Employee engagement is an important driver of retention, productivity, and workplace satisfaction. An effective tool for monitoring engagement is the pulse survey. These brief, but focused surveys provide frequent, actionable insights into employee sentiment, allowing HR teams to proactively address potential issues before they escalate into costly problems.
In this post, we’ll take a look at exactly how pulse surveys improve engagement, retention and save you money.
How Pulse Surveys Work
A pulse survey is a short survey designed to gather data and get answers quickly. Unlike annual or semi-annual surveys, pulse surveys are sent more frequently and typically taking no longer than 2-5 minutes to complete.
Instead of asking 45 questions once a year, you might send out a 5-question survey every month. A quick survey is easier to take and provides multiple data points throughout the year. The increased frequency of feedback helps uncover issues faster and allows organizations to take a proactive, data-driven approach to resolving issues.
Engagement and the Link to Retention
Employee engagement directly impacts turnover. In organizations with high overall turnover, individual business units with high engagement scores experienced 24% less turnover. In organizations with low overall turnover, the effect of positive engagement scores was even greater, showing 59% less turnover. Simply put, the more engaged your employees are, the less likely they are to leave. (Holaspirit) (Kona | For L&D Teams).
Assume our organization of 200 employees has an average annual salary of $50,000 and an annual turnover rate of 20%.
According to Gallup, the cost to replace an employee can range from half to two times their annual salary — or a range between $25,000 and $100,000 in our example.
At a 20% turnover rate, our organization will need to replace 40 employees annually, meaning that turnover could cost us $1,000,000 - $4,000,000!
Introducing regular pulse surveys as a retention strategy and leveraging people analytics to track progress, our organization could reduce turnover by 24%. By reducing the number of employees we need to replace from 40 to 30, we could save between $250,000 - $1,000,000 annually.
What Pulse Surveys Measure
It is essential to ask the right questions to uncover valuable insights. A well-designed pulse survey targets specific areas that drive engagement. Below are some example questions that focus on key areas to uncover actionable insights:
- "How satisfied are you with your current role?” - Meant to better understand workplace satisfaction, answers to this question help HR assess overall employee happiness and job fulfillment.
- “How often do you feel supported by your manager when facing challenges?" - Directly addressing managerial support can highlight leadership gaps and opportunities to reduce turnover.
- “Do you feel your workload is manageable within your normal working hours?” - This identifies potential burnout and areas where workload adjustments might be necessary.
- “How effectively do you feel your team collaborates to achieve shared goals?” - Collaboration impacts productivity and job satisfaction, making this a critical area for continuous improvement.
The above are just a few examples. By structuring your surveys to target critical areas and with the help of people analytics, HR can pinpoint where improvements are needed in real-time, leading to a healthier, more engaged workforce.
The Feedback Loop: Turning Insights into Action
While gathering feedback is crucial, the real value lies in acting on the insights. One of the biggest mistakes an organization can make is collecting valuable people data without implementing changes based on it. Employees need to see that their feedback leads to meaningful workforce improvements.
Suppose your pulse surveys reveal that 40% of employees feel their workloads are too heavy, impacting their work-life balance. HR can take immediate action by proposing changes, potentially hiring additional support, or offering flexible working arrangements.
Regular pulse surveys provide both quantitative data for HR metrics and qualitative data (comments, suggestions). Acting quickly on both types of data builds trust with employees, reinforcing the idea that their voice matters.
Why Frequency Matters
Infrequent feedback can mean problems go unnoticed for long periods of time, leading to disengagement, dissatisfaction, and, eventually, higher turnover. By contrast, regular feedback can act as an early warning system, enabling HR teams to make course corrections before major issues arise.
If your annual survey reveals declining engagement scores in Q4, it might already be too late to address problems that could have been brewing all year. But if pulse surveys show engagement dipping slightly in Q2, the organization can address the dip to prevent further decline.
Conclusion: The Underestimated ROI of Pulse Surveys
Pulse surveys are not just a tool to collect data—they are a tool to facilitate data-driven action. By identifying issues early, organizations can aim to reduce turnover, increase productivity, and improve morale. According to Gallup, disengaged employees cost companies a trillion dollars annually in lost productivity. Pulse surveys provide regular, actionable insights that lead to better engagement, which directly correlates to lower turnover costs and a more productive, satisfied workforce.
If you’re looking to boost engagement and retention, implementing pulse surveys via HRBench can be a game-changer. They provide the data and insights you need to keep your workforce happy, healthy, and productive.
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