Use Forms to Take the Pulse of Your Team

Just like computer networks, people need regular check-ups too. Taking the pulse of your team with a quick survey using forms is an excellent way to make sure everyone is happy and performing effectively.

A lot of office groups say they're a team, but true teams lift each other up and actively participate in eachother's success.

A "pulse" survey is a short survey used to get an immediate reading on a few essentials that help determine the health of your team.

What if I already give a formal satisfaction survey once a year?

That's great! A pulse survey should never replace your formal feedback process, however, surveys conducted annually or even quarterly take time to process and act on. A pulse survey is designed to be a snapshot of the company in real time.

What types of questions should I ask?

You want the questions to be easy to answer, but to also uncover anything that needs to be adjusted or fixed.

Here are some examples:

1. How are you feeling with your current workload?
2. How would you rate your interactions with other teammates?
3. How satisfied are you with your job or this company right now?
4. How are you feeling this week?
5. What's going well this week?
6. What could be improved before next week?

You also want to leave a space for teamates to add their own comments. The purpose of a pulse survey is not to solve every problem, but perhaps lead to a bigger conversation about direction and process.

How can I create and send this survey to my team?

Go to Microsoft Forms (Google forms also works well for this) and select "New Form" give your form a title and brief description, then add your questions. You can decide whether you want to be emailed when forms get submitted, or not.

Question and form options

Make answers to your questions mandatory, but leave the comment box as optional.

Mix up the format of the questions to be a variety of multiple choice, short answer, or rating on a scale from 1-10.

Keep the form short, 3-5 questions.

Select "Anyone with the link can respond" and post it in your Team channel or send a company-wide email.

Decide whether to record the responder's name or not (keeping it anonymous might get more honest responses, but may make it difficult to identify specific team members who need help).

Customize a thank you message.

Getting form results

After forms have been submitted, go back and select the "View Responses" tab.

You'll be able to see some basic analytics, such as response time and (if you included questions with a rating system) net positve vs negative responses.

You can export the form results to an excel spreadsheet. From there, create a nice-looking pie chart or graph, embed it in a PowerPoint and share the results with your whole team at the next "all hands" meeting!

 At PTG, it's our mission to help businesses and orgs to work better. If you want to chat about your needs, Contact Us today.