Generally, employee surveys get high response rates – the range for the last eight surveys we have run here is 64% to 88%

We have had higher. And lower too.

Anecdotally, I’ve had plenty of conversations where someone said their response rate was more like 48% (we’ve had a couple of those) but they were happy because the survey gave them the data they needed.

That’s the key – we spend a lot of time fixated on response rate while chasing/encouraging participation but as long as there are enough replies to work with, that’s all we need. Don’t beat yourself up – or your teams – demanding a better response rate than the last survey. When the response isn’t where we want it to be, the reason why is nearly always in the comments and the data.

Is 20% response rate good?

Customer surveys have lower response rates, and for some 20% is a dream! It really depends.

Some surveys might get to 40-50% while others are really hard work getting just two or three percent. There are lots of factors at play – a service with a dedicated and active account manager is quite different to self-service. Fast moving consumer goods are different to luxury cars. Who are you surveying? What is the connection? What’s in it for them? (doesn’t need to be £££)

For any type of survey, what is more important is do I have enough responses to work with. A 70% response for an employee survey is great, but are there any teams / roles / demographic groups missing? (most employee surveys are promoted by email but if not all employees are on email can we fix this?)

How to improve the response rate?

A few quick tips:

• Plan communications in advance – treat it as a mini marketing campaign
• Personalise the emails – research shows that generic or ambiguous greetings have lower take-up
• Use one call to action in messaging – go here to start the survey
• Set expectations – it takes 10 minutes (if it’s longer, be honest, and say why is it important)
• Send targeted reminders – people are busy, people respond at different times

There’s more that can be done to help a survey response rate which all adds up. If you need an online survey – Surveylab can help. Want to have a chat about our services, or discuss your survey project? We’d love to hear from you.