6 Powerful Advantages of a Pulse Survey

There are many types of employee surveys which act as great mechanisms for honest and insightful employee feedback, with the pulse survey being no exception. But how does a pulse survey differ from other employee survey services, such as employee engagement surveys or 360 feedback surveys? What advantages does a pulse survey offer?

Frequency

Firstly, the obvious. A pulse survey is a quick way of capturing frequent feedback from either your entire, or specific parts, of your workforce. Unlike an employee survey, (which is traditionally undertaken annually, can cover a wide range of different topics, and normally takes a lot longer to complete), a pulse survey is short and typically focuses on a more specific issue.

As a pulse survey is typically deployed a lot more frequently than other types of staff surveys, it offers employers something that employee surveys can’t; the opportunity to respond and react quickly to more frequent feedback. Hence the name pulse, as employers can literally “keep their fingers on the pulse” of their business. It is worth noting at this point that a pulse survey is not designed to replace other types of employee survey services you already have in place but to complement and work alongside those other employee surveys that are providing you with valuable employee insights. So now that we know the main advantage of a pulse survey over other types of employee survey services is frequency, what other advantages are there?

Better response rates

A pulse survey will often deliver higher response rates compared to other types of employee surveys, as a pulse survey is a lot quicker to complete (often compromising a single question). And the higher the response rate, the more data you have to help answer the driving questions behind the survey.

Greater engagement

Employees can often lose their sense of connection with an employer, especially in companies with a large workforce. Whilst we are not suggesting that pulse surveys on their own will prevent this issue, they can help lessen the remote feeling between employer and employee, as they act as a regular touchpoint where the employee can positively engage.

Faster turnarounds

Other types of employee surveys can take longer to compile, as you want to make sure you are asking the right questions to support whatever goals you have set from the survey itself. And as the survey itself may take quite some time to complete, it is harder to ensure quick returns from the participants, as they are more likely to put off completing it. As a pulse survey is a lot shorter it is both easier to compile and it is more likely a greater number of employees will respond quickly.

Improves ongoing support

By receiving frequent feedback from employees, you can use this data to constantly improve areas of your business throughout the year. This is the most important thing you can do because when people can see things being done as a result of survey responses they are more inclined to take part. Any new implementations or tweaks to existing procedures can be monitored and analysed much more quickly, allowing you to provide support to your business where needed.

Real-time company status updates

As pulse surveys often only contain a single question (or at most a handful of questions), you could potentially send out a question via a pulse survey at 9 am and be able to analyse the results by 3 pm. This kind of immediate feedback is ideal for assessing the mood of your employees at any given time.

Contact The Survey Initiative for your pulse survey solutions

So now that you can see the main advantages of deploying a pulse survey alongside your existing employee survey strategies, why wait? The Survey Initiative has a team of experienced survey professionals who are experts in many employee survey services, including staff surveys, 360 feedback surveys, and most relevant to this blog, pulse surveys.

So get your finger back on the pulse of your business by getting in touch with The Survey Initiative team today. We look forward to hearing from you!