How to avoid employee survey fatigue

What is employee survey fatigue?

Employee survey fatigue is when employees become tired, bored, unmotivated, or uninterested in answering the employee surveys you send them. This can result in them not answering your surveys at all, or even answering them to a substandard level e.g. clicking on the same answer for every question just to get through the survey.

Why does employee survey fatigue happen?

Employee survey fatigue is usually a combination of factors, rather than one big thing. That is why it can often feel difficult to overcome. The main factors that contribute to employee survey fatigue are:

• Survey communications are ineffective
  Pre and post-survey communications are an important (and often underrated) tool in preventing employee survey fatigue. Skipping this step can mean that employees aren’t engaged or motivated to answer your surveys.

• Employees don’t believe action will be taken
  Employees want to feel valued, and when action isn’t taken then they’re made to feel that you don’t value their feedback and are less likely to respond to the next survey.

• Too many surveys are sent too frequently 
  Employees invest their time and energy into every survey they complete. But, like everything, doing something too often can become exhausting. This is no different for your employees! Sending too many surveys will mean employees are less likely to answer them and overwhelm you with too much data!

Simple tricks to avoid employee survey fatigue

There are many tricks and tools available to you if you’re running a survey and want to avoid survey fatigue and improve your employee survey response rates. Many of them are simple to add into your day-to-day too.

• Communicate surveys properly before sending
  Pre-survey communications are crucial in framing the pulse survey for employees. What is the survey for? When is the participation deadline? When will they hear the results? Answering these questions in pre-survey communications before launching your pulse survey will enhance the response rates and ensure you reduce the chance of employee survey fatigue in the long run.

• Choose a survey schedule that suits your organisation
  Take time to understand the best day/time to send your employee surveys. Use this knowledge to shape your pulse survey schedule, doing this will ensure that you always send your surveys when employees are most receptive to them.

• Start asking the right questions
  Asking the right questions will ensure buy-in from your employees and maintain a high engagement in your surveys. This comes down to two points.Firstly, make sure that the questions produce data you can act on. If this isn’t the case, you may see survey fatigue creep in as employees notice a lack of change from your surveys.Secondly, make sure the questions are relevant to the employees you are sending the surveys to. For example, avoid sending a question to your hybrid workforce about working from home when some of your employees are in the office full-time. Using software such as Stribe, that helps you send questions to specific segments of your employees, helps you avoid this.

• Communicate results and actions after each survey
  One of the biggest frustrations for employees is that they take the time to give feedback, and then feel like their comments are ignored because they don’t hear anything after the survey closes.By making sure your post-survey communications are up to scratch you will build a collaborative and trusting environment where employees will continue to fully participate in surveys. If you aren’t sure that you have the resource to communicate and/or act after a survey closes, then reconsider your pulse survey schedule to make sure you can include this step.

• Include everyone in your communications strategy
  Another common mistake is to only communicate survey results to managers (and then assume they will cascade the information accurately to their teams). Take the time to ensure that your full organisation – from senior management to front-line staff – have been communicated with will help you avoid survey fatigue.

• Don’t run disingenuous surveys
  Survey fatigue can also occur when employees can see through your survey questions and don’t believe that their input will actually lead to an outcome. In fact, 45% of employees don’t feel that their survey responses will lead to meaningful change. To avoid this, plan your questions well and don’t ask questions on topics that you (and they!) know are off the cards.

Work with Stribe to avoid employee pulse survey fatigue

At Stribe, building and creating surveys is our bread and butter. Interested in hearing how we can help you avoid survey fatigue and maintain engagement?

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About the author

Lucy Harvey

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.