Why Your Business Should Invest in Pulse Surveys

How are pulse surveys different from other types of surveys? Pulse surveys are typically shorter in length and more precise. The goal is not to gather a vast breadth of information—but rather a few questions in depth. A typical purse survey only contains about five to ten questions. Pulse surveys are also unique because they are not just administered at one point in time. Rather, they are given on a regular basis at particular intervals. Pulse surveys may be administered monthly, quarterly, yearly, and so forth.

There are various benefits of pulse surveys. Because they are given regularly at particular intervals, an organization is able to acquire constant and continuous feedback from employees and customers. Therefore, feedback is always up to date. Data gathered from pulse surveys lend themselves to dashboard analytics where data is updated in real-time. With pulse surveys, companies can also track employee and customer attitudes and perceptions over time—rather than just during one point in time. Pulse surveys provide insight into trends and change.

Pulse surveys are also beneficial because change based on feedback can occur immediately. For example, if various employees have an issue with a certain policy, an intervention can occur right away. The subsequent pulse survey can assess if the intervention actually improved employee perceptions. If customers are having problems with a particular product, a pulse survey can alert management at a company. The company can subsequently address the stated issues and administer a follow-up pulse survey to determine if the product is up to customer standards.

Five benefits of online surveys over paper surveys

Paper surveys are becoming a thing of the past. Today, online surveys are taking over. Check out these top five reasons you should opt for online surveys over paper ones:

1. Anonymous. With online surveys, respondents are more likely given the opportunity to remain anonymous. Because they can remain anonymous, the respondents are most likely to answer questions candidly and honestly. This can provide more valid data. 
   
   
2. Fast & efficient. With paper surveys, it takes a long time to administer, collect, and analyze data from the surveys. Online surveys can be coded in a matter of minutes. Results are collected immediately. When the survey ends, all data is available for easy analysis in your statistical program of choice.
   
   
3. Costly. Paper surveys are expensive. There are paper, printing, and postage costs. If you are doing an in-person or telephone survey with an interviewer, it will also cost to hire manpower. Online surveys do not incur any of these costs given that everything is virtual. 
   
   
4. More advanced survey design. Paper surveys can be long and elaborate. However, when they are, they are confusing to respondents. Online survey tools allow for advanced skip logic but make skipping around less confusing. Respondents can navigate the survey quickly and easily leading to less frustration and survey fatigue.
   
   
5. Allowing for randomization. When respondents always answer the same option for every question, this can skew the results and decrease the validity of the survey. Re-arranging survey questions can avoid this issue. You can randomize questions on a paper survey. However, you will need to create various versions of the survey, which can get costly and complicated. Online surveys allow for randomization with a simple click of a button. 
   
   
   
   
   For more information, please visit: http://goo.gl/zOlIsi

How to best tackle demographic survey questions

Writing demographic survey questionnaire design can be tricky because they ask personal information. However, there are best practices to help take the awkwardness out of writing these types of questions.

Race & ethnicity

One of the best practices is to first ask a person about their ethnicity. Ethnicity refers to what someone identifies with culturally. A great initial question is: “Are you of Hispanic or Latino origin?” giving respondents the option to answer “yes” or “no”.

Then, it’s best to ask about race—the physical characteristic of a person. The most commonly used categories for questions are below:

• American Indian/Native American
• Asian/Pacific Islander
• Black/African-American
• White/Caucasian
• Other (specify)

Gender

There was a time when gender was a dichotomous category but things have changed greatly since then. Simply giving respondents the option of “male” and “female” may leave some respondents confused given that they don’t identify with either category. One of the best practices is to offer various options with the option of writing in a response. Instead of asking about “gender”, it’s best to ask about “gender identity”. Some great response options include:

• Male
• Female
• Male-transgender
• Female-transgender
• Gender variant/non-conforming
• Other/not listed (specify)
• Prefer not to answer

Marital status

Like gender, marital status is not what it used to be. The best practice is to include various categories that properly encompass the type of society we live in today. A great example of categories is the following:

• Single
• Married
• In a domestic partnership
• Divorced
• Separated
• Widowed
  
  
   
  For more information, Please visit: http://goo.gl/HtW4P8