16-Step Employee Survey Communication Plan [With Free templates]

A solid employee survey communication plan is key to boosting survey responses, engaging people with the survey process and getting a clear picture of how people feel across your organisation. From sending an employee survey letter to briefing line managers on their role and sharing your survey results, there’s plenty to consider. Below we share ideas, templates and best-practice advice to arm you with all you need to create an effective employee survey communication plan and make this your most successful employee survey yet.

Before we go on to outline our comprehensive sixteen-step plan to optimising employee survey communication, let’s cover the basics – what is an employee survey communication plan?

What is an Employee Survey Communication Plan?

An employee survey communication plan is a well-structured strategy designed to effectively communicate the details and objectives of an upcoming employee survey. The communication plan outlines the key steps and methods to ensure that all employees are informed about the survey, its purpose, and how their participation will contribute to improving the workplace.

Our 16-Step Employee Survey Communication Plan

Every organisation takes a slightly different approach to employee communication when it comes to surveys. However, based on our years of experience creating and distributing surveys, as well as helping companies adapt and change based on the results, these are the steps we recommend you take to implement an effective  employee survey communication plan you should keep in mind:

• Step 1: State the Objectives of the Upcoming Survey
• Step 2: Create a Survey Brand
• Step 3: Identify Your Audience
• Step 4: Engage Line Managers
• Step 5: Decide on Communication Channels
• Step 6: Set a Clear Timeline
• Step 7: Decide on Key Messages
• Step 8: Send Out Employee Survey Letters Before Your Survey
• Step 9: Launch your survey in style  
• Step 10: Create a Survey Welcome Page
• Step 11: Reiterate Your Dedication To Confidentiality
• Step 12: Send Periodic Survey Reminders
• Step 13: Explain How Survey Results Will Be Shared
• Step 14: Send a Thank You Message
• Step 15: Share your survey results swiftly  
• Step 16: Keep Employees in the Loop Regarding Organisational Changes

Step 1: State the Objectives of the Upcoming Survey

First things first – it’s important that you clearly set and state the purpose and goals of the upcoming employee survey. It could be to gather feedback on work conditions, employee satisfaction, company culture or any other specific aspect that the organisation wants to assess. You need to be firm on this before you can begin with any authentic communication.

Step 2: Create a Survey Brand

Treat your employee survey as a campaign, and come up with a concept that you can use across every piece of comms. Start with your survey name. Are there any ideas inspired by your brand name, messaging or your values? Crowdsource ideas from beyond your project team to involve employees in the process from the beginning. A well-placed pun can give you room to be creative however to ensure it lands well and reflects your survey goals, test it on colleagues before you go public.  

We love the following survey names used by our clients:

• Fuller’s Brewery – ‘Your Shout’  
• La Perla – ‘An Intimate Talk’  
• World Animal Protection – ‘We’re All Ears’  

Step 3: Identify Your Audience

Identify the target audience for the survey communication plan, which is usually all employees or specific departments within your company – communication will be tricky unless you know who to contact!

Step 4: Engage Line Managers

While posters, emails or a timely employee survey letter can help spread the word about your employee engagement survey, line managers are the best comms channel you have. 

Involve managers ahead of your launch so they understand the importance of your survey and their role in the process. Equip them with an FAQ sheet or briefing pack so they feel prepared to answer questions from employees, and encourage them to bring the survey up during team meetings and 1:1s to help increase individual responses.  

Step 5: Decide on Communication Channels

This is a really important step to consider – determine the communication channels through which the information about the survey will be communicated. Common channels include email, intranet, notice boards, team meetings and company newsletters. Do what is most natural and useful for your workplace.

Step 6: Set a Clear Timeline

To keep things structured and to ensure everything remains on track, be sure to set a clear timeline for the communication plan, including the dates for sending out initial announcements, reminders and the survey launch and closing dates. Without a timeline, communications are all too easily missed.

Step 7: Decide on Key Messages

Develop key messages that highlight the importance of the survey, emphasise the confidentiality of responses and explain how the survey will benefit both the employees and the organisation.

Step 8: Send Out Employee Survey Letters Before Your Survey

Send out an initial announcement prior to the survey launch, explaining the purpose of the survey, its significance and how it aligns with the company’s commitment to listening to employee feedback, as well as to your commitment toward continual improvement.

