Employee surveys: The ultimate guide to turning feedback into action

Most HR leaders send employee surveys and get disappointing results. The industry average response rate sits at 30%,* and even when employees do respond, their feedback often sits unused in reports while nothing changes.

Without employee surveys, it’s hard to know what truly drives engagement or what causes disengagement across your organization. Without that insight, choosing the right initiatives becomes guesswork.

That guesswork is costly. Gallup estimates global disengagement costs businesses around US$8.8 trillion each year, or 9% of global GDP.*

Our 2026 Workforce Trends Report also shows that this is not a distant problem. Thirty percent of employees want to leave their current workplace, and more than half stay for reasons other than enjoying their work.

Engagement is already at risk, and understanding what drives it has never been more crucial.

So, how can you connect your survey programs with these positive engagement outcomes? As you’ll see, the issue isn't with your survey questions, but what happens after employees hit submit.

This guide shows you:

• Leapsome's Survey-to-Action Loop (STAL) Framework, which took our response rates to 80%+
• Exactly when to deploy each survey type based on decision readiness, not calendars
• How to design questions that create department-level accountability‍
• The five mistakes killing your survey program and how to fix them
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📊 Turn survey feedback into department-level action

‍Create custom engagement surveys, analyze results with AI, track trends over time, and connect feedback to performance and goals, all in Leapsome.

‍👉 See how Surveys work

*Oneteam, 2024; Leapsome Workforce Trends Report, 2024; Gallup, 2023
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What employee surveys measure (and why most programs fail)

Employee surveys are a powerful way to gauge engagement, but their impact depends on what happens next. When feedback goes unheard, trust and engagement decline.

Many HR teams miss this completely. They send out a 40-question employee engagement survey, compile the results into a deck, present findings to leadership, and then move on to the next project. But people notice when nothing changes, and as a result, they stop responding.

At Leapsome, we have a different approach.

As I, explained in this webinar on Designing employee surveys to drive real change, before sending any feedback survey, Leapsome's leadership team decides exactly what signals action is required. 

For example, I track and analyse core themes in survey responses. Any theme flagged by 30% or more of respondents automatically gets an owner and a 60-day action plan. 

This matters because employees can see their input creating real change, which is what drives participation in the next cycle. The alternative is collecting data that sits unused while your employee listening strategy risks diminishing the trust you're trying to build.
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How Leapsome runs employee surveys: The STAL framework in action

Leapsome’s Survey-to-Action Loop (STAL) Framework is what helped us move from average survey response rates to more than 80%. As I put it, success comes from a clear rhythm of consistent workflows, transparent timelines, and learning from what didn’t work early on.

The framework has five phases that create a closed loop: 

1. Commit to action thresholds before launching
2. Time surveys to decision readiness
3. Share results transparently within two weeks
4. Assign named owners to the top three themes
5. Close the loop within 90 days by communicating what changed

Each phase builds trust, which increases participation in the next cycle.
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💡 Key insight:

At Leapsome, we now run surveys twice per year, down from quarterly. 

We learned they needed more time between surveys to actually implement changes. Asking for feedback more often than you can act on it creates frustration. 

Below, we detail our exact process, which you can adapt based on your company size and culture.

Phase 1: Commit to action thresholds before you launch

Your preparation process should start with defining question categories that align with your company and people strategy. 

So, at Leapsome, each category gets a stakeholder assigned from day one: 

• Senior leadership owns "Leadership Communication & Strategy" scores. 
• The People Enablement team owns "Career Growth & Development." 
• Department heads own "Management & Team Dynamics." 

This prevents the common problem of a key issue being reported, but with no one knowing whose job it is to fix it. 

Then you need to set clear rules upfront, defining specific action triggers based on both quantitative thresholds and qualitative patterns. 

For example, if three or more open-ended comments mention the same process gap (like unclear benefits enrollment), that becomes an automatic action item regardless of numerical scores. The key is removing ambiguity about what requires a response.
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👀 Pro tip:

Block time on everyone's calendars before the survey launches so they’re always free to workshop results and when they communicate back to the company. All scheduled in advance. 

We learned this survey design best practice the hard way. When I launched a survey just before taking two weeks off, the survey closed, results sat untouched, and the team felt ignored.

So now we treat blocking time upfront as a key employee listening strategy. It shows we’re serious about acting on feedback.

