If you’ve found this article, you’re likely struggling with employee survey participation and looking for where things could be going wrong.
Don’t worry, you’re not the first (and definitely won’t be the last) person to find it difficult to convince employees to complete surveys.
We can help, and you’ve landed in the right place.
We’re going to talk you through the – brutally honest – reasons why employees are ignoring surveys and tips to improve your survey response rates.
A response rate below 70% would be considered low and is an indication that your employees are reluctant to share their thoughts and feelings.
However, this can vary based on a variety of factors like the type of survey, the size of your organisation, and the standard benchmarks in your industry.
Don’t let low response rates get you down – they can always be improved with the rights steps and open communication with your team.
Stribe data shows that the best time to send surveys are Mondays 10:00am – 11:00am, Thursdays 10:00am – 11:00am and Fridays 2:00pm – 3:00pm. 
A good employee survey response rate falls between 70% and 80%. Above 80% is considered an excellent.
Apart from the obvious reasons – the biggest issue with low response rates is a lack of representation.
For example, if a survey achieves only a 35% response rate, the study suffers from something called a “nonresponse bias” of 65%.
If the response rate is 15%, the nonresponse bias is 85% and so on…
A nonresponse bias is damaging to your survey’s validity and reliability – because only a small sample of your organisation is being represented.
And oftentimes when people are being hesitant or won’t complete employee surveys, there are deeper issues to uncover.
So, it’s really important that you work in harmony with your employees to help them understand how much their voices matter. This will help you achieve the best response rate possible.
Everyone uses technology differently, so it’s important to make sure that your surveys are answerable on desktop and mobile platforms - like apps, QR codes, email etc.
This is a BIG one. Employees often fear that their responses aren’t truly anonymous and could be used against them.
This is why it’s so important to find a survey provider (like Stribe) that has a genuine commitment to anonymity and will help your employees understand that they are truly protected by explaining how systems work and how their data is analysed.
Nothing kills a workplace more than employees watching leaders ignore their challenges – even after they’ve raised them over and over again.
Many employees believe their survey feedback won’t lead to any meaningful change, so they see it as a waste of time.
The only way to combat this is by acting on feedback – it’s that simple. Implement positive change post-survey so that your employees can trust your word in future.
Invest in a survey software (like Stribe) which can help you manage anonymity, data and action planning.
Repeated or lengthy surveys are boring and tedious.
This results in employees not answering your surveys at all, or answering them lazily and inaccurately – for example, clicking on the same answer for every question just to get through the survey.
Survey cadence can be tricky to get right, but once you know what you’re doing you’ll see better response rates. We have an article of simple tricks to avoid survey fatigue to help you.
In workplace cultures with poor leadership and accountability, employees will be anxious and pessimistic about giving honest feedback.
This fear is often compounded by a sense of cynicism if employees believe leadership is disingenuous or disconnected from the realities of the workforce.
For surveys to be successful – your leaders need to have accountability, acknowledge concerns, and take visible action to build trust.
Think about it – would you bother spending time completing a task if you didn’t know what it was for?
If the purpose and goals of your survey isn’t communicated well, employees won’t understand its importance or relevance – and you can expect it to go to their inbox trash folder.
Make sure you’re making it super clear about the who, what, why, when and how of the survey.
Employees who have participated in past surveys without seeing any improvements, or have been lied to about anonymity, often become jaded and distrustful – which stops them from participating altogether.
It’s your job to show them that surveys are a tool to make workplaces better for everyone, and without their participation you can’t help them.
Here at Stribe, we’d love to help you do that.
Take a 30-second tour of Stribe and get in touch with our team if you’re interested in a chat!
Starting out her early career as a journalist, Jade Madeley is an accomplished content writer with 8+ years’ experience across business, personal finance, SaaS, human resources and employee engagement. Working with Stribe, she crafts insightful content that brings complex HR topics to life and drives meaningful action.
