Last updated on March 3, 2023 at 07:21 pm

Gathering employee feedback frequently is increasingly important. More comms pros are finding that understanding the employee’s needs/wants is necessary to get buy-in and boost engagement. But not all communication professionals know how to write employee surveys.

• What makes a good survey?
• What questions should you ask?
• What type of survey should I use?
• How often should you poll your employee audience?
• What do I do with the feedback?

That’s why we’re sharing our top five tips for writing better surveys.

Employee Surveys Key Takeaways

Writing a good employee survey is like writing communication copy. That means they need to be short and carefully edited. This will increase engagement with your survey and avoid any confusion. And like good communications, you should always consider the underlying goals that inform WHY you are conducting a survey. And last, it’s always a best practice to consult a subject matter expert and get an extra set of eyes on your work.

But remember, even if you write the best survey, it doesn’t matter if you don’t follow up. Survey fatigue is not employees tiring of sharing their feedback. Rather, it’s that employees are fed up with a lack of action. We suggest reading our blog on gathering employee feedback for more tips on creating a fully integrated survey strategy. And brush up on your measurement and data visualization skills.

When you share your results, you always want to hone in on what’s relevant to your audience. And even more importantly, you should try to tell the story in the data. It’s not just about dumping all the results on your senior leaders. Why do you think a certain trend emerged? What has contributed to your employees feeling a certain way? And then, what can you do about it from a communication perspective?

Even if you can’t share a game plan to address employee feedback right away, tell them that you’re working on it. Share what the results were with them and that you’re seriously considering the best approach. And when you are able to make changes, remind them it was driven by their feedback and that you appreciate their transparency.