To get the best outcome from your regular employee surveys, you need to start with introducing them effectively to your team. The worst thing you can do is just hit send, without forewarning. This article explains.
Congratulations! You’ve decided to start sending regular employee surveys to collect your teams’ attitudes on your company culture, engagement levels, happiness and other valuable feedback. You know that smart organisations across the globe are using pulse surveys and other tools to improve employee engagement, which in turn improves your bottom line.
One area which you want to ensure you get right, straight from the outset, is survey participation rates. In my experience, short and regular employee surveys end up getting better response rates and in turn create a great habit.
The key here is introducing your plans effectively to everyone that will be sent an invitation. The worst outcome will happen if you just add the employee survey questions and participant details and hit send without any warning or explanation whatsoever.
Effective communication is absolutely vital when you introduce regular employee surveys.
In this article, we explain how you should approach announcing these surveys to your team.
Inform your leadership team first
Your management team are the first stakeholders that you should introduce the employee surveys to.
They will be your front line for questions and feedback from people within your organisation, so it is vital they have buy in, and understand why you are introducing regular employee surveys in the organisation.
You should outline who will have access to the reports, what they should expect to see, and what you plan to do with the information. You need to make them aware of the timeline in which these are being rolled out, and how you’ll announce it to the rest of the organisation.
Choose your announcement method
Many organisations tend to use email to deliver the announcement to their employees, however there are a number of methods you could consider.
- Bring it up at team meetings
- Post a notice about it on the company intranet
- Use your team chat software
- Physical notices around the office
It may even be worth using a few of the above methods, to ensure everyone gets the news.
No matter what format the announcement takes, there are a few key points that you will want to cover. These are explained in the next section.
Consider your employees
Before you communicate to your employees, you need to consider what they are likely wondering about these regular employee surveys. Any announcement should answer a few key points;
- Will my feedback be anonymous?
- Who will see my responses?
- What will happen with my feedback?
- How will this survey help me?
We have put together a few example emails near the bottom of this article, which may inspire you to write your own.
Follow up with a reminder
Whilst the survey is open for responses, it is worth following up your team to remind them of the importance of their feedback.
Most survey software systems have the ability to send reminders to those who have yet to complete the poll, however a human touch from a senior executive within the company normally carries more weight, and is more encouraging.
Post survey communication
Your communication responsibilities don’t end with the reminder either; it’s key to thank your employees after the first survey is completed.
You may wish to include a few of the key figures, and explain what happens from here.
As an example, this email outlines a key score, and helps clarify what happens next.
Hi team
Thanks to the 96% of employees who completed our first team survey. The feedback is fantastic, with an average happiness score of 88%.
There were a few statistics which weren’t as high, and the leadership team will be discussing ways in which we can fix the staff parking, and improve the rostering system.
I expect to touch base about these in early April. In the meantime, we will be sending these surveys every four weeks and very keen to keep hearing feedback from you all.
Thank you again from all the management team.
Jessica
Operations Director
This highlights a few key points;
- The participation rate
- The positive team mood
- What will be discussed from the results
- When the next survey will be
All in all, an excellent follow up email after the first of your regular employee surveys has been sent.
Image: Stock Snap
Email templates to announce regular employee surveys
To help you get started with your regular employee surveys, we’ve put together a few email templates that you can customise and use for your specific needs.
Email A
Here’s an example of a more formal email announcement.
SUBJECT: We’re after your feedback at COMPANY NAME
Dear colleagues,
We all want a workplace that has a fantastic culture, full of engaged people. To help us achieve this, we are starting regular employee surveys through our chosen vendor, 6Q.
Next Wednesday around 10.00am you will receive an email with the subject “COMPANY NAME wants your feedback via 6Q”. This will include a link to a quick eight question survey. Your two minute investment in completing the survey is very valuable to us.
Each response is anonymous, and the overall scores and responses will only be seen by the leadership team from each country.
The main goal with these surveys is to collect your feedback on various elements of your role, and to understand how happy and engaged our people are.
After the survey, I’ll send an email with some of the key learnings that we found in the report.
If you have any questions at all, please speak to your team leader.
Thanks!
Samantha
CEO
Email B
This is a more succinct email, which still conveys most of the important information.
SUBJECT: COMPANY NAME prides ourselves on listening to employee feedback
Hello team,
We are looking for your valuable feedback!
As of this Friday, we will be sending out pulse surveys every two weeks, and would appreciate your time to answer them honestly.
The data is being collected by a third party, who will only give us anonymous results. These will then be used in management meetings, to help plan for the next few months.
You will receive the first email from 6Q this Friday.
Let me know if you have questions. Otherwise, we’ll send more information in the coming weeks.
Regards
Roger
Managing Director
Email C
This is a purposely more relaxed tone, however still manages to get across the key information that employees typically want to know.
SUBJECT: We want your feedback!
Hi there!
As a valuable part of the COMPANY NAME team, we want to invite you to give us your feedback.
To do this, we have engaged a third party, 6Q, to send out very short (and easy to complete!) pulse surveys every Wednesday, and would appreciate your time to answer them honestly.
The data being collected is anonymous. The overall figures and any written comments will then be used in management meetings, to help plan for the next few months.
You will soon be receiving an email from 6Q.io – once you have the invitation, you will have 24 hours to answer, so please get in quick.
Let me or the HR team know if you have questions or concerns. Otherwise, please expect the first survey to appear in your inbox next week.
Regards
Jessica
People & Culture Manager
In Summary
Now that you’ve chosen your employee surveys vendor, written your survey questions and you are all ready to send, make sure you take time to effectively communicate to everyone what the purpose of these regular employee surveys are.
By doing so, you’ll end up with better employee buy in, higher response rates and a happier team in your organisation.
Make sure to follow up afterwards with any key metrics as well, to illustrate to your team how management are actively interested in the results of these regular employee surveys.
