A good engagement survey should be short (under 10 minutes), address both emotional and intellectual aspects of engagement, and have clear communication about confidentiality, analysis, and follow-up actions. Managers play a key role by encouraging participation, and communications from senior leadership before, during, and after showing how feedback will be used can improve response rates above 55%.

1. What makes a good engagement survey?
1. A good engagement survey should be designed with the organisation’s culture and working
practices in mind.
2. It should include both heart and head – emotional and intellectual - aspects of engagement.
3. The survey should be short and not take too long to complete; a survey that takes longer
than 10 minutes will not get as good a response rate as a shorter survey. Make sure you test
your survey with a couple of respondents to find out how long it will take to complete,
before sending it out.
4. Even a short questionnaire can produce a lot of data, which will need to be cut for reporting
groups, organised and analysed – another reason not to make the survey too long.
5. Give people a reason to complete the questionnaire – they can be motivated by competing
with other groups (which group has the best completion rate), or co-operating to make their
group look good, or even a reward for the group with the highest completion rate.
6. Make sure people’s concerns about confidentiality and anonymity are aired and answered; if
these are not dealt with in advance, this can reduce the response rate and confidence in the
survey results.
7. Managers and team leaders are critical to the success of the survey; managers should be
rewarded and acknowledged for encouraging their teams to complete.
8. For most organisations, a good overall response rate is 55% or over. With good
communications and sponsorship from local leaders, one of our clients recently achieved an
89% response rate.
9. Be very clear what will happen to the survey data after the survey, how you will
communicate the results, and how you will cut the data, e.g. if you are going to look at the
data by location.
10. Communicate before, during and after the survey – especially on what the organisation is
going to commit to do based on the survey results. Then communicate what’s being done.
Then communicated what has been done. This will show the organisation’s willingness to
listen to what employees have said, and its commitment to respond to the feedback.
11. Communications should come from senior management, local and line managers, and
people who have influence through informal but powerful networks that employees build
within the organisation, such as communities of practice, expert networks etc
12. Communicate the positive as well as the negative, but don’t try to hide any unflattering
results. Employees will appreciate honesty and transparency.
For more information on customised, effective and informative Engagement Surveys
contact us on +(44) 20 7206 7279 or
at jo.ayoubi@tracksurveys.co.uk
www.tracksurveys.co.uk