Last updated December 2025
Every day we’re asked by organisations just like yours, ‘How often should you run employee pulse surveys?’.
The short answer is, it all depends.
After years of working with organisations of all shapes and sizes we’ve learned a thing or two about how to create a survey schedule that really works.
We’ve outlined our top tips, so you can create and refine your own.
Teams of all shapes and sizes benefit from pulse surveys, their format compliments the structure and working patterns of many different organisations.
Pulse surveys are quicker to create and send than more traditional employee surveys such as annual surveys.
Pulse surveys’ short and simple format encourages greater response rates from employees so you can collect a more accurate view of how they’re thinking and feeling.
Gathering feedback at regular intervals means that you can continuously measure and improve new and existing initiatives, adjusting them when needed.
The simplicity of a pulse survey means that the data is easy to analyse, giving you an up to the minute understanding of the insights from employees so that you can create change based on how they are currently feeling.
Pulse surveys are typically run weekly, monthly or quarterly – but frequency depends on your goals.
Every organisation is different and benefits from a different pulse survey schedule, there is no ‘one size fits all’ rule for pulse surveys.
So, how can you make sure you get it right for your team?
Use our questions and considerations below to help you decide on the best schedule for your employees.
The theme of your questions (and any you wish to repeat) provide a good guide for how often you should send them. For example, if you include questions on employees’ wellbeing, you may find it helpful to ask these monthly.
Take into account your employees’ workloads when planning your schedule so that you can ensure your response rates remain high and you’re not adding an extra task to their list.
We recommend communicating with employees about your last survey before launching a new one. This shows employees that you are committed to taking action based on their feedback, and will help you maintain good response rates and build trust!
If you need plenty of time to make changes based on survey feedback (e.g updating your working from home policy), it is best practice to ensure you have an idea of specific changes and timelines – and communicate these with employees – before your next pulse survey.
Keep in mind that if a large proportion of your team are on annual leave, they won’t be able to contribute to your survey. It is worth taking this into account when creating your survey schedule.
The more questions you include in your pulse surveys, the less frequently you should send them. This helps balance the time commitment you are asking of employees, and ensures you maintain a good response rate. For surveys of around five questions we recommend a monthly cadence.
Aligning your pulse surveys with the reporting of your organisation’s KPIs means you can include the results within management reports. This is an effective way to communicate the results to colleagues, and also shows them how seriously you’re taking the results!
Regular survey cadences will help you keep your finger on the pulse of how employees are thinking and feeling.
They also help you keep an eye on the impact of your changes, leading to more engaged employees and more successful business outcomes.
The most important thing to remember when creating a schedule is consistency.
Consistency helps you and your managers create a habit with your pulse survey routine.
It also helps improve survey engagement from your team as they begin to see regular changes created as a result of their feedback!
Stribe gives you a simple employee survey solution that makes it easy for you to create and send pulse surveys when it works best for your team, helping you gather employee insights that help you create real change that matters.
Want to learn more about Stribe? We’d love to show you.
About the author
Lucy Harvey, COO at Stribe, has 11+ years’ experience in purpose-driven leadership roles across health, wellbeing, internal communications, employee engagement, and marketing. She is passionate about creating workplaces where people are happy, fulfilled, and feel comfortable and safe to talk.
