What is the Employee Pulse Survey?

Thinking about conducting an employee pulse survey? Surely no one would dispute that taking the pulse of the organization is critical to business success. Over 20 years of employee engagement surveys by our partner DecisionWise have shown that business results are directly tied to employee experience . In this case, we can also say that Customer Experience (CX) is a direct result of Employee Experience (EX). In other words: CX = EX. In other words, Customer Experience = Employee Experience. Therefore, understanding the employee experience has become an important priority in business success.

In a survey of more than 200 global companies by our partner DecisionWise, two-thirds of organizations say they formally measure employee engagement and take action based on the results. 85% of organizations either currently measure employee engagement or plan to do so in the near future. The question we should now be asking is not whether an organization should collect feedback, but how it should be collected.

Why Employee Pulse Survey?

These surveys are referred to as "pulse surveys" because they measure the level of employee engagement at frequent intervals or "take the pulse" of an organization or group at any given moment. An employee pulse survey is a useful tool for measuring progress, alerting to potential pitfalls, understanding trends in the employee experience and developing actions. While there are many similarities between Pulse Surveys and Instant Surveys, there are two important differences:

1. Pulse surveys are conducted at regular or scheduled intervals or with scheduled groups and usually cover large segments of the organization's population (sometimes all employees).
2. Employee pulse surveys are often conducted in addition to or as a follow-up to other employee surveys. Pulse surveys sometimes draw on the results of annual employee engagement surveys (anchor surveys) or other surveys. They thus offer a great way to quickly drill down into more specific information or follow up on areas that need to be addressed.

Using Employee Pulse Surveys Correctly in the Feedback Journey

In the quest to provide more frequent and valuable employee feedback, we recommend that you supplement your annual employee engagement surveys with more frequent pulse surveys. Pulse surveys are very useful tools for measuring progress, understanding trends in employee experience and developing actions.

Employee pulse surveys offer a great way to quickly drill down into more specific information by leveraging the results of annual employee engagement surveys (we call them "anchor surveys"). Pulse surveys are conducted at regular or planned intervals, with planned groups, and usually include large segments of the organization's population.

For example, if an employee engagement survey is conducted annually and the results clearly show that "Managers do not take the time to provide feedback on employee performance", the organization can implement processes that encourage (or require) managers to provide feedback more frequently. To understand whether these actions have been effective, instead of waiting for the next annual employee survey, an employee pulse survey can be conducted more frequently to address a specific question and, if desired, other critical items identified in the annual employee survey.

Best Survey Practices for Measuring Employee Engagement

We know that highly engaged organizations use annual employee engagement surveys to identify three to five specific actions that need to be taken to improve the overall employee experience. Based on the results, they create and implement action plans and follow up with an employee pulse survey to measure progress. Pulse surveys take the value from the annual employee engagement survey and break it down into smaller, actionable chunks. However, due to their limited length, employee pulse surveys may not provide the kind of comprehensive insight that an organization desires.

Are Employee Pulse Surveys Right for Your Organization?

Employee pulse surveys are an effective tool to determine progress on actions taken in relation to the results of a large survey. By comparing the results of an employee survey with the results of other surveys, an organization can effectively measure whether change is occurring and whether actions are yielding results. Employee pulse surveys are designed to address much more specifically the issues identified in the annual employee engagement survey. Because it assesses the same general population (or subsets of that population), it can identify changes or trends in specific groups, teams, functions or departments of managers.

Employee pulse surveys can be a very effective tool in your feedback arsenal. But there are 2 questions you should ask yourself before conducting employee pulse surveys in your organization :

1. Are we ready to act on employee feedback?

Perhaps the biggest advantage of pulse surveys - their frequency - is also their biggest disadvantage. Through a pulse survey, when the organization asks employees to provide feedback and tells them, "We heard what you said and we care enough about you to want to hear how we are doing," employees hear, "The company intends to act on the feedback we provide, so we can expect to see some changes."

While all of this is very positive for an organization that is inclined to act on feedback, for a company that is still conducting surveys on issues that have already been identified but that little effort has been made to change, these surveys can do more harm than good. Surveying too often, especially with little or no action, is more harmful than not surveying at all. Employee pulse surveys should be conducted at a frequency appropriate to your time and competence to implement action plans.

2. Do we position the employee pulse survey as an addition to other surveys or as a replacement for them?

Some companies are proposing to replace the annual employee engagement survey with a more frequent employee pulse survey. Can this strategy work? Of course, but even though pulse surveys are growing in popularity, they have some limitations. Remember, employee pulse surveys are not comprehensive. They are limited in the number of questions/topics addressed or groups surveyed. Response data should be considered as an additional insight into understanding the overall employee experience.

We recommend that the pulse survey should "supplement" the annual employee engagement survey to measure progress on engagement activities. While regular employee pulse surveys respond to the need for more frequent feedback, organizations that replace the annual employee engagement survey with more frequent employee pulse surveys sacrifice data quality and lack the ability to fully understand the employee experience.

Employee Engagement Survey Balance

When implementing your employee engagement strategy, remember that balance is key. Your employees want to be heard and employee pulse surveys provide the required frequency, while an annual employee engagement survey provides the required depth. Be strategic in your strategy and never survey more than you can mobilize. Remember, your employee experience will drive your customer experience forward. This makes it even more important to understand the whole employee experience.

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