Phase 2: Time surveys to decision readiness, not annual calendars

Our timing philosophy is simply to send surveys when we’re ready to act on results, not because it’s Q2. This shift from calendar-based to capacity-based scheduling means our survey cadence always matches our ability to act.

We avoid busy periods when people can't thoughtfully respond or when leadership can't act on the findings. Therefore, end-of-quarter closing, the weeks after major holidays when half the team is out, and product launch sprints are all bad times to survey employees.

To help make sure we get timing right, we confirm three things before launching:

1. The people team has the bandwidth to analyze results immediately after the survey closes.
2. Leadership has the capacity to workshop themes and make decisions.
3. Department heads can communicate action plans to their teams. 

If any of these aren't the case, we delay our survey.

This is why we moved from quarterly to biannual surveys. We needed more time between cycles to show visible progress on the actions we committed to.
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👀 My take:

Survey fatigue doesn't come from too many questions, but from asking for feedback more often than you can implement changes. If employees see their input go into thin air, survey response rates drop, and trust can slowly erode.

Phase 3: Share results transparently within two weeks (while enabling managers first)

At Leapsome, we stagger the release of survey results to increase transparency across the team and ensure we always develop the most constructive responses. Managers have time to engage with feedback — whether positive, negative, thoughtful, or emotional — before their teams see the results

Here's the sequence for how we share data:

1. The People team sees results as they arrive and begins analysis.
2. Senior leadership gains access when the survey closes, allowing them to review challenging feedback and prepare for department head questions.
3. Department heads get access next, giving them time to align with senior leadership on themes and plan their responses.
4. The full company gets access to their team's results.

My reasoning is that some comments are written in frustration. If a manager's team sees "My manager never gives me useful feedback" the moment the survey closes, team members will immediately ask about it. If the manager hasn't read the comment yet, they're caught flat-footed and may give a defensive response.
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👀 Pro tip: 

Before diving into new survey data, celebrate what changed since the last survey and highlight 2-3 specific actions you took based on previous feedback. 

This reinforces that feedback drives action and maintains confidentiality and anonymity thresholds while building trust with visible responses.

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Leapsome AI summarizes results by department and company level, clustering themes through sentiment analysis. This makes potentially hundreds of comments quickly digestible. If your team doesn’t use Leapsome, you can use ChatGPT for similar summaries. The key is speed. Results are shared within two weeks while feedback remains relevant.
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🤖 Let AI surface the issues that are affecting your people

‍Leapsome AI analyzes survey responses, clusters comments by sentiment, and identifies key themes automatically so you can act faster.

‍👉 Explore Leapsome AI

Phase 4: Assign named owners with public timelines for the top 3 themes

Leapsome conducts workshops on two levels to transform survey data into actionable insights.

Department workshops include the department head, team leads, People Enablement Manager, and People Partner. We structure these around a few key questions, such as:

1. What's your main takeaway from your department's results?
2. What's the second most important topic to address?
3. Is there a specific comment you want to discuss?
4. What actions can you take that don't require company-wide approval?

That last question is critical. It keeps departments focused on what they control, i.e., team recognition practices, meeting structures, and feedback cadences (rather than what needs company-level decisions, like salary bands or benefits policies). 

I emphasize that actions must: 

• Be tangible and doable at the department level
• Have a named owner who feels accountable
• Have clear timelines
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👀 Pro tip: 

Map categories to stakeholder owners before writing questions.

Each category should have 3-4 questions and a clear owner who monitors trends over time. Here’s how we structure it at Leapsome:

- Leadership Communication & Strategy: Senior Leadership (they control company-wide messaging and transparency)
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- Career Growth, Training & Development: People Enablement (they design learning programs and career development paths)
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- Management & Team Dynamics: department heads and team leads (they influence day-to-day team experience and manager effectiveness survey results)
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- Recognition & Benefits: People Operations (they control recognition programs and benefits administration)
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- Overall Well-being: Shared Senior Leadership + People Team (requires both cultural shifts and program support)

With this approach, every major theme has an owner, a timeline, and visibility across the organization. At the same time, managers can continue gathering feedback through one-on-one meetings between survey cycles, creating continuous listening loops rather than relying solely on biannual check-ins.
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Phase 5: Close the loop within 90 days by communicating what changed

Within 90 days of the survey closing, the People team at Leapsome communicates back to the company: 

• What they implemented
• What they decided not to pursue and why
• What's still in progress

As I say: "Building trust happens after the survey closes, not before." Employees need to see their input creating real workplace changes. That's what drives participation in the next cycle.

