Seven tips for achieving a good response rate

• Communicate, communicate, communicate!
• Try to keep your questionnaire short
• Ensure participant anonymity
• Is your survey relevant to employees?
• Make your survey as user-friendly as possible
• Incentives can help
• Don’t overlook access to the survey!

It is essential that you communicate with your employees as much as possible about the survey. Employees need to understand the purpose of the survey and how their participation will benefit them and the organisation. Employee surveys should be viewed as a communication tool that will assist management in capturing information about how employees feel about their job and the organisation, their likes and dislikes, and any issues/problems they may be experiencing. With this knowledge, management are better equipped to design work environments and introduce organisational policies that meet the needs of employee as well as the organisation. Employees need to know that their opinions are important and that the survey results will effect how change happens within the organisation. Branding the survey, linking it to your organisation’s strategy, and making reference to the positive changes that have taken place since your last staff survey can all encourage participation.

Your communication should inform employees that the survey results will be fed back to employees, preferably within a few weeks of the survey close date. This reinforces to employees that management will take the survey results seriously and that their participation is not a waste of time.

For full employee awareness of the survey, you should use as many communication channels as possible – email, the intranet, posters, newsletters, team meetings, staff briefings, and noticeboards. Ideally, employees should be informed about the survey a few weeks before it is launched – pre-notifications can significantly increase response rates. Employees need to know when the survey is taking place, and how they can complete it. Continually reminding employees during the survey live period to take part can also improve your response rate.

It is important that a senior figure within the organisation, such as the CEO or Managing Director, shows support for the survey. This may be via a message at the beginning of the survey or via an email before and during the survey. This will communicate to employees the importance of their participation and that that the survey is supported by senior management.

During the survey live period, we can provide response rate updates for different departments. You should feed this information back to the departments so that managers know where further reinforcement is needed.