How to tailor and launch your Remote + On-site Work Pulse

Ready to design your Remote + On-site Work Pulse, but not sure how to customize the content for your organization? Here are our tips for tailoring our solution to meet your organization’s unique needs.

Now that you’ve laid the groundwork for getting started with your Remote + On-site Work Pulse, you’re ready to make it your own. There are two main ways to do this. First, by tailoring the fields for collecting – and later sorting – data, such as your office locations and department names. Second, by editing the questions in the pulse to make sure the tone and content are right for your organization. OK, let’s dig in.

Product Demo and Methodology Overview: Tailoring your Remote + On-Site Work Pulse

Step 1: Entering organization details

Below are the details you’ll want to tailor to fit your organization. Note that the fields you edit and customize will determine your reporting capabilities down the line.

• List of geographic locations: Organize your data by region, country, state, street address, or any other location type that suits your company best. The goal of this question is to help you understand the experiences of employees by location.

Tip: If you’re managing a global workforce, you might want to consider translating your pulse. For guidance on how to do so, visit the translations support page.

• Departments/teams: Create a list of departments or teams so you can easily identify and sort your data when the results come back. When customizing this question, think about the level of the organization at which it will be easiest to take action.

Step 2: Customizing your questions

Once you finish entering the details of your organization, you’ll reach the survey editor. This is where you’ll be able to edit the text of your questions.

Tip: Visit the support page for detailed guidance on how to edit questions and answer options. But note—any changes to the wording of a question, as well as the addition or deletion of a question, will affect the pre-configured report that also comes with the Remote + On-site Work Pulse solution. This means you will also need to make corresponding edits to the survey report. For details on how to edit the report, visit the support page.

Here are key things you should think about when customizing the questions in the Remote + On-Site Work Pulse:

• Match your tone: Edit the introductory message to match your organization’s internal communications style.
• Use your own vocabulary: Swap out terms or phrases to match what you use in your organization. For example, change “immediate supervisor/manager” to “team lead.” Keep in mind that you’ll want to make changes to the questions your respondents will see so that they better match the response options you have provided them. To do so, simply click on the question. Remember, you can also add or delete any questions.
• Choose your workforce type: Choose remote, on-site, or both. Make sure to rephrase the survey content to be relevant to the type of employee you’re pulsing, e.g. specific questions for remote employees or for on-site employees.
• Customize the appearance of the pulse: Add your organization's logo, use your brand color scheme, or change the background; these options can be found under the Look & Feel tab when you’re in the survey editor.
• Keep it simple: Focus questions where you feel like you can take meaningful action. Remove any items that you can’t take action on.
• Leverage what works: Add items to your pulse that typically drive engagement in your organization. You can do this by looking at previous employee feedback to pick up topics that matter most to your people.
• Link to helpful internal resources: Use your survey communications and final pages of the survey to share and link to health and wellness benefits, your EAP, IT guidance, and so on.

Maintaining the survey’s integrity

While you can customize the questions you ask in your pulse to reflect the language used in your organization, keep in mind that our pulse questions have been designed by I/O psychologists, so try to maintain the integrity of each question as much as possible.

Here are some ways you can do this:

• Edit the text in parenthesis: Swap out or remove the text in parenthesis with details specific to your organization.

• Add questions that have been scientifically validated: Choose from your organization’s annual engagement survey or, if you’re a Qualtrics customer, you can import questions from the Qualtrics XM Solution item library.
• Avoid double-barreled questions: For example, “Communication from [your company name here] has been clear and helpful.” This pulse is meant to help you understand your employees’ needs so you can take action quickly. Double-barreled items can cause confusion and ambivalence, impacting the score of the question and resulting in inaction.

Tip: Increasing the length of the survey may cause survey fatigue and impact your response rates and question scores. Ensure you are asking only the questions you need to ask in order to act, and not asking questions because it would be interesting to know the results.

Step 3: Launching your pulse

If you haven’t done so already, you’ll want to formulate a communications plan for distributing your pulse. This checklist will guide you through the key steps to start collecting responses:

• Inform relevant leaders about the survey and ensure you have their buy-in from the get go. Make sure the right people understand why you’re carrying out this research and what you hope to achieve.
• Think about the best way to share your anonymous survey link. Some popular distribution channels are:
  • Email
  • Text message
  • Company intranet
  • Printed materials
  • In-product placements
• Draft a short and engaging message – signed by the leadership team – explaining the purpose of the pulse and why each employee’s feedback is important for your organization.
• Remind leaders and managers – make sure they’re encouraging their teams to participate in the survey.
• Send a reminder communication for a few days – a nudge email after the initial invitation will help to boost participation.
• Identify resources for employees to raise some specific concerns (e.g. links to health and benefits information, confidential helpline, etc.) and include those proactively in your pulse communications.

Tip: If you need some help getting buy-in to launch the Remote + On-Site Work Pulse, consider sharing this sample report with key stakeholders.