They give people a forum to voice their feelings towards different elements of your company culture, employee value proposition, day-to-day role and more. They can come in all different forms but the main things is that they rely on mass participation to succeed.

If your survey response rate falls below 50%, then it could spell trouble. When employees can't be bothered to complete your survey, it's a clear warning sign. Survey response rates typically reflect overall employee engagement, show how much trust exists in your feedback processes, and can also be an indicator of organisational health.

Whether your surveys are attracting solid engagement or falling below the ideal threshold, it’s important that they feel as meaningful as possible to create a positive employee experience. So we’ll be looking at how you can enhance your employee surveys and help boost engagement within your organisation.

Disengaged employees won’t respond 

When leaders boast about having fantastic employee engagement numbers, while in reality their survey responses we very low, it’s right to feel sceptical about that metric. If the most disengaged employees didn't participate, actual engagement levels may be much worse than reported. This unintended "window dressing" can be misleading and result in making decisions informed by unrepresentative data. And that’s when you can start getting into serious problems when planning HR initiatives. 

You need a good response rate to get accurate and useful results. Research consistently shows a strong relationship between engagement levels and survey response rates, with this connection tends to present stronger in larger groups. 

As a rule of thumb: 

• Above 70% is very good 

• 60-70% is good 

• 50-60% is acceptable (industry standard for web surveys) 

• Below 50% is poor 

• Below 30% should trigger alarm bells 

Engaged employees will make time to complete surveys regardless of length or design, because they understand the strategic importance. But those disengaged employees who don't participate hold valuable intelligence that could provide great organisational learning. It's crucial to encourage their participation to get a true picture of your organisation's ‘hidden’ culture, even if it results in less positive overall results, so you can start to make changes. 

Other factors can affect response rates, including previous surveys where nothing was done with feedback, difficult work environments (late shifts, limited internet access, remote workers), impending organisational changes, uncommitted leadership, or poor timing (holidays, summer breaks). 

Incentivising response rates is a red herring 

On the flip side, response rates above 85-90% could also be cause for concern. Such high numbers might indicate the "wrong kind of encouragement" during the survey process, resulting in insincere feedback.  

These rates could result from management pressure to meet targets, leading to mindless box-ticking and diluting the usefulness of any information gathered. Social scientists caution against offering incentives as well, as they may boost engagement but also don’t address the root problems – a lack of engagement with the surveys and possible distrust of leadership. 

While competition can motivate, it's unwise to encourage business units or departments to compete for the highest response rate. Pitting managers or locations against each other just to increase participation doesn't help. Avoid direct rewards (prizes, gift cards, sweepstakes) or indirect rewards (charitable donations, tree planting). None of these inspire authentic or meaningful survey responses, as the motivation isn’t inspired from your employee value proposition. 

Employees need to understand how their feedback contributes to the organisation's success, helps build a better workplace for everyone, and influences the company's direction. People should want to share honest opinions for the organisation's benefit. When people understand why surveys matter and the longer-term benefits, they’ll participate without needing incentives. 

How do you ensure good survey response rates? 

The response rate for your employee survey is crucial and shouldn't be left to chance. If you value employee opinion data and what you plan to do with it, focus on getting the best quality response possible (not just quantity). Here are several ways to improve participation without resorting to questionable incentives: 

1. Secure leadership commitment: Getting senior leadership buy-in and visible support is the most critical factors for high participation, showing the survey's importance from the top-down.
2. Communicate expectations to managers: All leaders should understand the survey's purpose and its implications. Tell them they'll receive their team's results and need to develop an action plan, but don't hold them accountable for participation rates.
3. Create a clear value proposition: Lay out how the survey benefits both employees and the organisation. Communicate its objectives, planned actions to follow, and get influential employees on board to help bring others along.
4. Keep participation voluntary: Don't force participation or create peer pressure through department competitions or team rewards tied to response rate targets. Each question should also have an option to skip if desired.
5. Guarantee respondent confidentiality: Give employees full assurance they can submit honest opinions anonymously without fear of consequences. Use an external vendor if possible to boost confidence about privacy. Explain that results will only be shared when grouped with others (never individually) and reports will contain enough respondents to maintain anonymity.
6. Clarify the survey's high-level action plan: Knowing there will be actions taken as a result of the survey will motivate participation. Manage expectations by clearly communicating what you'll do with the data, when you'll share results, potential actions, and communication details. 
7. Design a user-friendly survey: Keep the design clean and simply, limiting the use of graphics. Ensure the questionnaire itself is brief (15 minutes or less) using a five-point scale where possible so that questions are simple to answer and results are easier to analyse. Make sure the survey is designed and optimised for all devices as well to minimise obstacles to participation. 
8. Keep survey content relevant: Think of the questions from the respondent’s perspective, ensuring topics and questions connect with people across different business units and roles. Balance questions between immediate work environment and organisational functioning, use clear language, and order the questions logically. Avoid too many open-ended questions that could cause issues.
9. Limit demographic questions: Long lists of personal questions about age, gender, ethnicity, etc. make respondents fear identification and opt out. Better to link demographic information to respondents via unique codes from your HRIS. The less employees feel they can be identified, the better.
10. Make it easy to take part: Choose a survey window that’s accessible for as many people as possible. Avoid holidays and busy periods while keeping the window to around two-weeks for best practice. Provide time for people to take the survey during work hours, and schedule time for shift employees.
11. Use a clear and consistent communication strategy: Give participants plenty of notice and create memorable branding so announcements cut through. Use multiple channels to ensure everyone is aware of the survey, with personalised invitations and highlight the importance of their response for the organisation’s future.
12. Monitor overall progress: Keep track of response rates in real-time so you can prompt people if required and send automated thank yous to those that complete the survey. This can help find areas of your organisation with lower participation, but avoid tracking demographics to avoid compromising confidentiality. 

The meaning behind employee surveys 

Each survey your conduct needs to feel purposeful and contains the promise of follow-through. If your organization isn't prepared for post-survey action, don't conduct the survey. Don't ask for feedback unless you're willing to take views seriously, honestly evaluate input, and address identified issues. Without upfront commitment of time and resources, your survey will only further disengage employees and drive response rates lower.  

Holding too many surveys in a short period of time also dilutes their importance, with employees switching off from them as they can feel meaningless. Hitting the sweet spot of around two surveys annually – unless there’s a serious need for another – will help employees respond to surveys with conviction. Each one will feel like a genuine opportunity to affect something they care about, provided it’s clear management will listen. 

At the end of the day, it’s investment in your employee value proposition and company culture that will motivate survey responses. When people care about the organisation they’re part of, they want to contribute their thoughts. Surveys go beyond HR initiatives – they’re a full organisational temperature check. So get senior leaders involved, define some clear actions, and show your employee you mean business.