Employee Survey Distribution

Employee Survey Distribution

​​An estimated 80% of the global workforce works in frontline or deskless roles, spanning industries from manufacturing and construction to retail, healthcare, and logistics. These workers, who don't spend their days behind desks or computers, face unique communication challenges that directly impact engagement and retention. 

Since frontline workers often don’t have access to traditional communication channels, structured tools like surveys and questionnaires make it easier for them to share feedback and raise concerns. If your company struggles to reach your out-of-office staff members, Yourco makes it easy to administer employee surveys with fewer troubles.

What Are the Different Methods of Survey Distribution?

Employee surveys help organizations maintain visibility into satisfaction, performance, and communication gaps before they escalate. By giving employees a simple way to share what is working and what is not, companies can prevent the miscommunication and stress that often undermine productivity, especially among frontline teams.

Email, website integration, social media, QR codes, and text messaging are the most common methods used for employee survey distribution. Each method has distinct advantages and limitations.

Email

Email is the standard way most companies distribute surveys. It works well for office environments, and it’s a familiar, low-effort option for HR teams. But the moment you move outside traditional desk-based roles, its limitations become obvious. Frontline employees rarely sit at a computer, and many don’t have a company email at all. Even when they do, long survey forms sent to an inbox are usually designed for desktop screens, not for someone trying to complete them on a phone during a quick break.

Surveys delivered by email also compete with crowded inboxes, low open rates, and limited mobile data access. For workers who spend their day on the floor, in the field, or on the move, email simply isn’t a reliable way to reach them or gather input you can trust.

Physical and Digital QR Codes

QR codes provide a seemingly quick way to access a survey link with a smart device's camera. While useful in non-office environments for deskless workers, they usually necessitate clear, detailed access instructions. This added complexity and the time it takes to print out and distribute around the facility make them less straightforward than they appear, and the added friction can potentially lower response rates.

Social Media

Using social media apps like Instagram or Twitter is a modern way to distribute employee surveys by posting links and details. However, this method relies on all employees having and actively checking these accounts, which is unlikely for non-desk staff who often don't follow the company. Therefore, social media doesn't guarantee reaching all employees.

Website Integration

Implementing the employee survey on your company's website is another notable distribution method that many companies utilize. Embedding your questionnaire within the landing page could work, but this is usually an external affair reserved for your customers. It's not likely that workers will fill out an employee survey built into a website that is really meant to target the audience rather than the staff.

Texting

Text messaging cuts through the noise that bogs down other distribution methods. Employees check their phones constantly throughout the day, and text messages have a 98% open rate compared to email's 20%. More importantly, SMS works on any phone, including basic models without internet access, making it the most inclusive distribution method available. Workers can receive survey links via text and respond immediately without needing to log into email, navigate complex systems, or remember passwords. For frontline workers working across multiple shifts, locations, and roles, text message distribution ensures that everyone can participate regardless of their access to computers or corporate networks.

What Types of Employee Surveys Can You Distribute via SMS?

Text messaging works for virtually any survey you'd traditionally send by email, but with one crucial difference: your entire workforce can actually access and complete it. From quick pulse checks to comprehensive annual reviews, SMS-based distribution ensures frontline employees participate at the same rates as their desk-based colleagues.

Pulse Surveys

Pulse surveys capture real-time employee sentiment through brief, focused questions sent weekly or monthly. These quick check-ins help you monitor morale, identify communication gaps, and spot potential issues before they escalate. For shift workers who may miss longer surveys, a three-question pulse survey delivered via text takes just minutes to complete during a break.

Employee Engagement Surveys

Comprehensive engagement surveys measure overall job satisfaction, workplace culture, and organizational commitment. While these questionnaires are longer and conducted less frequently (quarterly or annually), SMS distribution ensures every employee receives them regardless of email access. Workers can start the survey on their phone during downtime and pick up where they left off later if needed.

Safety Incident Reports

Real-time safety reporting becomes significantly easier when employees can text incident details and photos directly to your company number. Warehouse workers can report a spill immediately, construction crews can document equipment malfunctions on-site, and delivery drivers can submit proof-of-delivery photos. These timestamped reports create an instant paper trail that supports insurance claims and workplace investigations.

