Annual Satisfaction Survey. The combination of these three words spark unease in managers and employees worldwide. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Surveying employees is a key engagement metric for all companies and form the basis of many HR strategies. Often dreaded by all involved, they evolved as part of company culture for a reason: to measure, and hopefully improve, employee engagement. However, more often than not, they’re poorly planned, receive a low response rate, and are time-consuming to analyze; the potential for impact often falling into oblivion when no action is taken. But these faults lie in the execution, not in the idea of surveying itself. Many companies are benefitting from modernized, simplified, and more frequent employee surveys. Those leading the charge are adopting an employee engagement tool, like Zest, to transition to a continuous, real-time, streamlined surveying approach. From survey length, to response rates, to reliability of results, we’ve compiled a list of ten statistics about employee surveying, providing you with insight into what to strive for, and what to avoid, when implementing employee surveys. BONUS: Ten tips on how to execute successful employee surveys in your business. Sources:

• 80% average completion rate for surveys shorter than 7 minutes
• 83% average response rate for surveys shorter than 12 questions
• A good survey response rate is 70%
• The average survey response rate is only 30%
• 48% of employees think surveys are not an accurate reflection of reality
• 52% of senior managers think surveys provide a very accurate assessment of reality
• Only 20% of employees think their manager will act on survey results
• 80% of managers actively follow up with concerns raised
• 27% average engagement score when manages do not review, or take action on, survey results
• 63% average engagement score when managers review identify actions from survey results