Employee Pulse Survey

"Always treat your employees the way you want them to treat your customers."

Employees are an integral part of the organization and need to be motivated, appreciated and guided well. The company with the highest number of loyal employees and the least employee turnover ratio will prosper faster than other companies. 

When a company focuses on taking care of its most valuable resource it might face confusion and difficulties initially. However, once it becomes a routine process of the company, then it gets easy to take care of employees in all possible ways.But what exactly should a company do to nurture its employees? 

Well, there are many ways of taking care of the employees, but the first step is understanding them and building a relationship with them. No, we are not talking about developing personal or professional relationships. We are just focusing on being more compassionate and adopting a better approach towards the employees. 

An employee pulse survey is one of those surveys that shall serve the purpose of developing healthy and strong relationships with your employees. After conducting an employee pulse survey, you can also conduct a performance review meeting that will further help connect with the employees .

In this blog we will help you get a quick idea about the employee pulse survey, how to conduct it, what questions should be considered, and other factors. Let’s get started:

What is an employee pulse survey? 

There are numerous types of surveys available, and each has its significance and impact. An employee pulse survey is one of the most crucial surveys; it has undeniable benefits. 

An employee pulse survey means conducting a survey within the organization in the form of a questionnaire which the employees are expected to fill out. The form shall have questions about the work and the employee's work-life balance at the company. 

For instance, questions about an employee's job satisfaction, stress level, communication gap or anything else can be included in the survey. The sole purpose of conducting it is to highlight the pros and cons faced by an employee in the company. 

The reason behind this survey being preferred widely is that it can be conducted quickly. It shows the data that focuses on current issues, not those faced six months ago. It gives a detailed insight into the present scenario; therefore, it becomes easy to bring changes or upgrade the style of work quickly and focus on improvement based on the feedback received. 

There is no fixed time for conducting it, but it is advisable to conduct it regularly, like you can choose to conduct it weekly. Then follow a weekly pattern and conduct it on a particular day of the week, or you can conduct it monthly or quarterly. 

But make sure that you follow a particular pattern if you want to conduct surveys weekly — keep it fixed at weekly intervals. Don't conduct it sometimes at weekly intervals and sometimes at monthly intervals. Keep the time gap fixed and uniform. 

What can you measure with a pulse survey? 

Before investing precious time in conducting a survey, one would like to understand the benefits of conducting such surveys. Conducting an internal survey may not involve a lot of finances, but it is surely time-consuming, and time is precious. 

Regardless of the number of employees, conducting a survey involves the entire human resource, and every department has to schedule its work accordingly. So, before conducting the survey, a lot of changes and adjustments must be made to every employee's schedule or working pattern. 

Therefore, understanding the benefit is more important so that one can understand whether this survey is worth conducting or not. The pulse survey has become a compulsory survey in the list of many companies due to its quicker approach and multiple interpretation policies. 

It can be conducted in less time than other surveys, and the results obtained from that survey can be used to draw ample conclusions. 

 Pulse surveys are categorized as one of the main feedback methods. The best part is that this particular survey is not content-specific; here, you have the opportunity to ask organization-specific questions. 

You don't need to form a particular pattern for conducting the survey; the question can be of your choice. It can be tailored according to the organization's priorities and goals, or you can keep the question according to the information you need to track.

To get even better results, you can keep repeating certain questions in every survey you conduct to see whether making changes in the company's policy or the environment is causing any change in the response as well. If you want detailed results, you can customize the pulse survey to be content-oriented. 

How to conduct an employee pulse survey effectively?

Conducting a survey and conducting a survey effectively are two different things that can lead to different results. If the survey is conducted effectively, it is more likely to give exact or accurate results. Often there are several do's and don'ts of conducting a particular survey, so here we have listed five important points that need to be considered while conducting an employee pulse survey. 