Onboarding Feedback Surveys

New hire surveys sent at 30, 60, and 90 days help you evaluate your onboarding process and identify where new employees need additional support. Text message delivery ensures you reach employees who start work before receiving company email credentials, and automated scheduling means these check-ins happen consistently without manual tracking.

Benefits and Policy Acknowledgments

Open enrollment reminders, benefits education, and policy updates all work through SMS surveys. Employees can confirm receipt of important information by replying "YES," and all responses are automatically logged and timestamped for compliance documentation. This approach works especially well for multilingual workforces, as Yourco translates both questions and responses into each employee's preferred language.

Training Effectiveness Surveys

Post-training surveys help you measure comprehension and identify knowledge gaps that need reinforcement. After safety training, toolbox talks, or skills development sessions, a brief SMS survey captures immediate feedback while the material is fresh. This real-time insight helps you adjust training content before rolling it out to additional teams.

Exit Surveys

Departing employees often have valuable feedback about what works and what doesn't in your organization. SMS-based exit surveys reach employees who've already lost access to company email but can still receive texts on their personal phones. This timing captures honest insights that might otherwise be lost once workers leave.

Once you've identified which surveys to send, following distribution best practices ensures maximum participation and quality responses.

What Are the Best Practices for Survey Distribution?

How you distribute your survey matters just as much as what questions you ask. Following these best practices helps you maximize participation and gather more accurate insights from your entire workforce.

Segment Your Audience

Not every survey needs to go to every employee. Segment your workforce by department, location, shift, or role to ensure people receive surveys that are relevant to their work experience. A night shift warehouse worker shouldn't receive questions about office culture, just as a corporate employee doesn't need questions about shop floor safety. Targeted surveys feel more personal and show employees that you understand their specific work context.

Time Your Surveys Strategically

When you send your survey can significantly impact response rates. Avoid sending surveys during known busy periods, major deadlines, or holiday seasons. For shift workers, consider the timing of different shifts. First shift employees might respond better to messages sent mid-morning, while second shift workers may engage more with surveys sent early afternoon. If you're surveying multiple shifts, stagger your distribution times to meet each group when they're most likely to engage.

Communicate the Purpose

Before launching your survey, tell employees why you're conducting it and how you'll use their feedback. Will this inform policy changes? Help improve working conditions? Identify training needs? When employees understand the purpose and potential impact, they're more motivated to participate. Follow up after the survey closes to share key findings and any actions you're taking based on the results. This closes the feedback loop and shows employees that their input matters.

Send Reminders, But Don't Spam

One reminder can significantly boost response rates, but multiple reminders can feel intrusive. Send a reminder 2-3 days before the survey closes to employees who haven't completed it yet. Keep the reminder brief and emphasize the deadline. Avoid sending more than two follow-ups, as this can create survey fatigue and actually decrease participation.

Make It Mobile-Friendly

Most non-desk employees will complete surveys on their phones, so your survey must be optimized for mobile devices. Use responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes. Keep questions concise and use simple answer formats like rating scales or yes/no options that are easy to tap on a small screen. Test your survey on multiple device types before launch to ensure a smooth experience for all respondents.

Provide Multilingual Options

If your workforce speaks multiple languages, offer your survey in those languages. Translation services or platforms with built-in translation features can help. When employees can respond in their preferred language, you get more accurate and thoughtful feedback. This is especially important for safety surveys, policy acknowledgments, or any questions where language barriers could impact understanding.

SMS-based platforms like Yourco automatically translate surveys into 135+ languages and dialects, ensuring every employee receives questions in their preferred language.

Keep Surveys Accessible

Ensure your survey distribution method works for all employees, including those without company email addresses, those who work in areas with limited internet connectivity, and those with older phone models. Text message distribution reaches the widest audience because it works on any mobile phone and doesn't require data or internet access.

How Do You Distribute a Survey Questionnaire Online?

Follow these key steps to distribute employee surveys and gather meaningful feedback successfully.

Set Your Business Objectives

Before you can start drafting survey questions for your many employees, you need to establish a set of goals. Why are you making this survey and how does it benefit both your company and your staff? These are just a couple of the questions to consider when laying out your intentions.

Make a Questions List

After setting aside some business goals, start crafting a list of questions you believe to be important for employees to answer. These questions can highlight anything from overall satisfaction and experience to engagement and commitment.

