Team pulse survey
A pulse survey only works if people answer honestly and it stays short enough to run often. This template keeps it to a handful of questions on workload, clarity, and blockers, framed anonymously so the answers reflect what people actually think.
Best for: Managers and people-ops teams tracking team health between annual reviews.
Use this template free1 of 6
How manageable has your workload been this week?
A live preview of this template. Click through it. Nothing gets sent.
The questions
- 1How manageable has your workload been this week?Opinion scale1-5 — trend this over weeks rather than reading any single point.
- 2How clear are you on what's expected of you right now?Opinion scale1-5 — clarity dips are an early warning before output drops.
- 3What's blocking you or slowing you down most right now?Long textOpen answer keeps it honest; a checklist would only surface blockers you already guessed.
- 4If you could change one thing about how the team works, what would it be?Long textOne change forces a priority instead of a vent.
- 5How supported do you feel by your manager this week?Opinion scale1-5 — a private signal that rarely surfaces in standups.
- 6Anything you want leadership to know?Long textAn optional open door catches the thing the structured questions missed.
How to run it well
- Keep it genuinely anonymous and say so plainly — the moment people suspect attribution, the scores inflate and the honesty drains out.
- Hold the question set steady week to week; the value is the trend line, and changing questions resets your baseline.
- Act visibly on at least one blocker each cycle and tell the team you did — a pulse survey with no follow-through trains people to stop answering.
- Watch the clarity and support scores as leading indicators; they tend to slip before workload complaints or attrition show up.
FAQ
How often should we run a pulse survey?
Weekly or biweekly is common. Frequent enough to catch a dip early, infrequent enough to avoid fatigue. Whatever cadence you pick, keep it fixed so the trend stays comparable.
How do we keep it anonymous in a small team?
Drop demographic questions, report only at the team level, and never slice results small enough to identify a person. On very small teams, aggregate a few cycles before sharing numbers.
What's a healthy response rate?
Above 80% is a good sign people trust the process. A sudden drop is itself a signal — usually that a previous round produced no visible follow-up.
Related templates
- Feature request surveyCapture the job behind each request, the workaround, and how often it bites.
- Brand perception surveyFirst word, what you're known for, and who they'd recommend you to.
- Customer interview screenerScreen interviewees by real behavior, not by who's eager to talk.
- Customer churn surveyFind the real reason people leave — built on past behavior, not opinions.