How motivated are employees to achieve beyond the bare minimum? How committed are they to the organization? How much do they care about their contributions?

This may feel nebulous, and, in a way, it is. However, a well-designed employee engagement survey is the perfect way to get answers and learn what needs to be improved.

Explore how to drive engagement surveys that work—and how to turn insights into action.

The importance of employee engagement surveys (and their benefits)

In short, effective surveys help leaders understand employee sentiment. A well-designed survey provides data that acts as a powerful compass for change.

You’re able to:

• Learn how satisfied employees are 
• Identify key areas of improvement
• Build trust by creating the opportunity to listen and react to feedback
• Strengthen company culture by improving what employees truly value

Because when engagement improves, businesses enjoy:

• Higher earnings per share (EPS)
• Better performance than competitors 
• Retention of top performers 

Simply put, a good survey serves as a blueprint for building a culture of engagement, trust, and loyalty.

6 different types of employee engagement surveys

The reality is, engagement is more than just a buzzword—it’s a vital metric that impacts your bottom line. But not all engagement surveys serve the same purpose. Each type is designed to capture different moments and insights across the employee experience.

1. Comprehensive engagement surveys

This type measures and diagnoses factors that influence overall engagement, such as recognition, clarity of expectations, personal growth opportunities, etc. These are typically longer and are sent at least annually.

2. Pulse surveys

These are shorter and more focused on a single theme, such as engagement, culture, satisfaction, benefits, professional development, etc. Employee engagement pulse surveys are perfect for monitoring trends on a monthly basis.

3. Onboarding surveys

These capture the first impressions of new hires and help narrow down how to improve the experience of new employees. And considering over one third of new hires quit in the first year, these surveys are vital.

4. Company culture surveys

These assess broader, company-wide elements of the workplace, such as inclusion, activities, or communication effectiveness. Like engagement surveys, these are best sent once or twice a year.

5. Wellbeing surveys

This type of survey is perfect to gauge how healthy employees feel. Ask about their stress levels, whether they’re feeling burned out, and how they’d rate their work/life balance. The tweaks you make based on this feedback, more than any others, show employees you care about them as people, not just as productivity machines.

6. Exit surveys

Resignations house critical information that highlights the current state of your workforce experience. Use exit surveys to gather that data and see what is driving turnover. If you uncover certain factors that push employees away, take action to reverse that trend.

Questions to help you create an employee engagement survey

Engagement surveys seem simple, but to maximize your results, there are a few considerations you don’t want to overlook.

Should you use a survey tool?

Short answer, yes. Third-party survey tools are purpose-built to make surveys more official, fun, and seamless. They also allow you to collect and analyze data and feedback in a clear and organized way.

Awardco’s employee listening tool allows you to build your survey, reward participation, and gather data on a single platform. It’s custom-built to make surveys more fun, effective, and rewarding in every way.

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How long should surveys be?

Length depends on purpose. For example: 

• Comprehensive engagement surveys are typically longer and designed to capture a full picture of the employee experience. This might include 30-60 digestible questions that will take 15-20 minutes to complete.
  
  
• Pulse surveys, on the other hand, are intentionally short and focused—making them easier to complete frequently and ideal for tracking trends over time. Leaders can address and act on results more quickly. This might include 5-15 multiple-choice or yes-or-no questions. 

The general rule of thumb is: Use longer surveys for depth and shorter surveys for frequency.

How often should you send out surveys?

Survey frequency should align with your goals and capacity to act. Conduct them often enough to track meaningful trends, but avoid over-surveying and causing fatigue.

A common practice is to send out an annual survey that’s much more robust, and then supplement that with quarterly, monthly, or even weekly pulse surveys that are much shorter and more focused.

What day is best to launch your survey?

Research shows that employee surveys launched on Mondays get the best participation rate. 

It does depend on the nature of your business, so your team may consider collecting your own data over time to nail down the right timing.

Should surveys be anonymous?

Yes, it’s best to make employee surveys anonymous so that people can share their honest thoughts without fearing potential fallout. 

Keep in mind, what matters more is whether employees trust that their responses are confidential and handled responsibly. Without that trust, even anonymous surveys can produce guarded or incomplete feedback. When employees doubt confidentiality, response rates drop and data quality suffers. 

Protecting privacy isn’t just ethical—it’s essential for an accurate picture of your workplace culture.

Example: Pulse survey in action

Think of this survey as a pulse check for your organization. It’s a way to gauge the temperature of your workforce and identify any hotspots that need attention. 

Our survey on employee engagement consists of 15 yes-or-no questions. The simplicity of this format helps encourage team members to complete the survey—because the more answers you’re able to collect, the better insights you’ll gain to make the right changes. 

Job satisfaction and work environment

1. Do you have fun at work?
2. Do you get along with and respect your manager and coworkers?
3. Are you satisfied with your work-life balance?
4. Do you ever feel confused about what you should be doing with your time?
5. Do you feel trusted and empowered to do your best?

