Response Rates

Response rates can tell you a great deal about the power of your listening event data and help you evaluate the effectiveness of the event design and communications. Insights from response rates can help you consider changes that can bolster enthusiasm for, and participation in, future listening events.

This article walks through:

• Response Rates 
• Other Considerations
• URL Scanners and Response Rates

Response Rates 

Response Rates can help you answer questions like: 

• Did employees see the listening event as a helpful option to share their voice/perspective? 

• Did we communicate effectively about the listening event and make it accessible enough for all/most employees to be included? 

• Did managers and leaders effectively encourage/support employees to participate in the listening event? 

• Did the listening event design enable easy and meaningful participation from respondents? 

• Can I trust my data; is it statistically significant? 

• Can I extrapolate these results to represent my company and/or groups even if I didn’t have 100% participation?

Below are response rate rules of thumb for answering these common questions for an employee census listening event:

Other Considerations

Response Rates for Other Types of Listening Events 

• Pulse Events:

Typically lower response rates as they have a narrower focus and are administered more frequently. It is less of a “big event” and may not receive as much attention. 

• Onboarding Events: 

Varied response rates result from unique onboarding processes. High response rates come from the belief that opinions are valued and employees’ desire to comply and please. If they are low, it is likely evidence of employees being preoccupied with onboarding activities or managers not encouraging participation. 

• Exit Events: 

If administered before employees exit (in the last 2 weeks), response rates are higher (50% or more). If administered after their last day, expect lower participation (20%-30%). This is still valuable information, as past employees are likely to be very truthful and can reveal push/pull factors for turnover.

Response Rates for Various Types of Companies 

• Smaller companies may have higher response rates (similar for smaller teams) as communication is likely more fluid in that environment and the listening event is an extension of closer-knit communication channels.

• Companies in certain industries and working environments will likely have different rates as well. For example, industries where most workers do not have personal access to a computer or time during the workday to complete listening events are likely to have lower rates (manufacturing, logistics, retail, etc.) compared to industries where people work more autonomously and have regular access to computers (tech, finance, etc.). 

• Culture can also play a role in response rates. Compliant cultures (Asia, for example) may have higher response rates than less compliant cultures.

URL Scanners and Response Rates

URL scanning analyzes email content for embedded URLs and classifies them according to a Websense database of known spam. URL scanning can impact listening events for which unique links in the invitation email take the user directly into the event. If the event uses the default setup, anyone who clicks on the URL from the invitation email is considered a respondent. A URL scanner artificially “clicks” on any URL in an email to check for spam. This “click” results in our system identifying it as a respondent participating in the event. As a result, a URL scanner can bring the response rate to 100% as soon as the invitation emails go out. 

Note: URL scanning does not impact response rates when using SSO to access listening events.

If your company uses URL scanning, the invitation emails from our address need to pass through the system without being scanned to avoid impacting response rates. If you aren’t sure whether your company uses URL scanning, please reach out to your IT team. If you need assistance from Perceptyx, please contact your Customer Success Manager.