The 90-day window is intentional. It's long enough to implement meaningful changes but short enough to maintain momentum and show employees their feedback matters. Wait longer, and people forget what they even asked for.
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👀 Pro tip:

Use pulse surveys strategically between engagement surveys to track whether scores are moving. 

For example, if you’re working on improving manager feedback practices, include those same manager feedback questions in the next pulse survey.

This turns pulse surveys into progress monitors rather than standalone check-ins. The team can see you flagged an issue, took action, and scores improved.

Our approach to closing the loop has a direct impact on employee retention. When people see their feedback shaping decisions, it follows that employee satisfaction increases and they're more likely to stay. 

See our guide to learn more about how to calculate and improve employee retention rates as a key outcome of effective survey programs.
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When to deploy each employee survey type (using STAL principles)

Choose survey types based on the decisions you need to make and whether you have the capacity to act in the next cycle.

If you can’t implement changes between runs, slow the cadence. STAL still applies here (commit to action, time surveys to decision windows, and close the loop) but keep the focus on the survey’s purpose, not the calendar.
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Employee engagement surveys: For company-wide culture and retention strategy

Engagement surveys are typically 20–40 questions that measure overall organizational health. Many companies run them quarterly, but at Leapsome we run them biannually so we can deliver visible changes between cycles. 

Example: the last two launches left managers giving inconsistent direction on priorities. You run a short engagement section on leadership communication (clarity, timeliness, where to find decisions). If the scores are weak, the COO owns a monthly roadmap note and a brief Q&A at all-hands, with written follow-ups posted so everyone can see what changed.

To learn more about engagement and satisfaction surveys, see how our guide on employee satisfaction vs engagement.
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Pulse surveys: For tracking action plan progress between engagement surveys

Pulse surveys are brief check-ins with 3-5 questions that you can run when you want a quick and low-level read of sentiment at the org on one or two topics.

Example: you piloted a new weekly recognition ritual but it’s not landing. Six weeks later, you send a 3-question pulse focused on recognition. If scores are low, the department head switches the format to peer shout-outs at standup and shares the update in the next team email so people see the tweak.
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Lifecycle surveys: For optimizing employee touchpoints in real-time

Onboarding surveys, exit surveys, and anniversary surveys target specific employee journey stages. Deploy these when you're ready to act on feedback quickly, or you risk the same issues driving turnover.

Example: new hires keep hitting delays getting tool access in week one. On the next onboarding survey, two items confirm access is the blocker. People ops updates the pre-start checklist and assigns a buddy to verify access on day one, then tells the next cohort what changed before they start.
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Specialized surveys: For deep-diving into themes flagged by engagement surveys

Manager effectiveness, DEI, and well-being surveys diagnose a problem area after engagement results surface a weak spot.

Example: Imagine your engagement results hint at weak manager support in two groups. You run a manager effectiveness survey to separate the two issues, which are 1:1 frequency and feedback quality. The survey results point to missed 1:1s, so group leads commit to biweekly 1:1s with a shared agenda and post the cadence change in their team channels.

🤖 Use AI to see survey results and create an action plan

‍Leapsome AI your survey data and suggest a plan so you can respond fast to the issues that matter most.

‍👉 Explore our Surveys

Designing survey questions that create department-level accountability

My question design principle is to break broad questions into specific, actionable sub-questions so you know where to intervene. 

So, don't ask "Do you receive meaningful feedback?" because a low score doesn't tell you what to fix. Instead, ask two questions: 

1. "My manager provides positive and constructive feedback that helps me improve my performance and grow in my career."
2. "The feedback I receive from my peers is actionable and helps me improve." 

Now, if manager feedback scores low, you can focus on manager enablement, and if peer feedback scores low, you can train teams on peer feedback practices.

For open-ended comments, replace "Anything else on feedback and recognition?" with two specific prompts: 

1. "What is already going well in feedback and recognition?" 
2. "What can we improve in feedback and recognition?" 

This makes qualitative data easier to analyze because people give more structured responses.
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Get employee insights that lead to action.
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‍Create surveys that align with your company strategy and team concerns.
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‍👉 See 70+ employee engagement survey questions

What to fix before launching your next survey

I identified five common ‘failure modes’ that erode trust and tank response rates. You can learn from her approach to help make sure your survey program doesn’t fall into that same trap of failing before it even launches. 

