Key Highlights
- Before running a survey, ask: “What’s my goal for this survey?” and “Will leadership be able to act on the survey results?” to ensure it’s purpose-driven and actionable.
- Survey employees at least once a year to stay current with changes in the employee experience.
- Use more frequent pulse surveys only after the annual survey has been launched and acted on, focusing them on specific growth opportunities.
- Feedback creates value only when you act on it—failing to follow through leads to survey fatigue and erodes trust.
Your employees are the voice of your workplace, and their experiences shape the foundation of your company culture. When organisations actively listen to employee feedback and take action, they don’t just improve workplace satisfaction—they also foster trust, engagement, and performance. The common question that is often asked by companies is: “How often should you survey employees?”
The Answer:
If you’re an HR professional, you know how important it is. You may also be justifiably cautious, maybe even fearful about running too many employee surveys. Maybe you’re even considering a new employee survey software to streamline the process and better meet your organisation’s needs. You’ve probably had thoughts like these:
- “What if we’re unable to act on the feedback we get?”
- “What if we’re surveying employees too often? Will they stop responding to future surveys?”
- “Our people already have a lot on their plates. I don’t want to overburden them by adding an employee survey to their to-do lists.”
These are all valid concerns – but they shouldn’t hold you back from running employee surveys. With a little planning, you can gather timely, valuable insights about your workplace without annoying your colleagues.
When to survey employees: 2 questions to ask
There’s no one-size-fits-all frequency for conducting surveys. However, there are two simple questions you can ask that will help you figure out the timing that works for your organization.
Q1. What’s my goal for this survey?
Before running an employee survey, make sure you know why you’re doing it. This will help you ask questions that give you the most useful feedback.
Here are some possible survey objectives:
- Learn how to better support and survey my employees during a crisis
- Get feedback on how to return to in-office work as smoothly as possible
- Gather baseline data so you can track how your company culture changes over time
Q2. Will leadership be able to act on the survey results?
Before launching an employee survey, make sure your leadership teams have the bandwidth to act on the survey results in a timely fashion. For example, if you work for a tax preparation company, you might not want to launch an employee survey at the height of tax season.
If now isn’t the right time of year to run your survey, that’s OK! Figure out when would be a better time–and commit to it. Don’t put it off indefinitely.
Survey employees at least once a year
If you aren’t gathering feedback at least once a year, you might fail to notice changes in your employee experience. 90% of our customers survey their employees once a year or more. They know that if you go too long between surveys, it’s harder to keep up with the changing needs of your people.
One-on-one check-ins are also valuable, but not everyone is comfortable sharing feedback in person. Employee surveys give people a way to express themselves openly, honestly and confidentially. They also give you the data you need to get buy-in for new initiatives.
Advanced listening calls for pulse surveys
Many organisations with advanced listening strategies survey employees more often than once a year. They may collect feedback and data semi-annually, quarterly, monthly or even weekly.
Once you’re comfortable launching an annual survey, gathering feedback and sharing the results with employees, consider surveying more often. But don’t just survey for the sake of surveying–it’s important to analyse the survey results and use them to inform your next survey:
- First, look at the results from your annual survey and identify your main growth opportunities
- After you’ve worked through the data, think about launching a pulse survey that focuses on one or two specific growth opportunities
For instance, maybe your survey results show that your tenured employees are having a less positive experience than your new hires. You might follow up with a pulse survey geared specifically towards asking your new hires about their training and onboarding experience. You could also conduct listening sessions with longer-tenured employees to better understand why they’re having a less positive experience.
How often is too often? How to avoid survey fatigue
Survey fatigue only occurs when it becomes clear to employees that leadership doesn’t take their feedback into consideration.
Here are some steps you can take to avoid this feeling:
- Express genuine gratitude for your employees’ participation and feedback
- Facilitate listening sessions to gain more context into your survey results
- Summarise leaderships’ key takeaways and commitments to action
- Take action as promised
- Clearly communicate results from new initiatives and programs created as a result of the survey.
Whether you survey once, twice or 20+ times a year, if you develop a careful listening strategy built on employee surveys, you’ll gain insight that helps you make more data-driven business decisions, support your people and take impactful strategic action.
Ready to start your pulse survey strategy?
Learn more about our Trust Index employee survey and how we can help you create survey cadence for your organisation.
FAQs
- How often should we survey employees?At minimum once a year. Go beyond that only if your goals and capacity to act on results are clear.
- What should we check before launching a survey?Be clear on the survey’s purpose and confirm leadership has the bandwidth to respond to the findings.
- Can we run pulse surveys monthly or quarterly?Yes—after completing the annual survey, sharing results, and defining one or two targeted growth areas for shorter follow-ups.
- What happens if we collect feedback but don’t act on it?Employees experience survey fatigue and lose trust, undermining the value of future feedback.
Tools & Resources
- Leadership & Development: Equip leaders to understand and act on Employee Survey insights. Support them in building trust, communicating clearly, and guiding teams through meaningful workplace improvements.
- Workplace Culture: Use employee feedback to identify what strengthens or weakens your culture. Focus on creating an environment where people feel heard, valued, and supported through transparent action.
- Employee Survey: Develop a clear survey strategy with a strong annual Employee Survey as the foundation. Add targeted pulse surveys to monitor progress and address priority areas without overwhelming employees.
- Great Place to Work® Certification: Leverage survey data and workplace insights to achieve Certification. Demonstrate your commitment to improving trust, communication, and the overall employee experience.