Company culture and values

6. Do you understand the core values of the company? 
7. Do you know how your work contributes to those core values? 
8. Is your feedback for the company taken seriously? 
9. Would you recommend the company to a friend?

Manager and leadership

10. Do you feel that company leaders have your best interests at heart?
11. Do you feel your manager recognizes your contributions and capitalizes on your strengths? 
12. Have you received recognition in the last month? 
13. Do you feel valued and appreciated for your work?

Career development and growth

14. Do you have opportunities to learn new skills and grow as a professional at work? 
15. Are you aware of your path of upward growth?

How to communicate & respond to employee engagement survey results

This is the most important stage. Here’s how to respond to feedback and, more importantly, take steps to measure and improve engagement.

1. Thank employees and share next steps

A simple thank you goes a long way in helping employees feel like their time is valued. Afterward, communicate the timeline employees can expect to get a response on their feedback. Stress that not every piece of feedback can be addressed, but that common threads will be touched on.

2. Analyze and segment your data

Look at how specific departments and teams score in each section of the survey. For example, if Marketing gave communication a 85% favorability score, but engineering and sales only gave it a 40% score, you know that department-level improvements need to be made.

3. Leverage employee satisfaction index (ESI)

Think of the ESI as a report card for your company’s happiness. It’s a numerical representation of your workforce’s satisfaction levels, calculated based on their responses to various employee engagement survey questions. 

You can calculate ESI from the yes/no answers in your employee engagement survey. 

How to calculate ESI:

Here’s a simple approach to calculating ESI based on your survey results:  

1. Assign values: Assign a numerical value to each response. For example:
   
   • Yes: 1 (or any positive value)
   • No: 0 (or any negative value)
2. Calculate the total score: Sum up all the assigned values for all employees.
3. Calculate the maximum possible score for one employee: Multiply the number of yes/no questions by the maximum value assigned to a “yes” answer. So, if you assigned “yes” a value of 1 and there are 10 questions, the maximum possible score for one employee is 10.
4. Calculate the average score: Divide the total score by the number of employees.
5. Calculate the ESI: Divide the average score by the maximum possible score per employee and multiply by 100%.

Example:

Let’s say you have a survey with 15 yes/no questions and 50 employees.

1. Assign “yes” a value of 1 and “no” a value of 0.
2. After collecting responses, you find that the total score for all employees is 500.
3. The maximum possible score per employee is 15 (15 questions × 1 point per “yes” answer). 
4. The average score per employee is 10 (500 total score / 50 employees).
5. ESI = the average score per employee divided by the maximum possible score per employee multiplied by 100. Or, (10/15) × 100% = 67%.

Assessing ESI results:

Many organizations use the following baseline for measuring ESI levels:

• 80–100: Very high satisfaction
• 70–79: High satisfaction
• 60–69: Acceptable satisfaction
• 50–60: Low satisfaction
• 0–50: Very low satisfaction

Tracking your ESI over time can help you monitor your company’s progress and identify areas where you need to focus improvement efforts.

4. Identify trends

Do older employees regularly score lower for engagement? Are managers happier than direct reports? Is there a constant difference in scores between salaried and hourly employees? If there are clear trends in your data, or if the majority of your people feel similarly about a particular issue, you know you need to focus on those patterns.

5. Focus on a few key items

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by every piece of feedback you get, but by identifying trends and then focusing on the few items that will have the most impact, you’ll boost employee trust while also keeping changes manageable. Prioritize changes that are the most closely tied to engagement or business outcomes.

6. Share feedback with relevant stakeholders

Meet with individual managers to share relevant results and responses for their teams. Then, those managers should meet with their teams to share the response.

You can work with leaders to strategize ways to drive sustainable engagement levels in the workplace. While survey results will vary across organizations, here are a few ideas to help get the wheels turning:

• Recognize your rockstars: A little appreciation goes a long way. When employees feel valued, they’ll feel more motivated to put their best foot forward. The key is to make recognition timely, genuine, and frequent. 
• Invest in your team’s development: Use the survey data to identify training and development needs and mentorship opportunities. The more you’re able to support your team members, the more satisfaction and value they’ll get out of the organization.
• ‍Offer role clarity and empowerment: Conduct a comprehensive review of job roles and responsibilities to ensure clarity and alignment with company goals. Depending on survey results, you might consider delegating decision-making authority to employees and encouraging them to take ownership of their work.

7. Plan a follow-up survey

While company leaders may feel great about their response to survey feedback, employee feelings are what matter. So set up a follow-up survey a few months after changes have been implemented to gauge how employees feel about the matters they scored low in the initial survey.

Employee feedback—your key to building a winning culture

Engagement surveys are one of the best ways to tailor your company culture to fit employee needs and preferences. 

By learning what’s going well and what could be improved, leaders can make impactful and lasting changes.

Learn more about Awardco’s engagement survey tool here and request a demo to see it in action.