Before you send another survey, decide upfront what will trigger action and who will own it. If 30%+ of people flag a theme, that should automatically create an action plan with a named owner and deadline.

Time the survey for when leaders and managers actually have capacity to analyze and act. Don’t run it during budgeting chaos or a major launch, and block calendar time in advance.

Ask questions that point to specific fixes. Broad prompts like “Do you receive meaningful feedback?” don’t tell managers what to change. 

Release results in a way that sets managers up to respond well. Give them a short head start (one or two working days) to review data, align with leadership, and prepare talking points before teams see scores. Then, when you roll out new results, open with progress since the last cycle. 

These best practices all follow STAL principles:

• Commit to action before collecting feedback
• Enable managers to respond thoughtfully
• Close the loop visibly so employees see their input driving change
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Measuring results and choosing the right employee survey tools

Track these metrics beyond response rates:

• Response rate trends — My team aims for 80% or higher and tracks them across cycles. Dropping rates signal eroding trust in the STAL loop.
• Action plan completion rate — What percentage of committed actions were delivered on time? This measures leadership follow-through.
• Time to communication — Are you hitting the two-week results window and 90-day loop closure?
• Business outcomes — Retention rates, performance scores, and engagement in focused categories. Gallup data shows that highly engaged businesses achieve up to a 43% lower turnover rate.
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👉 Learn how to track success and benchmark comparisons.
See our guides on employee experience metrics and eNPS.

When to use spreadsheets vs. employee survey software:

• Use Google Forms for teams under 50 people running up to  1-2 simple surveys annually. 
• Use dedicated employee engagement software when you need to analyze qualitative comments at scale: 
  
  • Filter by department/location/tenure
  • Track trends over time
  • Connect survey data with performance reviews
  • Implement staggered visibility
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🔗 Connect surveys to your entire people strategy

Leapsome's HRIS links employee data with engagement surveys, performance reviews, and learning paths, creating one system to measure and act on feedback.

👉 Explore Leapsome HRIS

From survey data to workplace change: Making the STAL framework work for your organization

Employee surveys only create value when leadership commits to action before collecting feedback. At Leapsome, we’ve found the STAL Framework to be an indispensable part of that solution and integral to employee engagement throughout the company.

• It helps us increase employee survey response rates to over 80%.
• It enables managers to constructively share results with the whole team.
• It ties owners to themes.
• It ensures we close the loop within 90 days.

To achieve similar success, audit your current survey program against STAL’s five phases. Identify your weakest link and fix that first, remembering that the goal isn't perfect surveys, but to build trust through visible action. 

Let employees see their feedback shaping real workplace improvements. That's what turns survey programs into effective retention and performance management systems.
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💪 Build trust through visible action on employee feedback

Use Leapsome to run engagement surveys, track action plans, and close the loop within 90 days — all while connecting feedback to performance, goals, and learning.

‍👉 Book a demo

Frequently asked questions about employee surveys

How often should you run employee engagement surveys? 

Run employee engagement surveys 2-4 times yearly based on your capacity to act on results, not calendar dates. Leapsome moved from quarterly to biannual surveys because they needed time between cycles to implement changes and show progress. 

Survey frequency should match action capacity. Use pulse surveys between engagement surveys to track specific improvements without creating survey fatigue.
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What is a good response rate for employee surveys? 

Industry benchmark averages 30% participation rate, but that's low. Leapsome achieves 80%+ survey response rates by following STAL principles such as committing to action before launching and closing the loop within 90 days. 

Response rates rise when employees see their feedback driving visible change. Dropping rates signal eroding trust in your survey program.
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Should employee surveys be anonymous or confidential? 

Most surveys should be confidential (responses are identifiable to HR but not shared) with anonymity thresholds to protect small teams. 

Set minimum response thresholds (e.g. 5+ responses) before showing department-level data. Communicate these thresholds clearly before launch to build trust. Survey participation increases when employees understand exactly who can see what and how their data is protected.
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How do you prevent survey fatigue in your organization? 

Survey fatigue happens when you ask for feedback more frequently than you implement changes.

Prevent it by spacing surveys based on action capacity, closing the loop within 90 days with visible change, and celebrating what you fixed since the last survey.
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What is the difference between employee engagement surveys and employee satisfaction surveys? 

Employee satisfaction surveys measure contentment with current conditions (pay, benefits, work environment).

Employee engagement surveys measure emotional commitment and willingness to contribute discretionary effort.