Setting up a recurring employee pulse cadence helps you track sentiment and engagement consistently over time. Using a robust pulse survey template ensures you get actionable feedback while keeping things simple for your team.
This guide covers how to set up recurring employee pulse surveys in Specific—including choosing how you’ll distribute surveys, managing timing and frequency, leveraging AI summaries, and segmenting targeting.
In-product widget vs landing page: which works better for employee pulse surveys?
Picking the right distribution method for your employee pulse surveys makes all the difference. The two most popular options in Specific are the in-product widget and the landing page survey—each with unique strengths:
Widget | Landing Page |
|---|---|
Embedded directly in company software or intranet | Sharable via email, Slack, or link—great for any device |
Ideal for teams working in the same internal tool daily | Best for distributed teams, remote workers, or frontline staff |
Instant, context-aware touchpoints in the product | No installation needed; quicker roll-out for one-time or recurring pulses |
We recommend using the widget for roles tied to specific software—think developers, support, or operations teams already living in your main app. It pops up naturally and blends into their workflow. On the other hand, the landing page approach fits broad, company-wide pulse surveys, when you’re distributing via email or sharing a link in Slack. If your employee base spans across devices or isn’t always logged into one platform, landing pages win on flexibility.
For example, a quarterly engineering morale check is best run via the in-app widget. Meanwhile, a company-wide wellbeing pulse is easier to deliver on a dedicated conversational survey page employees can answer from any device—no login required. Learn more about launching Conversational Survey Pages or embedding Conversational In-product Surveys.
Setting up your pulse survey cadence and frequency controls
The backbone of a recurring employee pulse cadence is frequency control: how often surveys are sent, and how long before an employee can be re-surveyed. In Specific, you have granular control over cadence and global recontact periods, protecting from survey fatigue.
Weekly pulse surveys: Great for fast-evolving teams or during transitions. It keeps a close pulse but the risks of fatigue rise the more frequent you survey. Participation does dip if your team feels over-surveyed—data shows that response rates fall from 77% for annual surveys to about 59% when employees are polled more than four times a year [5]. Keep these short and hyper-focused.
Bi-weekly pulse surveys: The sweet spot for many teams. This schedule is regular enough for trend-tracking but spaced enough to avoid fatigue and “ask overload.”
Monthly pulse surveys: Most organizations opt for monthly or quarterly pulses [8]. Monthly allows breathing room but still creates a strong feedback loop for engagement and well-being.
Survey length plays a huge role: every question over 12 or every minute beyond 5 reduces your response rate by up to 17% [4]. Keep your pulse template focused; Specific’s AI survey builder can help you trim the fat and clarify your ask.
To avoid burnout, use Specific’s global recontact controls: you can specify how soon a respondent is eligible to be re-surveyed—across all your pulses, not just one. Tips for best results:
Set a minimum recontact window (e.g., no more than one survey every two weeks per person).
Time surveys near recurring touchpoints—like after standups or town halls.
Always match cadence to the expected rate of change; avoid “just because it’s the first of the month” pings.
Configuring these settings is a snap in Specific: just pick your template, choose cadence, and set recontact limits—we handle the rest in the background.
Analyzing employee pulse results with AI summaries and chat
Part of the magic of running a recurring pulse survey in Specific comes after responses are in. Thanks to AI summaries and chat analysis, you don’t have to wade through a wall of text or clunky spreadsheets. Our AI distills each response into core insights, then lets you interactively dig deeper by chatting with your survey data.
You’ll see immediate, automatic summaries for every round—perfect for catching up at a glance. Want to know if morale is improving since your last product sprint? Just ask the AI for a trends analysis. Here are some example prompts you can use to quickly surface real answers:
Spotting how employee sentiment shifts over time:
“Compare overall morale scores week by week since we launched remote work. What trends stand out?”
Identifying department-specific issues or strengths:
“What issues are most frequently mentioned by engineering versus sales in the past three months?”
Tracking engagement trends from onboarding onwards:
“How does engagement sentiment for new hires compare to experienced staff over their first three months?”
And if a specific comment worries you, follow up with:
“Summarize the top concerns cited by employees mentioning workload or burnout.”
Conversational analysis lets you dig through piles of feedback without manual coding or filtering. It’s all about going from answers to action, making employee listening continuous—not just checkbox HR.
Learn more about how AI survey response analysis works in Specific.
Targeting recipes for different employee segments
The real power of a recurring pulse cadence is targeting. In Specific, you can set up smart audience rules to make sure every pulse survey hits the right group, at the right time:
New employee onboarding pulse: Automatically survey new hires 30 or 60 days after they join. Use event triggers (like “profile created” in your HR software) and set a timing delay to create a consistent, scalable onboarding check-in.
Team-specific pulse surveys: Trigger distinct pulses by department (engineering, sales, support) or location. Whether it’s gathering feedback after launching a new workflow in product or checking in after a big push, granular targeting ensures you don’t overwhelm everyone with irrelevant questions.
Post-event or post-change pulse: Fire a focused survey after a major event (like a town hall, reorg, or benefit change). Use a trigger matched to the event, with a timing window (e.g., ask for feedback one day after the event ends for maximum recall and honest response).
With in-product surveys, widget targeting can be customized deeply—including matching your company’s branding with custom CSS for a seamless experience. To truly deepen insight, leverage automatic AI follow-up questions that probe for context, clarity, or emotion behind initial answers—delivering richer insights without adding to survey length.
Launch your first employee pulse survey today
The easiest way to get started is to use the right pulse survey template and let AI do the heavy lifting.
Here’s what to do:
Select how you’ll distribute (widget or landing page)
Choose your cadence and set recontact rules
Use Specific’s AI survey generator to generate and refine questions
Target the right employee group and adjust branding if needed
Let the responses come in—AI handles summaries and trends automatically
The conversational format increases participation and delivers deeper, more honest feedback—an AI-powered survey feels more like a chat than a burdened task. Create your own survey and keep your finger on the true pulse of your organization with Specific.