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Pulse Surveys are a great way to keep tabs on your employees and how they feel about their job. Should they be anonymous or not?
Pulse surveys are a healthy way to track employee satisfaction in an organization, and there are many benefits to checking your team's pulse. In recent times, however, the conversation has been shifting to whether or not they should be kept anonymous.
One side thinks a pulse survey is watered down and, therefore, less effective when it's done anonymously, while the other side thinks it's better for employee protection.
One side thinks employees are more likely to think deeply before they take a pulse survey when their name appears on it. The other party believes they might be able to speak freely.
Both sides make vital points, and in this article, we'll explore the pros and cons of keeping a pulse survey anonymous and transparent.
Will your company benefit from an anonymous pulse survey? Let’s find out!
Yes, the results would be completely anonymous if the company sent out an anonymous survey.
However, pulse surveys are typically not anonymous because they provide a snapshot of how your team members feel about your company and their job. And they often become invaluable if you don't know who said what.
On the other hand, companies are embracing anonymous pulse surveys to enable employees to give their candid opinions without fear or restraint.
Here are a few ways to ensure anonymity and honesty when administering a pulse survey:
Pulse surveys differ from traditional check-ins that may occur more frequently. They work by tracking values such as employee KPIs, employee engagement, career progression, and other values that the company can use to measure their employees' satisfaction and engagement rate.
Through the information gathered in every pulse survey, employers track how satisfied their employees are and look for ways to improve it. Happy employers are more productive, so that's a win-win for both parties.
Running pulse surveys doesn't have to be complicated. If anything, it should take minimal effort but produce great results. Check out this template that changes how pulse surveys are done in every organization - making it seamless!
An anonymous survey does not include any personally identifiable information (PII). This means, for example, that the survey creator will not know who took the survey and how many people responded to it. This survey differs from a confidential survey, where the creators may see some information about the respondents (but not their identities).
For an anonymous survey to be successful, some things must be done right. Aside from wanting to phrase your questions well to get the correct answers, you also want to ensure that your promise of anonymity stands.
Here are a few things to consider:
When you check the team's pulse using an anonymous survey, the team should be informed that it's anonymous so they can proceed appropriately.
By giving them this information, you tell them, "It's fine; you can say the things you need to say with full honesty."
Using a tool that ensures the anonymity of your team is the first crucial step in doing a successful anonymous survey.
It also needs to be simple enough to create and even simpler to fill. Any overly complicated form may cause team members to fill in generic answers to save time.
Assembly's pulse survey template is easy to use and editable to accommodate your company's needs.
If you send out an anonymous survey, you want to ensure that you ask questions that will give quality answers.
It’s important to find the balance between asking relevant open-ended questions and questions that won’t give away their identity.
Depending on where and when companies use anonymous surveys, they can either lose their effectiveness or enhance your results.
But, with an anonymous survey, they'd probably have to share the feedback with the rest of the office, hoping that the right person would see it. And that’s not so efficient.
There's no way of telling who hasn’t filled theirs. In the long term, this can affect the team morale regarding filling and submitting pulse surveys.
The team members have different needs, and an anonymous pulse survey will only allow for addressing a general problem.
Anonymity is the major advantage over non-anonymous surveys. With surveys, you want to know what people think, and anonymous surveys give you that unbarred.
Anonymous surveys are better for several reasons. Here are our top 5:
Use Assembly's pulse survey template to create and manage your anonymous surveys safely and effectively.
Are anonymous surveys really worth it?
When companies use anonymous surveys tastefully, and with proper execution, they are worth it.
You can be sure that the results are true, and devoid of sugarcoating. Now and then, an organization needs a dose of raw honesty to get specific issues under control.
If your organization is yet to make pulse surveys a regular habit, it's time to rethink that. Feedback is essential, and it's not a one-way street. While you offer feedback on employees’ work, they should be able to give feedback on their thoughts and how they treat them. Take it from us!
Get started on running pulse surveys easily and effectively. Book a demo today.
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