Finding software can be overwhelming. Software Advice has helped hundreds of businesses find the right employee pulse survey tools to measure workforce morale and diagnose sources of disengagement.
Showing 1-20 of 243 products
BambooHR is a cloud-based HR management software solution for small and midsize businesses. BambooHR offers small and growing companies a human resource information system (HRIS) that includes an applicant tracking system (ATS), time... Read more
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WorkforceHub is a unified solution for time and attendance, scheduling, applicant tracking, benefits management, employee engagement, and more. It’s the HR tech platform that scales as a business grows while delivering the mission-critical... Read more
Paycor creates HR software for leaders who want to make a difference. Paycor's Human Capital Management (HCM) platform modernizes every aspect of people management, from the way you recruit, onboard and develop people, to the way you... Read more
Namely offers a cloud-based solution for companies seeking a single comprehensive system to manage their human capital. Namely helps midsize companies manage compliance and streamline everything payroll, benefits and talent management. Namely... Read more
Dayforce, provided by Ceridian, is a cloud-based solution for Payroll, Benefits, Workforce Management, Human Resources, Talent Management, Document Management, and Analytics. As a single application, Dayforce provides organizations... Read more
UKG Pro (formerly Ultimate UltiPro) is a powerful, global HCM solution. Transform your business with a truly connected global workforce experience delivered through resilient and mindful HR technology. From payroll, to talent, to service... Read more
HQ Platform is an all-inclusive software as a service, system designed to meet the human resource needs of small, medium, and large sized Construction, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, Production plants, Factories, and Workshops that... Read more
PurelyHR is a cloud-based leave management solution for small to midsize businesses. The system’s core modules allow HR departments to track staff leave requests and approvals as well as manage diverse time off policies and hierarchies.... Read more
Support the entire candidate experience from start to finish with a unified recruitment platform. iCIMS offers best-in-class recruiting products for your hiring life cycle, available as part of one unified talent cloud platform, or... Read more
PerformYard is a cloud-based feedback and corporate performance management solution that allows users to set goals and track performance. The solution also helps in other human resources (HR) processes such as onboarding and organizational... Read more
Collage is a cloud-based human resources (HR) and benefits management platform built for the needs of small and midsize businesses. Collage also digitizes group benefits enrollment and can sync with any insurance provider in Canada. Collage’s... Read more
Humi is Canada’s HR, Payroll, and Benefits solution for Canadian small-medium sized businesses. Companies use Humi to manage their employee data, employee onboarding, time off tracking, performance management, recruiting, reporting,... Read more
BizMerlinHR is a cloud-based human resource management solution that helps mid to large enterprises manage the entire employee lifecycle, from onboarding to comprehensive employee records to performance management to team retention,... Read more
Sage People is a cloud-based human resources (HR) system that gives HR teams visibility of their global workforce and automates administrative tasks. Sage provides an enterprise-level HR offering designed for midsize, multinational... Read more
BerniePortal is a cloud-based human resources software platform for small and midsize employers. BerniePortal’s features address each phase of the employee lifecycle from hiring to COBRA administration including: applicant tracking,... Read more
Since 2004, ClearCompany has empowered thousands of companies to attract, screen, and hire better talent, engage their team, and use strategic insights to keep their recruiting competitive.The ClearCompany Talent Management Platform... Read more
Built on intelligence and machine learning, Oracle HCM Cloud is a complete human resources (HR) application suite. It is a personal, adaptable tool designed to support the entire workforce lifecycle worldwide for every industry and... Read more
CRG emPerform is a hybrid employee performance management solution that helps organizations to automate performance reviews and align, develop and retain talent. It can be deployed either on-premise or in the cloud. CRG emPerform... Read more
ChartHop is a cloud-based solution designed to help human resource (HR) professionals create organizational charts, build headcount plans and analyze teams' performance on a centralized platform. Administrators can create personalized... Read more
CommonOffice is a cloud-based human resources (HRIS) software service for small and midsized businesses. CommonOffice offers customizable HRIS solutions to organizations of all sizes, which includes applicant tracking (ATS) and HRIS... Read more
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“How's it going?" may seem like a simple pleasantry on the surface, but it's a question that actually has incredible implications for your small or midsize business. As a manager or HR practitioner, understanding how employees feel about their job and what factors are causing any dissatisfaction is vital if you want to retain top performers and keep them engaged in their day-to-day.
