Workplace wellbeing

6 essential questions for employee pulse surveys

Esmé Wharton

October 9, 2024

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2 mins read

Short on time or resource but want to launch an employee pulse survey? This blog provides you with an essential list of questions to include in your pulse survey to generate a picture of employee wellbeing.

Even just these 6 questions will set you on the journey to better employee mental health & wellbeing, which you can use when you’ve begun the journey to prioritising wellbeing at your organisation.

We’ve also included our recommended options for answers, so that you gather data which is a starting point for making an employee wellbeing action plan. Take what you need.

The 6 essential questions

1. Where do you feel you currently sit on the mental health continuum?

In crisis (very anxious, very low mood, taking time off work, exhausted, very poor sleep)
Struggling (anxious, depressed, poor sleep, poor appetite, poor performance)
Surviving (worried, stressed, irritable, sad, disturbed sleep)
Thriving (positive, calm, performing, sleeping well, normal social activity)
Excelling (cheerful, joyful, energetic, high performance, at your full potential)
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An image of a question in a survey titled - To start us off, where do you feel you currently sit on the mental health continuum?

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2. Which mental health support tools, if any, have you accessed at work?

Then list your current mental health and wellbeing support tools. Here are some examples…

Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)
Occupational Health (OH)
Wellbeing apps (e.g. meditation, habit tracking)
Wellbeing information resources (e.g. booklets, leaflets, websites, intranet)
Mental health first aiders / wellbeing champions
None of these/not used any tools
Other (open text)

3. How would you rate the support tools you’ve accessed through work?

Provide a scale of 1-10 and ask people to pick the number that best represents them.

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An image of a question in a survey titled - How would you rate the support tools you've accessed through your employer overall?

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4. “Without effective mental health support, I would…”

(0 = Unlikely, 5 = Likely)

Here, we’re measuring potential impact of employee mental health on sickness absence, staff attrition, and productivity.

Provide these 3 different response items, with a scale of 0-5.

Take time off work
Look for another job
Be less productive at work

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An image of a question in a survey titled - Without effective mental health support, I would...

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5. What are the main factors affecting your mental health (either positively or negatively) at work at the moment?

Provide an open text box

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6. What would the ideal mental health and wellbeing support look like for you?

Provide an open text box

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So there you have it, the 6 questions we think should be in any starter-for-10 pulse survey for employee wellbeing.

Once you’ve gathered these answers, the real value comes from acting on them: turning the picture of how people are doing into the right mix of proactive, accessible support. That’s exactly what an employee wellbeing programme is designed to pull together.

If you’d like more guidance on running an employee wellbeing survey, or aren’t sure where to start when it comes to building your employee wellbeing ecosystem, just get in touch here.
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We’re here to help!

Frequently asked questions

What is an employee pulse survey?

An employee pulse survey is a short, regular check-in that measures how your people are feeling about work, usually just a handful of questions sent every few weeks or months. Unlike a long annual survey, a pulse is quick to complete and quick to act on, giving you an ongoing read on wellbeing, workload and engagement so you can offer support where it is needed early.

What questions should a wellbeing pulse survey include?

A strong wellbeing pulse keeps to a few focused questions across the things that shape how people feel at work: workload and energy, support from their manager, psychological safety, and whether they feel able to do their best work. The six questions in this guide cover those areas in plain language, so the answers show you where your team is thriving and where they need more support.

How often should you run a pulse survey?

Most organisations run a pulse survey every month or every quarter. Monthly works well when you want to track change closely or you are moving through a period of growth or transition. Quarterly is a sensible rhythm for a steady, ongoing read. The key is consistency: running it regularly is what lets you see trends and respond before small issues grow.

How is a pulse survey different from an annual engagement survey?

An annual engagement survey is long and detailed and gives you one deep snapshot a year. A pulse survey is short and frequent, giving you a live picture in between. The two work best together: the annual survey sets the baseline, and pulse surveys keep you close to how people are feeling in real time, so you can offer support proactively rather than waiting for the next annual cycle.

How do you act on pulse survey results?

Acting on the results is what makes a pulse survey worth running. Share what you have heard with your team, be open about what you will and will not change, and pick one or two clear actions rather than trying to fix everything at once. Where the data shows people feeling stretched or unsupported, this is the moment to put proactive wellbeing support in place, before pressure builds into something harder to turn around.

Esmé Wharton

Esmé is a Marketing Executive at MYNDUP and writes about mental health and wellbeing at work. Her guidance is informed by the accredited practitioners and people teams MYNDUP works with every day, turning what genuinely helps employees into practical steps for the leaders responsible for it.