Employee Pulse Survey

Introduction to the Employee Pulse Survey on Empuls

What is the Employee Pulse Survey?

The Empuls employee pulse survey is built on the Deming cycle on continuous improvement. It measures the employee pulse periodically through a time-tested questionnaire and provides insights to the survey administrators, in real-time. The Employee Net Promoter Score is the key metric targeted by this survey and it provides detailed insights to the survey administrator to be able to improve the organization's eNPS score.

How is it structured?

The survey has a 3 tier structure which is designed to get to the root cause of employee satisfaction or dissatisfaction at the workplace.

At the first level, employees are asked how willing are they to recommend their organization to their friends and peers, on a scale of 1 to 10. The responses to this question determine the Employee Net Promoter Score of the organization, which is the north star metric when it comes to employee motivation.

At the second level, a set of 15 questions are asked with the purpose of understanding the reasoning behind the score given by the employee to the eNPS question. These questions cover the entire gambit of parameters that determine the employee experience and are framed on a 5 point Likert Scale (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree).

Finally, the employees are asked an open-ended question where they can share their opinions, feedback, or suggestions anonymously with the organization. The open feedback question helps the HR team understand specific issues in the words of the employee and is a powerful tool to get to the root cause of implicit issues across the organization.

How often does it run?

There are two modes of running the employee pulse survey on Empuls.

One Time Survey Run: The Empuls admins control when the survey is to be triggered across the organization. The survey invites are sent to all active users simultaneously. This is ideal for organizations with <= 500 employees since it reduces responder fatigue and increases response accuracy. This mode is meant for smaller organizations to collect feedback in one go, analyze the responses, and implement changes. The HR team should re-run the survey once action plans have been implemented based on the survey insights.

Quarterly Survey Run: In this mode, one-third of all active users are invited to participate in the survey each month, in a quarterly cycle. Empuls groups all users across the organization in three groups created with random selection. Each group of users are surveyed once in a quarter, thereby covering the entire organization in a quarterly cycle. This is ideal for organizations with >500 employees, as it helps the HR team continue to collect employee feedback every month and make improvements on an ongoing basis. Progress can be measured in shorter durations by tracking the movement of key metrics monthly.

Why should I measure employee engagement?

“To win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace,” said Doug Conant, CEO of Campbell’s Soup.

Doug Conant’s view is not an isolated case for many successful managers and CEOs who understand the worth of investing in their employees. An investment is not just monetary, for one of the best investments is to ensure a happy, productive environment where employees are more engaged.

Employee engagement matters, and it matters a lot, be it a startup or a multinational enterprise. For more engaged the employees, the more likely they are to stick with an organization.

Also, engaged employees are more likely to voluntarily go the extra mile to ensure business goals and targets are achieved.

The more engaged your employees, the lower the churn rate and higher the employee retention ratio, ensuring success, profits, and business growth. Importantly, these are not just possibilities but have been tangibly earmarked.

💡For example, businesses with higher than average engaged employees result in 27% higher profits, 50% higher customer loyalty, and 50% improvement in sales.

eNPS is the North Star Metric

The Employee Net Promoter Score, or eNPS, or the employee engagement net promoter score, uses the NPS system but replaces clients with employees to measure internal popularity. The employees are asked one question on how likely they are to recommend the company as a workplace. Depending on the answers provided, the eNPS tool categorizes employees into promoters, neutrals, or detractors.

Promoters are those who give out 9 (or better) out of 10 for the question and are considered to be the most engaged employees. They are the employees who are motivated, happy, and are enthusiastic about recommending others to join in. Passives give out scores ranging from 6 to 8 out of 10 for the eNPS query. Such employees are considered as neutrals having neither a positive nor a negative sentiment. Any employee who answers within a range of 0 to 5 is categorized as a Detractor. Such employees are believed to be having a meager employee engagement rate and require a detailed analysis to understand the root cause of their negative sentiment towards the organization.

How is the eNPS calculated?

Employee Net Promoter Score is based on the NPS system developed by Bain and Co’s research team headed by Fred Reichheld to assess customer satisfaction and loyalty.

There are two questions asked to an employee in an eNPS assessment: On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this organization as a place to work to a friend or colleague? Why did you give this score? (open-ended question)

eNPS is calculated as the difference between the ratio of promoters and detractors at the organization and can vary from -100 (all employees being detractors) to +100 (all employees being promoters). A score around +30 is generally considered good, and one around +50 is considered excellent. Some companies, such as Hubspot, have an eNPS of around +80. This is one of the highest across industries at the global level.

What Impacts the eNPS?

Key Engagement Drivers

Strategic Connect with the organization

It’s all about unifying the organization’s efforts towards a common objective. Strategic planning and communication are important functions of an organization’s management and help in prioritizing, allocating resources to ensure that everyone is working towards one common vision.

Hygiene Factors at the place of work

A pristine culture is built with happy employees - but where does happiness come from? The hygiene dimension takes into consideration how comfortable the workforce is with its roles, financial safety, and psychological well-being. Employees are more engaged when they feel a sense of dignity and respect and are aware that it is a safe and secure workplace. All this helps in reinforcing that they are the employee of choice for the organization. These practices, and norms free employees from financial, physical, and emotional concerns, which results in a more engaged workforce.

Professional Relationships & Organizational Culture

Human interaction is the key to healthy work culture. The question is what is your organization doing to build a healthy work culture? Building meaningful relationships within the workplace is very important for employees. Get key insights about peer-to-peer relationships, superior-subordinate hierarchies, and cultural dynamics. Relationships are important for us as individuals, who need a personal connection for support, meaning, friendship, etc.

Employee Recognition & Career Growth

Employees thrive in circumstances where they have a chance to bloom in the best way possible. The Pulse Survey answers the questions on what the workforce wants and its perception of current rewards and performance structure. Employee appreciation is an essential part of human needs in the workplace. We as employees are happy when our manager appreciates us for our good work. When employees are valued for the work and effort that they have put in, productivity level increases and this motivates them to improve themselves.

Frequently Asked

What questions will be asked?

A. eNPS Question i.e On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend {{Your Organisation Name e.g Pied Piper}} to a friend or a colleague.

B. Engagement questions that has 15 likert scale questions (Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neutral Agree, Strong Agree) to measure engagement across key dimensions.

• I take pride to be associated with the brand I work for

• My personal values align with Pied Piper's vision and mission

• I believe in the approach taken by my leaders to reach Pied Piper's objectives

• I have clarity of what is expected of me from the job

• I feel financially secure in Pied Piper

• This is a physically safe place to work

• I feel psychologically safe at Pied Piper

• I am satisfied with Pied Piper's policies and processes

• I can count on my team for any help I require

• I can count on my manager for any help I require

• I take pride in the values that Pied Piper promotes

• I am satisfied with Pied Piper's culture

• I see a clear career development path for myself at Pied Piper

• I am suitably recognized for my achievements at work

• I am satisfied with my appraisal process

C. Open ended feedback question which employees can answer with free text (is there anything else you would want to share with us?)