We recommend that this is sent by your employee survey partner to reassure employees about the confidentiality of their responses. To reach offline employees, consider holding an additional launch event or adding a QR code to posters around office sites so people can quickly access the survey.  

How to write an employee survey letter

While every employee survey project is different, similar questions will crop up in most organisations during the survey process. 

An employee survey letter is usually sent to employees before your survey launches in order to raise awareness of your survey, how it fits into your organisation’s vision and strategy, and why you need as many people as possible to take part. Here are the key messages to include:

Why are you running a survey?: What’s going on and what does engagement actually mean? Help people understand the value of the survey and why you want to know how engaged people are.  

What will the survey change?: Explain what you want your survey to achieve, and the difference it will have for employees as well as for the HR team and Leaders. While you can’t promise that every suggestion or idea will go ahead, all responses will help build a better place to work.  

Why is this time different?: If post-survey action hasn’t been successful before, get employees on-side with messages from the top. Sincere leadership messages demonstrate a commitment to listening to feedback. Make sure you have a ‘face’ of the programme who is visible and involved during the roll-out and follow-ups. Acknowledge what’s happened before and keep people updated so they’re confident action is taking place.  

What do employees need to do?: Take part, be honest and expand on their answers. Explain how long the survey will take (usually 10 minutes) and reinforce that your leaders want them to take this time out. Who will see the results Let people know who will see the report once the survey closes, and what happens next. Keep people involved in the programme after they take part too, so they can see changes in progress.  

Who will see what we say?: Employees are often worried about feedback tracing back to them, so let them know how responses will be collected and reassure them about the confidentiality of the data. An external survey partner helps reassure employees about confidentiality, so introduce them early in the process. 

We have included examples and templates for survey launch letters at the bottom of this guide for easy reference (and to make your life that bit easier!).

Step 9: Launch your survey in style  

In-person survey launch events are effective at getting the attention of employees and raising awareness of key messages about your survey. Prior to Covid-19, surveys were often launched during company-wide meetings or Town Halls. Since the rise of hybrid working, however, these events have moved online.

Create a dedicated comms channel on your intranet or messaging tool and share video messages from your CEO or a senior member of staff to announce your survey is open. People will need a few nudges to take part so follow-up your launch event with individual invitations, email reminders and line manager comms.  

Step 10: Create a Survey Welcome Page

Your survey welcome page plays a big role in how people feel about your survey so it’s best for this welcome message to come from a senior leader. This helps show your organisation’s commitment to the survey and reassures people that you are serious about listening to the employee voice. Your welcome page can take the form of a written note, an infographic or a short video. Also include top-level timings for what will happen after the survey closes, so employees know when they will hear the survey results.

We have included in this guide an employee survey welcome page for you to reference. Scroll to the bottom of this blog to find it!

Step 11: Reiterate Your Dedication To Confidentiality

People can get nervous when confidentiality isn’t addressed and respected. Take the time to reiterate the confidentiality of survey responses and explain how data will be aggregated to maintain anonymity.

Step 12: Send Periodic Survey Reminders

One of the biggest challenges for an employee survey is getting a ‘good’ response rate. While average response rates vary by sector and size, People Insight consider participation of above 60% a good number to aim for. 

Most people will need a few reminders before they complete the survey. Sending email reminders each week helps keep your survey top-of-mind. Use the response rate tracker on your employee survey platform to identify business areas with low participation rates. Then, follow up with these groups to make sure everyone is represented.  

Include the following messages in your survey comms:  

• Remind employees that their responses are confidential and they will not get in trouble for sharing honest feedback.  
• Offer an incentive for each response, for example you could make a charitable donation for each completed survey. Lately, many of our clients have chosen tree-planting as a survey incentive and offer to plant a tree for every response via charities like Eden Reforestation Projects.  
• People may be cynical about taking part if previous surveys have not made much difference. It’s part of the reason we recommend including the survey post on ‘I believe action will be taken as a result of this survey.’ Scores for this are a great indicator of how confident employees are that leaders will act on the survey results. Tackle this objection by reassuring employees about your plans to analyse, share and act on their feedback, and commit to share results on a certain date.  

We’ve included an example and template for a survey reminder below!

Step 13: Explain How Survey Results Will Be Shared

Outline the plan for sharing survey results with the employees once the survey is completed and data analysis is done. This step is crucial to demonstrate the organisation’s commitment to transparency and action.