Distribute the Survey With Yourco

While there are tons of survey distribution platforms out there, Yourco is one of the few that works to include and serve frontline workers who are often forgotten in the survey creation and distribution processes. Yourco allows you to schedule and automate text messages for deskless workers to open and respond to at any point in the day from anywhere within their flexible worksite.

Collect and Analyze the Responses

Once your employees' completed surveys begin pouring in, start collecting and analyzing their answers and the overall results. These results could include how many workers actually finished the survey, how many responded positively, how many responded negatively, etc.

Reflect and Adjust Accordingly

Your workers' responses should help you measure where your company stands altogether. If most employees (both in and out of the main headquarters) responded positively, it wouldn't make sense to change your current processes. However, overwhelmingly negative or neutral responses would warrant some level of adjustment in internal affairs such as better communication, higher satisfaction, dedicated culture, etc.

How To Build an Effective Employee Survey?

Creating a survey that employees will complete requires more than just throwing together a list of questions. The most effective surveys are thoughtfully designed with clear goals, relevant questions, and an accessible format.

Start With Clear Objectives

Before drafting a single question, define what you want to learn from your survey. 

• Are you measuring employee satisfaction after a recent policy change? 
• Trying to understand why turnover is high in certain departments? 
• Looking to gauge the effectiveness of your communication channels? 

Clear objectives help you craft questions that actually drive actionable insights rather than collecting data you won't use.

Keep Your Survey Concise

Survey fatigue is real, especially for frontline workers who may be completing your questionnaire during a break or between shifts. Aim for surveys that take 5-10 minutes to complete. Pulse surveys should be even shorter, around 3-5 minutes. Every question should serve your core objectives. If a question doesn't directly help you make a decision or take action, cut it.

Use Simple, Direct Language

Your survey questions should be easy to understand for all employees regardless of education level or language proficiency. Avoid jargon, technical terms, or complex sentence structures. 

• Don’t use: "How would you rate the efficacy of our current communication protocols?" 
• Use: "How well does our company keep you informed?" 

This clarity matters even more when your workforce speaks multiple languages.

Balance Question Types

Mix different question formats to keep respondents engaged while gathering both quantitative and qualitative data:

• Rating scales (1-5 or 1-10): For measuring satisfaction or agreement levels. 
• Multiple choice questions: For categorical responses. 
• Open-ended questions: Employees can share specific feedback in their own words.

Don't overwhelm respondents with too many open-ended questions, as these take longer to complete and can lead to survey abandonment.

Ensure Anonymity When Appropriate

Employees are more likely to provide honest feedback when they know their responses are anonymous. For sensitive topics like management effectiveness, workplace culture, or job satisfaction, anonymity can dramatically improve response quality. However, some surveys (like onboarding check-ins or exit interviews) may benefit from identified responses so you can follow up directly.

Test Before Launch

Before sending your survey to your entire workforce, test it with a small group. This helps you catch confusing questions, technical issues, or unintended biases. Time how long it takes to complete and make sure it aligns with your target completion time. Test on mobile devices too, since many workers will complete surveys on their phones.

Include Clear Instructions

Tell employees exactly what you're asking them to do, how long the survey will take, and what you'll do with their feedback. Transparency builds trust and increases participation. When employees understand that their input will lead to real changes, they're more motivated to share their thoughts.

What are the Participation Rates for Employee Surveys?

Response rates vary significantly based on how accessible your surveys are. Desk-bound employees typically achieve higher participation rates because they have easy access to email and computers. Frontline workers face barriers that dramatically reduce their survey completion rates without the right distribution method.

Yourco's SMS-based platform addresses this gap by:

• Reaching them where they have access...their text messages
• Scheduling automated text messages
• Texting a specific number of employees within certain shifts
• Automating communication surrounding special events
• Sending reminders about open enrollment, policy, and benefits
• Sharing altered policies or other important company information
• Offering options to cancel or edit messages
• Providing flexibility to workers without cellular data plans or coverage
• Allowing employees to text back directly with options to add attachments
• Securing information by requiring an employee SMS login before viewing private company files
• Setting birthdays and company holidays

Plus, Yourco's services don't start and end with this list alone! For more information and a visual representation of the platform, check out our detailed demo!

How To Increase Survey Response Rates

Getting employees to start a survey is one challenge; getting them to complete it is another. These strategies help you achieve higher completion rates and more representative data.

