Culture and Engagement How to use your intranet to create and launch a pulse survey Pulse surveys provide quick and real-time visibility into what your employees are thinking and feeling. Here's how to launch one today on your intranet. 5 minute read You might also like… Whitepaper Intranet use cases Whitepaper 10 Award Winning Intranets Employee surveys can feel like doing your taxes. You know it needs to be done. You know you have to do it. You would rather do anything else to avoid starting it, so you procrastinate and find something more pressing to do. If the thought of creating and launching an employee survey is the least of your priorities right now, you aren’t alone. This is often because we associate employee surveys with a lot of effort and very little reward. This isn’t surprising considering we’ve typically measured how employees feel about their workplace through lengthy and complex surveys that are conducted once a year. Running a survey only once a year is problematic because first, a lot can change within a year. And second, annual surveys are often lengthy which can cause employees to tune out and rush through it. But what if we told you that it could be done quickly–even within minutes? Would you still delay it? Probably not. This is why you need to consider a pulse survey. What role do surveys play in beautiful intranets? Download our updated list of intranet award winners to get inspired on your next project. Download now What is a pulse survey? A pulse survey is defined as a short survey sent to employees at frequent intervals. Pulse surveys performed on a regular basis are a more accurate way of determining employee satisfaction, and can help you make any necessary changes quicker. Pulse surveys are not intended to replace annual engagement surveys, but rather aim to tackle smaller and more immediate areas of concern. The primary goal of a pulse survey is to provide real-time visibility into what your employees are thinking and feeling, which enables you to take quick action to resolve employee issues, without having to wait on the annual survey results. The other benefit of pulse surveys is that they help prevent survey fatigue. Yes, these surveys are run regularly, but because they are so short, respondents are more likely to complete them. Why aren’t traditional surveys working? Having enough employees respond to surveys is essential for statistical validity, however, low response rates is a common challenge in traditional surveys. When the sample size is small, it likely won’t be representative of the population you’re interested in. This is because the people who showed up to take the survey are collectively not diverse enough to reflect everybody in the target group. There are many factors that contribute to a low response rate. This includes: Survey format (whether it is online, or a paper questionnaire) Survey topic Personalization Survey fatigue Survey flow and logic Length of survey Incentive and motive to complete the survey Confidence in anonymity Lack of communicated outcomes How can I use my intranet to create a pulse survey? Intranets have long been associated with employee engagement and satisfaction surveys. But it’s only recently that they have been created and automated within your intranet. Within ThoughtFarmer we have a feature called FormFlow. It allows users to easily create custom forms that capture data with an approval process, or share structured data on your intranet quickly and easily. There are many ways to leverage FormFlow, but many of our customers are using it to launch and manage employee surveys. Questions to ask in a pulse survey The questions you ask in a pulse survey may be specific to your organization, but here are a few examples to get your started: Do you feel valued and appreciated within your team? Do you feel you have autonomy over your work? Do you have enough opportunities to learn and develop new skills? Do you feel supported in your career goals? Does the leadership share necessary information about the company with employees? Do you have enough opportunities to voice your opinions and concerns? How can we further improve communication in our organization? Do you feel supported by your manager? Do you feel like the management team is fostering a good work culture? Does your manager communicate a clear picture of your team’s direction? Do you have access to the resources, tools, and people to contribute effectively? Do you have a comfortable space to work from home with good internet connectivity? Do you feel accepted and respected in the workplace? Do you find your work schedule flexible enough to manage your family or personal life? Do you think we should offer mental health services for our employees? Do you think your workplace promotes a physically healthy lifestyle? How likely are you to recommend this company to your friends and family? If you were offered the same job at another organization, how likely would you stay? Are you aware of how your work contributes to the overall vision of the organization? Do you feel you are creating an impact with your work? Now that you have the best practices for how to create a pulse survey, try making one today and see what insights you uncover from your employees. Are you already a ThoughtFarmer customer? If so, head on over to our community site to see some inspiring examples of how organizations like yours are creating pulse surveys from within their intranet.