employees’ thoughts, opinions, and reactions at critical moments. Pulse surveys supplement annual employee engagement surveys with quicker, more targeted responses on a recurring basis.
The ideal length of a pulse survey is relative to its frequency — the more often it’s distributed, the shorter it should be. Sparkbay, an employee engagement platform, recommends no more than five questions for a bi-weekly survey, 10 for a monthly survey, and 15 for a quarterly one.
Pros
Cons
When should you use a pulse survey?
Pulse survey best practices
What questions should be on a pulse survey?
Before crafting any questions, you must determine what kind of information you’re looking to gather from your pulse survey. What metric are you trying to track? What kind of feedback will be most valuable? Once you’ve identified those goals, you can determine whether the combination of questions will provide the right data.
Most often, questions on a pulse survey ask employees to rate a statement or idea on a Likert scale to represent how much they agree or disagree. As long as the questions are worded appropriately, the responses are objective data points that leave little room for bias — employee responses that lean consistently in one direction are difficult to dismiss as outliers or special cases. However, it is good practice to include at least one open-ended question that asks employees to contextualize their quantified responses with qualitative data.
For recurring pulse surveys, it’s best to keep the questions as consistent as possible from one iteration to the next. Even small changes in wording can affect a person’s perception of what a question is asking, which inevitably affects how they respond. Avoid unnecessary variables by using the same pulse survey template each time.
Sample questions
Further reading: How to Measure Employee Satisfaction
To discover other options for deploying employee surveys, check out Jessica Dennis’ expert roundup of the 5 Best Employee Survey Tools.
Where do pulse surveys fit in your company?
Pulse surveys are an incredibly useful tool, but they’re not the bottom line of employee engagement. Use them as a piece of the puzzle, rather than assuming they represent the whole picture.
No matter when, how, or why you administer pulse surveys, the most important thing is what you do with the results. For pulse surveys to actually work, you must take the feedback you receive seriously, create actionable plans with clear goals to implement changes, and clearly communicate what you are doing so your employees know they aren’t wasting their breath.
To learn about other tools you can add to your employee engagement tool belt, check out our shortlist of the Best Employee Engagement Software.
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