Step 14: Send a Thank You Message

Express gratitude to employees for their participation and stress how their input is valuable in shaping positive changes within the organisation.

Step 15: Share your survey results swiftly  

Once your survey has closed, act fast to identify the key action areas and themes from your survey results. A smart employee survey platform (like People Insight’s) will highlight these for you and show which scores have the biggest impact on overall employee engagement. In addition, an employee survey consultant can help review your survey data and identify the key results to focus on.  

Though leaders and managers will see the data in more detail, share highlights from your survey results with employees too for transparency. You could do this via a company-wide briefing, led by your CEO or senior leadership team, as Nottingham Building Society did after their annual survey. Their CEO announced high-level survey results and reinforced their commitment to action. In the words of The Nottingham the event “was a call to arms for the next stage – action planning.” 

In addition to this, infographics and videographics are a great way to get a copy of your survey results into the hands of every employee. They display information like the key themes from your survey results, your priority action areas, and any ‘quick win’ changes in an entertaining way. They also help keep up momentum of your post-survey action plan. Arrow Communications, for example, share quarterly infographics so staff can see how their post-survey actions are coming along.  

Step 16: Keep Employees in the Loop Regarding Organisational Changes

Sometimes enthusiasm and momentum can drop off once your survey has closed and people have returned to business as usual. Continue to share news and updates about your survey action plan and changes that are taking place, and keep it on the agenda across the business. Try the following comms tactics:   

• Hold a monthly forum to discuss upcoming changes in your organisation and how they reflect employee feedback.  
• Share ‘You Said, We Did’ quarterly infographics to show what’s happened since your survey closed.  
• Secure a spot for the survey on the agenda of Board meetings to ensure action owners are kept accountable. 
• Encourage managers to discuss your post-survey action plan in team meetings. 
• Use an internal newsletter or intranet channel to share regular updates and keep your survey front of mind. 

Employee Survey Communication Examples and Templates 

These employee survey letters and email templates have been designed for each stage of your survey programme. Use them as they are or tweak the wording to bring in your survey brand. 

Survey launch: Example employee survey letter  

Subject line: [Company name’s] employee survey is open! Tell us what you think.   

Dear [first name],   

This is your chance to take part in [Your survey name] and tell us how you find working at [Company name], and what changes you’d like to see.  

[Company name] has asked [Your Survey Partner name] to run your survey, which means survey responses come directly to us and stay completely confidential. We won’t share individual survey responses with your company or line manager, and only report team data above a minimum number of respondents.  

Your survey takes 10-minutes to complete and is open from [Date] to [Date].  It’s easy to take part – just click on the link below.  

Not able to do it now? We’ll send a nudge before the survey closes, to remind you to take part.  

Looking forward to hearing what you think,   

 [Sign off from Your Survey Partner]  

Survey welcome page: Example employee survey letter 

Hi,   

Welcome to [your survey name]. We’ve designed it to find out how you feel about working here, your experience with us and how well we’re meeting your training and development needs.   

It’s really important to understand your views, so we can continue to make changes and improvements. This is your opportunity to be totally open and honest and tell us what’s working and what isn’t. Everything you say will stay completely confidential as your response will go straight to [your survey partner] who is running the survey for us.  

Our survey is open until [Date], so please take 10-minutes to complete it before then. 

Once we’ve got everyone’s responses we’ll share the main findings with you so we can start making changes:   

• Detailed results interpretation: #DATE#  
• Headline feedback – the main survey findings: #DATE#  
• Action Planning Sessions: #DATE#  
• Sharing final Action Plans: #DATE#   

The more honest you are, the more valuable this survey is for everyone here. So please tell us what you really think.   

[Sign off]

Survey reminder: Example employee survey letter  

Subject line: Your survey reminder! We want to hear what you think.    

Dear [name],   

Your employee survey closes on #DATE# and it looks like you haven’t completed it yet.    

We really hope you’ll tell us what you think about working at [Your Company] – it will take you less than 10 minutes but your ideas can have a big impact. Below is your link to take part.  

#LINK#    

Our survey partner [Survey Partner name] collects and analyses all the survey data on behalf of [Your Company], so all responses remain confidential.    

Please take 10-minutes to tell us what you think.      

[Your Survey Partner]

Download the Survey Comms Guide here. To carry out a meaningful, effective employee survey, get in touch with People Insight today.