Emphasize Brevity Upfront

Tell employees exactly how long your survey will take right in your distribution message. "This 5-minute survey" or "Quick 3-question check-in" sets expectations and makes the time commitment feel manageable. When employees know they can complete your survey during a short break, they're more likely to start it immediately rather than putting it off.

Lead With Easy Questions

Start your survey with simple, straightforward questions that require minimal thought. This builds momentum and helps respondents get comfortable with the format. Save more complex or open-ended questions for the middle or end of the survey when respondents are already invested in completing it.

Show Progress

If your survey platform supports it, display a progress bar so respondents can see how close they are to finishing. This reduces survey abandonment, especially for longer questionnaires. Knowing "You're 60% complete" motivates people to push through to the end.

Incentivize Thoughtfully

While external incentives like gift cards can boost participation, they can also attract rushed or dishonest responses. If you do offer incentives, keep them modest and emphasize that thoughtful feedback is more valuable than quick completion. Sometimes recognition or transparency about how feedback will be used motivates employees more than monetary rewards.

Close The Feedback Loop

When employees see that previous surveys led to real changes, they're more likely to participate in future surveys. After analyzing results, communicate key findings and actions you're taking to address feedback. This demonstrates that employee input drives real improvements and builds trust for future survey initiatives.

Leverage Management Support

When managers actively encourage their teams to complete surveys and explain why the feedback matters, response rates increase. Provide managers with talking points they can share in team meetings or shift huddles. However, make sure they emphasize that honest feedback is encouraged and that there are no "right" answers.

Remove Barriers To Access

The easier it is to access and complete your survey, the more responses you'll get. Choose distribution methods that meet employees where they are. For non-desk workers, this means sending surveys via text message rather than email. Ensure surveys work on mobile devices without requiring apps, logins, or complex navigation.

Yourco: The All-Inclusive Survey Distribution Platform

Reaching your entire workforce with employee surveys drives better insights and stronger retention. Yourco makes it simple to connect with every employee through SMS, ensuring frontline workers have the same voice as their office-based colleagues. This inclusive approach leads to more accurate data, better engagement, and decisions that reflect your whole team's needs. 

Try Yourco for free today or schedule a demo and see the difference the right workplace communication solution can make in your company.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I send surveys to employees who work on the factory floor?

You can reach factory-floor employees by sending surveys through text messages. SMS works on any phone, requires no email or app download, and allows workers to respond quickly during breaks. With Yourco’s employee survey distribution feature, you can schedule and send these surveys directly to every frontline employee so everyone can participate.

Can Employee Surveys Be Mandatory?

Employee surveys are typically voluntary and anonymous, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). However, some surveys may be mandatory depending on the organization, survey type, and local or state government requirements. Regardless of whether surveys are required, an inclusive distribution platform ensures all employees can easily access and complete them without needing computer access.

What’s the difference between a pulse survey and an engagement survey?

A pulse survey is designed for quick, regular check-ins that capture how employees feel about their work, communication, and leadership at a specific point in time. It’s short, often under ten minutes, and conducted frequently (weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly) to help organizations stay updated on real-time sentiment and respond quickly to emerging issues.

An engagement survey takes a more comprehensive look at the overall employee experience. Conducted quarterly or annually, it explores deeper topics such as workplace culture, values, management effectiveness, and long-term satisfaction. The insights help leaders understand what drives motivation, loyalty, and retention across the organization.

What Are the Best Times To Survey Employees?

The ideal timing for employee surveys depends on the type of feedback you want to collect. Engagement surveys are often conducted quarterly to track overall satisfaction and motivation, while pulse surveys happen more frequently, such as weekly or monthly, to capture real-time sentiment and identify emerging issues.

Other surveys follow natural points in the employee lifecycle. Onboarding and training surveys are sent to new hires early in their journey, while exit surveys are completed at the end of employment. Annual reviews and broader engagement surveys are typically done once a year to evaluate long-term trends. The best timing always depends on your goals and how you plan to use the insights.

What Can Be Used as a Platform for Distributing Your Survey?

Yourco stands out as the ideal survey distribution platform for companies with non-desk employees. By leveraging text messaging for internal communication, Yourco ensures every worker can participate regardless of their access to email or computers. This inclusive approach leads to more accurate engagement data and better representation across your entire workforce.