1. Research Well about the questions

The employee pulse survey is done in the form of a questionnaire. You have to be extremely selective with the kind of questions you want to put in the survey. First, you should list down the category for which you want to ask the question, then figure out the problem areas or the topic which you think should be communicated with the employee and then frame the question according to it. 

• The questions should not be lengthy, and should not lead to long answers. Try keeping questions in the Yes or No format, rating format, polls or one-liners.

• Be specific and clear about questions and keep it simple. 

• Avoid using fancy words and difficult-to-understand jargon or terms. 

• Questions should be related and should make sense. You should avoid asking questions that are too direct or too personal. 

• Keep the questions the same for all the employees. 

If you want to conclude a particular thing, for example, an employee's stress level while working, then ask this question in every survey for a year, and you shall be able to track their exact stress level or come to a conclusion. 

For a detailed conclusion, you must file all the employees' responses or keep them in a digital format. You can conduct the survey on Google Form so that it automatically saves the response. 

 2. Select an Appropriate Time

Time plays an important role in deciding the survey's success or failure, especially an employee pulse survey. The time factor can also affect the results or conclusions. It is necessary rather than mandatory to select the appropriate time. 

You should never release the data of the survey on an immediate basis. Keep employees informed at least three days before conducting the survey to manage their work properly. Also, they can stay prepared for the survey so that they can perform well and it doesn't come out as a sudden task. 

Don't select those times which are generally hectic for all the employees. For instance, the year-end, the beginning of every week, or some other day with a lot of tasks for all the employees. 

Avoid selecting holidays or weekends for conducting such surveys. Employees also like to participate in surveys that can be completed between 3-5 minutes. Surveys that are too-long can be boring, and too short surveys will not provide you with adequate data for evaluation. Thus plan the survey accordingly to get the best results. 

3. Brief about the survey

Many companies conduct a survey or send mail about surveys without informing the employees about why they are conducting them or what impact this survey will create? Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a survey only after briefing the employees about the survey, its impact and its significance. 

If employees are informed about the survey, they might be able to perform it in a better way, and will be excited to know why the survey is conducted. Also, it is crucial to inform the employees that they can openly share their reviews and will not be questioned for any feedback. 

This is necessary to develop confidence in the employees that they will not be judged for their opinions or feedback. You could inform them about the survey via email or verbally. It is advisable to stick to both. Employees might forget the verbal information, so they will need an email to refer to later.

A brief about the survey should be given 3-4 days before conducting it, and send out a reminder a day before surveying so that the communication is done clearly with the employees. 

4. Survey should be conducted online

As soon as one hears about conducting a survey that involves form filling, they will be keen on conducting it online because it becomes easy to save the responses. 

It also helps to evaluate and analyze the answers or get some auto-generated conclusions from the surveys. Besides, you don't have to maintain a separate file for taking care of all the responses. 

Moreover, when surveys are conducted online, employees can do it comfortably from their laptops. They will not have to fill it in a physical format like they are giving any exam. Online surveys are more comfortable for employees as the process becomes easier and more convenient. 

5. Never Reveal the Results

This survey will not require any grades to be given to the employees. The answers to the survey should be used to conclude whether the employee is happy at work or how is their stress level, or anything else related to the work. 

Since no grading is required, you need not share the results. However, you can use it for drawing conclusions. Employees should be assured that the answers will not be shared publicly or it will not be handed over to anyone else. Also, sharing the results might adversely affect the next phase of the survey. 

Bottom Line

Pulse surveys are growing in popularity and are quickly accepted, not only because they are shorter and take less time for employees to give their feedback but also because they introduce a new dimension to results analysis.

Many organizations, companies, and MNCs are preferring employee pulse surveys nowadays, as it helps to work better on employee retention ratio. More than half of these organizations believe that pulse surveys should be used. However, this should not be a substitute for the traditional annual survey. An employee pulse survey can be an add-on tool for the organization to know more about their employees and how the work is being carried out internally.