Does your organization have an annual employee engagement survey and then nothing else to gather feedback from your people?

No Pulse Surveys?

No communication channel where employees can provide their feedback whenever they feel like it?

Well, how then could your organization accurately capture those 9-month warning signs?

People do give you notice 9 months before the notice letter.

But does your organization notice it?

A missed opportunity to pro-actively do something about that sky-high attrition rate organizations suffer under.

In Singapore, for example, the average attrition rate in 2022 was 21%. More than twice as "good" as the globally desired Best Practice of about 10% attrition annually.

Why not make employee feedback as essential as oxygen?

Because it actually is.

Without employees your organization would not exist.

Now by asking someone for their opinion - whether it’s about work or what they’d like for lunch - you imply that you care about it and create an expectation that you’ll do something based on what they have to say.

When you don’t act on what your people tell you the most important issues they face are, your company’s culture doesn’t just stay the same.

It gets much, much worse.

When you don’t act, your people, asked to speak, don’t feel heard.

They feel hurt.

Pulse Surveys Help You Visualize Trends

No marketing executive worth their salt would poll their customers once a year, provide zero feedback and then act on the information many months later. Yet, with annual work surveys, this is what organizations are doing all the time.

While annual surveys can give a snapshot overview of the year, employees and the whole company will flourish with more constant two-way communication.

How would you feel if you were asked your opinion only once a year and on the other 364 days to just shut up and work?

People deserve to be part of the conversation more than once a year.

With regular Pulse Surveys employers are able to get a baseline for employees, trend survey results over a period of time, and then ask more tailored specific questions based on actively listening to the results of previous surveys.

They provide an accurate snapshot in time to help measure the sentiment, happiness and feeling within your organization. The real-time insights will help you gauge how everyone is feeling and allow you to build relevant action plans. 

Some pointers for having the finger on the pulse

1) Pulse Surveys for engagement should consistently ask a few same questions (not more than 3 to 5) to monitor trends.

2) But don't only ask the same questions over and over, but rather add fluid questions that pay attention to the employees’ responses and generated insights from previous surveys too.

3) Feedback is effective when it sheds light on the present and offers a window into the future — without dwelling on the past.

4) Just as customer feedback has transformed the customer experience, employee feedback is transforming the employee experience. You may want to provide a continuous feedback channel in addition to your Pulse Surveys and invite feedback often.

5) Don't forget to include your frontliners who deal with customers and operational processes directly. They have ideas about what works and what is broken.

6) Celebrate critical feedback. How often do we publicly and graciously recognize employees for being a voice of dissent? For asking tough questions? For calling out mistakes? For being flat-out honest in our organizations? Feedback is a gift; accept it.

7) It doesn’t end at those Pulse Surveys. Listening through them is only half the battle because employee engagement is about a conversation. It’s about action. Listen first, and then, armed with those insights, take action.

But not just trans-ACTIONal but transformational.

Imagine if all of your people could share ideas in real-time & “socialize” them across the team quickly.

Imagine what your “swarm intelligence” could achieve for staying ahead.

Imagine what kind of intrinsic motivation you could spark once your people feel the ideas & improvements are something they had a part in & that their voice is heard & listened to. 

Our Thesis: Organizations don’t run out of good ideas – they overlook them!

Do you need some ideas on what to ask? The 10 Best Survey Questions to Ask

Or download our comprehensive Real-Time Employee Feedback Checklist