Figuring out how employees really feel can be tricky though. Even workers that have great relationships with their manager may be hesitant to say something negative about your company face-to-face for fear of retaliation. Formal annual surveys offer much-needed anonymity, but they have their drawbacks too. Not only are employees torn away from work for a significant amount of time, but annual surveys also fail to capture important shifts in morale throughout the year.
A balance between the informality and frequency of a 1-on-1 conversation and the anonymity and power of a survey provides the best of both worlds, which is why you should consider investing in an employee pulse survey tool.
In this Buyer's Guide, we'll go over everything you need to know about employee pulse survey tools to help you make a more informed purchase decision.
Here's what we'll cover:
What Are Employee Pulse Survey Tools?
Common Employee Pulse Survey Tool Features
Benefits of Employee Pulse Survey Tools
How to Get the Most Out of Employee Pulse Surveys
What Are Employee Pulse Survey Tools?
Employee pulse survey tools are an emerging subcategory of employee engagement software that allow businesses to send out short, informal questionnaires to their workers on a regular basis (usually daily or weekly) in order to gauge workforce morale, engagement and more.
Almost always deployed via the cloud, employee pulse survey tools offer companies a flexible platform to customize the questions they ask, automate the administration of surveys to workers and collect results in real-time.

Employee pulse survey tools can be purchased standalone (e.g., TINYpulse) or as a feature set within a larger, more comprehensive employee engagement or talent management platform (e.g., Workday).
Common Employee Pulse Survey Tool Features
When evaluating different employee pulse survey tools, you'll find that they share three core features in common:
Pulse survey customization | Create pulse survey questions from scratch or use questions from a provided bank of preset options. |
Pulse survey administration | Automatically send pulse surveys to workers on a regular, predetermined basis (e.g., daily, weekly etc.). |
Results tracking & analysis | Gather survey results and analyze trends over time through reports and visualizations. |
Because these tools tend to offer similar features, vendors will set themselves apart in other ways. Besides functionality, buyers should weigh things like the intuitiveness of the user interface, how in-depth the reports and visualizations are and what support options are offered. Seamless integration with core HR systems should also be a high priority.
Benefits of Employee Pulse Survey Tools
By simply adopting and implementing a pulse survey tool, you're already sending a message to employees that you care about their well-being and what they have to say. That has benefits even before a single result comes back. According to a study by PwC, companies that send out regular employee surveys enjoy 30 percent higher engagement levels than those that don't.
Here are some other benefits that employee pulse survey tools can bring:
- Lower survey fatigue. Because they're only a few questions long, employees can focus on giving detailed, useful answers in a pulse survey, as opposed to a long-winded annual survey. Response rates are typically higher because of this reason as well.
- More impactful results. By sending out pulse surveys on a daily or weekly basis, you can better track trends with answers over time to see how strategy changes or new policies are affecting your workforce.
- Improved HR efficiency. Once you have the questions you want to ask picked out, the tool takes care of the rest. By not having to administer surveys and collect results manually, you save time to focus on other strategic needs.
- Happier employees. This is the most impactful benefit of all. Using pulse surveys, you can diagnose what issues are causing unhappiness in your workplace and fix them. The result: happier, more productive workers.
How to Get the Most Out of Employee Pulse Surveys
Regardless of what tool you end up purchasing, it's important to know best practices when it comes to crafting questions and administering pulse surveys to workers in order to maximize their effectiveness. Errors or missteps with even the best tools can lead to skewed data and frustrated employees.
With that in mind, here are some final employee pulse survey tips:
- Communicate surveys ahead of time. A message from your CEO or another prominent company figure letting workers know they'll be receiving regular emails with an anonymous survey asking how they feel about their job will set the right expectations.
- Keep surveys short. Pulse surveys should be no more than 10 to 15 questions long and should take no longer than five minutes to complete. Employees should be able to answer them quickly and get back to work.
- Send out surveys daily, weekly or monthly. Beyond a monthly survey, it gets harder to track trends and changes over time. In general, the more often you send out surveys, the shorter they should be.
- Ask about a wide variety of topics. On a scale of 1-10, how happy are you with your job? Do you feel motivated to do your best work? Are you achieving an ideal work/life balance? How's your relationship with your manager? These are just some examples of the types of questions you should be asking.
- Don't be afraid to follow-up. If survey results come back and there's one glaring area that employees agree needs to be addressed, send out another survey asking for more specifics with that issue or suggestions to improve.
- Act on the results. If workers keep saying they have concerns in their pulse surveys, and nothing is done to address them, they'll get frustrated and feel ignored—creating a whole new source of unhappiness with your employees.