Getting started
The first step you should take is to identify what you want to achieve with the pulse survey, and what audience you will be targeting. There should be a clear purpose for each question.
How to structure your questions
Avoid long, complicated words. When writing your survey questions, avoid longer words—this includes any technical jargon that employees might not understand.
Shorten the question length. To simplify your pulse survey, even more, make sure your questions are relatively short.
Adjust the tone. The tone of your questions can also impact responses. Avoid exaggerative or negatively worded questions to eliminate confusion.
Types of pulse questions
Emoji
Emojis are symbols that convey more than words, they help quickly and simply express an emotion, tone and feeling. The emoji option is perfect for pulse questions about employees’ emotions and feelings. e.g., How do you feel today?
1 - 10 Scale
The scale option lets employees rate an item or statement on a numerical scale by dragging an interactive slider. Respondents can use the scale to position themselves on a certain question, indicating their opinion more precisely than a ‘Yes/No’ question. You can set context to this scale too e.g a question may be from 'Very Likely to Very Likely' or 'Strongly Disagree' to 'Strongly Agree'.
Yes/No
Yes/No questions simply give employees the choice of answering yes or no to a specific question or statement. You can use this pulse question option when you expect the answer is one of two choices.
Multiple Choice
Multiple-choice questions allow respondents to select one or more options from a list of answers defined by the pulse survey creator. Use this option when you’re looking for responses to a fixed number of answers.
When to use additional questions and word tiles
Follow up questions are great for gaining more insight. Unlike your main question, a follow-up question lets the responder answer in a text box which gives them an opportunity to add more context to their response.
Word tiles are categories that your respondents can choose when answering the follow-up question. They help you identify themes without needing to sift through all the answers. You can then use word tiles to filter responses and understand the detail within the follow-up answers.
Adding values
Be sure to tag your question to a value! This way, you'll receive a report on the tailor-made tool to help you better understand how your employees are feeling about these important values. You can add a value to the question when you're creating it, or go into each value separately, and add the question to the value from there.
Setting your audience
Be very deliberate when setting your audience. Bigger decisions might require company-wide feedback, while smaller ones may only affect a small group of employees. Determine if this pulse survey will impact:
• The whole company
• Specific departments or teams
• Specific groups of unique individuals, such as new hires or remote workers
Rule-based pulse questions are really useful when choosing exactly who your surveys go to. Find out how to send one here!
Need some pulse question inspiration? Check out our blog: "Employee Engagement Questions You Should Ask".