I was on call with a customer recently and they were surprised to hear me say annual surveys aren’t enough when it comes to improving employee engagement.
Now let me be clear, reaching out to your employees for feedback is always a great idea, and there is of course an important role that annual surveys play in the workplace.
But – as a stand-alone tool – annual surveys often fail to create meaningful change.
They take up a huge amount of time to run, and don’t drive action quickly enough for your employees to feel like they are being heard.
Keep reading, and we’ll explain how to make the most of your annual surveys – plus what you should be doing so that your employee engagement survey strategy really makes a positive difference in 2025.
This one is a blessing and a curse.
On one hand you can never too much data, but the work involved to analyse and disseminate that data can often be overwhelming and leave you wondering what to do with it all.
A longer time to analyse data, also means a longer time to distribute findings, and an even longer time to communicate to employees about what you’re going to do to make improvements.
The distance between when you ask for employee feedback and when you communicate what you’re doing about it is so critical – because it can either drive a tonne of engagement or disengagement.
The distance between when you ask for employee feedback and when you communicate what you’re doing about it is so critical – because it can either drive a tonne of engagement or disengagement. 
Annual surveys often suffer from recency bias, which means that employees’ feedback is disproportionately influenced by their most recent experiences, rather than a broader, more balanced view of their entire year.
For example, if an employee has had a difficult few weeks, they might express dissatisfaction in your annual survey, even if most of their year was positive.
This can lead to an inaccurate representation of employee sentiment.
Employee engagement and positive culture is built through day-to-day interactions and ongoing, long-term commitments from leadership.
So to take a snapshot taken once a year doesn’t always reflect the true picture.
To get a more reliable understanding of employee engagement, a much better approach is to gather feedback more regularly and at different points throughout the year.
Similarly to the point around data – the sheer scale of annual surveys often slows everything down.
These projects require significant time to plan, distribute, collect responses and then implement changes.
By the time any action is taken, the issues employees flagged months earlier might have escalated – or completely changed.
This makes it really difficult for HR teams to respond to problems in real-time, leaving employees feeling unheard and sometimes resentful.
Keep reading to learn how to remove time-barriers and get to action quicker.
The key to making the most of your employee engagement survey strategy is to run your annual surveys alongside more frequent pulse surveys throughout the year.
Let your annual survey inform you of your benchmarks and goals for the future, and let your pulse surveys be intentionally-designed drivers of action that help you move the needle towards those goals.
You should design your annual survey so that is captures a birds-eye view of all areas of your business – this will help inform you of the challenges, or themes that are being mentioned by the majority.
Annual surveys are not necessarily about diving deep, but rather getting a sweeping overview of what’s most important at that moment in time – because you can’t address everything all at once.
Once you’ve identified what’s most important, and have any idea of what conversations need to happen – you can dive deeper with focused pulse surveys that are shorter, easier to launch, faster to analyse, and lead to action much quicker.
For example, your annual survey might show that employee wellbeing needs to be a main focus, because there’s a pattern emerging that team members are struggling with burnout and workload.
Your next steps will be to:
It’s important to mention that the above cycle needs to happen as quickly as possible, and you shouldn’t move on to a new pulse survey without having fully completed the cycle of another – that includes making changes based on the feedback.
Even if you can’t make changes quickly, it is so important to keep your employees updated with progress, or provide reasons for delays. Don’t leave them wondering.
Think about it from the perception of your employees – 30 days, 60 days, 90 days go by and they still haven’t seen any results, or heard what the company is doing to make their situation better?
It is that lack of communication and lack of implementing change that creates unhappy workplaces.
It depends. Most organisations run pulse surveys monthly or quarterly.
But what we recommend is that your pulse survey frequency should be in line with how quickly you can communicate survey results, and create change based on employee feedback.
These tips might seem obvious, but it’s surprising how many organisations can get it wrong, even when they have all the right intentions.
Make sure employees know why you’re running the survey and what you’re hoping to achieve.
When people understand the purpose behind the questions, they’re more likely to provide thoughtful, honest responses. Clarity builds trust and ensures employees feel involved in shaping the outcomes.
Not everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts in the same way – and that’s totally okay.
In addition to surveys, make sure you’re offering other options like anonymous messengers tools or one-to-one conversations with trusted representatives, so everyone feels comfortable speaking up.
A survey is only as good as the action you take afterward.
If you ask for feedback but fail to follow through, employees can quickly lose trust in the process. Keep them updated on the steps you’re taking and show how their input is shaping meaningful change.
The right tools will save you loads of time, improve accuracy, and provide better insights.
Look for engagement software that’s intuitive, accessible, and capable of handling feedback in real-time.
Simplifying the process allows you to focus on what really matters – listening to your people and acting on their needs.
At Stribe, we’d love to support you in doing just that. Book in a chat with our team to learn more about how we can help.
About the author
Recognised in Forbes 30 under 30, Kieran Innes is the Founder & CEO of Stribe and Tootoot, two platforms dedicated to empowering voices in workplaces and schools. A seasoned tech leader, Kieran has over 14 years’ experience building innovative SaaS products and teams.
