Having a strategy in place to improve employee survey response rates can make all the difference to the quality of your results. Maximise the potential of your next employee survey with our top tips.
The employee experience is one of the most powerful elements of any business. When companies get it right, they can expect to see a huge increase in staff productivity, retention, and advocacy. Getting it wrong, however, can lead to an uninspired, unmotivated, and unstable workforce.
Employee surveys are a simple yet effective method of measuring staff attitudes towards a business. However, achieving a good employee response rate can sometimes be more difficult than anticipated – even for the most successful organisations.
Why is achieving a good employee survey response rate important?
The answer is simple: the response rate of an employee survey can have a knock-on effect on the reliability of the insights collected.
For example, if a company with 1000 employees only received 70 employee responses (7% response rate), the results would not be representative of enough people in the business to be classed as reliable. However, if 700 people responded (70% response rate), this would be a large enough proportion of the workforce to be classed as reliable information.
Similarly, if an employee survey only received responses from a certain department or demographic (i.e. age, gender, seniority) then the results would not necessarily reflect the attitudes of staff from other demographics. The outcome would be skewed towards one focus group and, therefore, inapplicable to the majority.
By ensuring a healthy response rate across departments and demographics, organisations will receive a richer and more holistic overview of their employee experience.
What is a good response rate on an employee survey?
The notion of a good employee survey response rate varies depending on an organisation’s size. Our data shows that average response rates drop as headcount grows, with super large businesses (1000+ employees) experiencing the lowest employee survey response rates.
As a rule of thumb, we recommend Small and Medium companies (<200 employees) aim for an employee survey response rate of 90%. This will provide you with enough data to identify trends and form actionable insights to improve your employee experience.
Larger companies (200+ employees) can afford to aim slightly lower due to their increased sample size. This is particularly relevant when employee numbers hit 1000+, as an employee response rate as low as 50% (500 responses) can still generate a significant amount of data.
| Related: 5 Employee Wellbeing Survey Questions Every Employer Should Ask
How to maximise employee survey participation
Whether you’re running an employee engagement survey, pulse survey, or another type of survey, one thing remains the same: participation is very much in the hands of your employees.
With this in mind, here are some top tips to encourage your staff to respond:
1. Prepare your employees
Introducing the survey to your employees a couple of weeks before launch is a great way to prepare them to share their opinion. Sending planned, transparent communications around what the survey is, how it will be distributed, and why it’s important can help encourage your staff to participate. Not only this, but it can improve the quality of feedback you gather.
You should use multiple channels to announce your survey, such as:
- All-staff meetings, e.g. a presentation by Executive Leadership
- Intranet, e.g. a dedicated survey page with FAQ
- Email, e.g. a CEO/CHRO message to employees about the survey
- In person, e.g. survey posters in the workspace
As a rule of thumb, at least one message should come from your CEO, CHRO or the senior leader owning the survey. It’s also vital that you don’t make your employees feel pressured to participate, but rather provide genuine reasons why the survey is valuable to their workplace experience. This should help motivate them to contribute, leading to improved employee response rates.
2. Keep it anonymous
For many workers, fear of identification can be a barrier to completing an employee survey. Staff may worry about the repercussions of disclosing their honest opinion, leading to inauthentic responses or a lack of participation entirely. By using an anonymous employee survey tool, you can ensure peace of mind for your staff. The more comfortable they feel, the more likely they are to share.
3. Reminder prompts
It’s easy for employees to miss your survey invitation, especially if it’s a busy time for them. Scheduling regular reminders across the duration of your survey gives your staff several opportunities to participate and avoids the request simply getting lost in their inbox or covered on the bulletin board.
Most modern survey tools give the option to send automated reminders, making it easier than ever to prompt office-based staff to share their thoughts. For shift workers who may not have easy access to technology, you can encourage Branch Managers to remind employees face-to-face and direct them to the relevant area where they can complete the survey.
4. Highlight value
The last thing your employees want to do is complete a survey that won’t go anywhere. Be transparent with your intentions, explain where their feedback will go, and assure them that the results will be used to facilitate improvements throughout the business. Your staff will be more inclined to complete your survey if they a) understand the value of the survey, and b) feel that their contribution will make a difference.
5. Ensure accessibility
Your staff cannot complete your employee survey without the correct tools to do so. This is particularly important for employees with impairments and in sectors where staff don’t have regular access to computers (e.g. retail). To maximise employee survey response rate, businesses must ensure that all staff members can efficiently access the survey. For some, this could be through allocating a designated survey laptop in the staff room or another area of the business. For others, it may mean ensuring the survey design is user-friendly and compatible with aids (such as screen readers). The more accessible your survey is, the more likely you are to achieve the response rate you desire.
Considering running an employee engagement survey?
Great Place To Work’s proprietary Trust Index™ survey is built on 30 years of global employee research. Discover more about our employee survey offering and how it can help you benchmark and improve your workplace culture.
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