It always pays to listen. After all, you need to know if your staff isn’t actively engaged (according to a recent Gallup survey, only 33% of U.S. employees are engaged). That’s why regularly measuring your organization’s employee engagement is a smart best practice. Employee surveys can give you insight into how passionate your workforce is (or isn’t) about their roles, the leadership, and the company goals. You can then use these answers to tackle areas that need improvement.
Once you decide to implement an employee survey plan, you still need to figure out “When?” and “How often?” These decisions will help you get the best results for your efforts.
How frequently should you run employee engagement surveys? Let’s talk about how some other companies address this question.
How Often Are Most Organizations Running Employee Engagement Surveys?
There’s no tried-and-true answer that tells you how often to survey your employees. Think about:
- What overall piece of knowledge do I want to glean from these surveys?
- Does management have the bandwidth to act on the survey results?
- Is it the right time to run a survey (the busy season and big project time are not good times)?
You also must consider the tradeoff between information and overload. If you survey too infrequently, you may not stay dialed into your workforce. However, if you survey too often, employees may get “survey fatigue” and stop giving thoughtful answers (or ignore the survey altogether).
We wanted to see what other organizations were doing, so we collected some data from actual HR managers running surveys!
- 45% ran surveys quarterly.
- 36% ran them bi-annually.
- 18% ran them annually.
There are arguments for every type of cadence.
For example, a manager who responded that she ran surveys 4 times a year commented that, “We do them quarterly because it gives you an opportunity to catch trends early and be more proactive.”
Another participant sang the praises of running 2 surveys a year. ” We do 1 big survey annually and 1 pulse survey annually. We’ve been doing this for a few years, and it feels like the right cadence to us. People are hungry to see and hear about the action taken as a result of the surveys. Surveying more than twice a year is too tough to deliver results of their feedback.”
Don’t count out the value of surveying just once a year, either. This is especially true when you’re just starting to use surveys. One of our respondents rolled out an annual survey this year. “I just started them this year when the company hired me. I will be doing them annually to start, but may shift the frequency later on.”
Get tips, industry benchmarks, strategies to boost scores, and more!
Survey Frequency Pros and Cons
As you’re thinking about how often you want to survey your employees, consider the advantages and drawbacks of each cadence.
Quarterly Surveys
Pros:
- Frequent feedback. Surveying 4 times a year can give an organization more insight into employee morale and satisfaction.
- Fast adjustments. Pinpointing issues early on allows a company to mitigate them before they escalate.
- Reinforces open company culture. Frequent surveys give employees a voice and show them you value their opinions.
Cons:
- Survey fatigue. Employees may tire of answering surveys. They may not give thorough, well-thought answers, or may not participate at all.
- Resource intensive. Writing, sending, and reviewing surveys is a time-consuming process. 4 times a year could be a drain on resources.
- Implementation challenges. It could be difficult to address new ideas and obstacles every 3 months.
Bi-Annual Surveys
Pros:
- Balances frequency. When comparing quarterly and annual survey frequency, bi-annual surveys can be a good compromise for gathering data without overwhelming employees.
- Offers comprehensive insights. Less-frequent surveys provide time to analyze long-term trends.
- Reduces survey fatigue. Employees are less likely to skip surveys that run twice a year.
- Uses resources efficiently. Less time and effort go into running and reviewing bi-annual survey results.
Cons:
- May delay identifying issues. Emerging trends and problems may go unaddressed for a longer time and allow them to escalate.
- Limits agility. There will be fewer chances to quickly pivot and make positive changes based on employee opinions and ideas.
- Misses opportunities. Time-sensitive issues and ideas may not be seized upon fast enough.
Annual Surveys
Pros:
- Offers big-picture insights. Organizations can get broad insights regarding their employees’ engagement with annual surveys.
- Administers easily. Running a survey once a year is less taxing on the team handling the process.
- Focuses on long-range objectives. Guides long-term priorities and directions.
- Avoids survey fatigue. Participants don’t get tired of “another survey” and are more likely to offer comprehensive answers.
Cons:
- Delays prompt action. Issues can linger and escalate for months before they’re noticed.
- Limits adaptability. It takes longer to adjust to employees’ shifting needs and preferences.
- Gives the perception of no urgency. Once-a-year surveys provide less opportunity for employees to feel like their opinions matter.
- Creates data overload. An entire year’s worth of data can be almost impossible to analyze and segment effectively.
9 Tips for Getting the Most Out of an Employee Engagement Survey
Regardless of how often you decide to conduct employee engagement surveys, you’ll need to practice these pointers to get the most out of them.
- Set a goal for your survey process. Lay out the specific information you’re aiming to get out of each survey. For quarterly surveys, you may try to get a pulse check twice a year with longer twice per year.
- Write clear questions. Make your questions as relevant and succinct as possible. Avoid technical jargon and off-topic comments.
- Balance information gathering with brevity. A mix of multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, employee net promoter score (ENPS) questions, and open-ended questions will collect the biggest amount of information with the least stress on participants. Annual surveys will most likely need to be longer and more in-depth than semi-annual or quarterly surveys.
- Conduct surveys at the right time. Consider employee workloads when you’re setting survey dates. Slower periods, midweek, and midday tend to get the highest participation rates.
- Encourage participation. Share what the organization wants to accomplish with the survey, the importance of participating, and how you’ll use the results. Use emailed reminders to strengthen participation.
- Maintain anonymity. Many employees will balk at offering honest feedback if their names are tied to their comments. Guarantee anonymity and explain how their identities will be shielded from view.
- Jump on the results. Quickly gather, segment, and analyze the survey results. Identify common themes and trends in the comments. Compare your findings with the goal you set in the beginning.
- Announce findings. Transparently share the findings with employees in an email or an in-person meeting (or video for remote employees). Explain plans of action to address the results.
- Follow up with progress. Regularly update the team on how the organization is using the survey results to implement changes.
We've curated tips and best practices on how to move from survey results to internal action plans.
Base Your Employee Engagement Surveys on Your Company’s Specific Needs
Use your organization’s goals, resources, and company culture to help you decide how often to run employee engagement surveys. Whichever frequency you choose, align it with improving employee satisfaction and productivity. Strike a balance that gives you insights to enact real change without wearing your employees out with questions. And always (ALWAYS) review and share the results transparently to foster trust and build a cohesive culture.
