Running an employee wellbeing pulse survey program helps you track how your team is doing over time and catch issues before they become problems.
A good pulse cadence program needs the right frequency, targeting, and analysis tools to be effective.
In this guide, I’ll walk through setting up a recurring wellbeing program in Specific that actually gets responses and delivers insights you can use.
Setting the right pulse cadence for employee wellbeing
When it comes to a pulse cadence program, monthly or bi-weekly wellbeing checks work best for most teams. These intervals strike the right balance between staying updated and avoiding survey fatigue. With Specific’s frequency controls, you can set exactly how often employees see surveys to keep engagement high without overwhelming anyone.
Specific's global recontact period is a crucial feature—it prevents respondents from being bombarded by multiple surveys from different projects at once. This protects participation rates and keeps feedback reflective of real attitudes, not burnout from too many asks.
Cadence Option | Comment |
|---|---|
Weekly | Too frequent, causes fatigue |
Bi-weekly | Good for high-stress periods or change management |
Monthly | Sweet spot for most teams |
Quarterly | Too infrequent to catch emerging issues |
Recontact periods ensure the same person isn’t pestered with multiple surveys. You control these settings globally across Specific to create space between survey invitations—for any type of initiative. Plus, you can pause your pulse program entirely during holidays or critical busy periods to keep goodwill high.
Conversational AI surveys consistently achieve impressive completion rates (between 70-90% compared to just 10-30% with traditional surveys)[1], so getting the pulse cadence right maximizes your reach and data quality.
Targeting wellbeing surveys to specific teams and moments
Not every team or group needs the same survey frequency. That’s why Specific’s targeting features let you customize who receives which version of your wellbeing pulse, and how often.
For example, you can set up different schedules for engineering, marketing, and sales—or even customize questions—so each department gets the checks that matter to them. With advanced in-product conversational survey targeting, it’s easy to send tailored surveys based on a person’s department, team size, location, or role.
Event triggers let you launch wellbeing checks at key moments, making your program more responsive to workplace reality. Triggered surveys are invaluable after:
Project completions
Team changes or reorganizations
Post-training or workshop sessions
Fine-tUNE the targeting so you gather only relevant feedback—for example, you can exclude people who are out on leave or new hires still onboardng. This means every check-in has context and value, boosting trust and response rates. If you want these features, you can learn more in our guide to targeting in-product surveys.
Using AI to analyze wellbeing trends and themes
Pulse surveys are only as good as the insights you extract. With Specific’s AI summaries, you don’t have to wade through endless spreadsheets—the AI automatically identifies wellbeing patterns, trends, and outliers as responses roll in.
The big game changer for teams: multiple analysis chats let HR, managers, and leadership each open their own dedicated analysis threads—applying custom filters, asking questions, and viewing only what matters to them. You might want to answer questions like:
“What are the top stressors for the engineering team this month?”
“How has remote work sentiment changed over the last 3 surveys?”
“Which departments report the best work-life balance?”
Parallel analysis threads let different stakeholders run their own deep dives and slice the data by team, time period, or even sentiment. With AI analysis chat, you get instant answers to open-ended and quantitative questions, surfacing looming issues or success stories fast.
Specific’s AI agent also digs deeper by asking automatic follow-up questions if a response signals worry or disengagement—no manual intervention needed. You can export all relevant summaries for leadership reports or team meetings.
According to recent research, 70% of employees enrolled in wellness programs report higher job satisfaction, and organizations with high-performing wellbeing strategies experience better retention and productivity[2]. That’s why turning data to action is non-negotiable for any pulse program.
Sample monthly employee wellbeing program
If you want a blueprint, here’s a concrete monthly cadence for a recurring wellbeing pulse survey using Specific:
Week | Task |
|---|---|
Week 1 | Launch monthly wellbeing pulse (3-5 questions max) |
Week 2 | Review AI summaries, identify urgent issues |
Week 3 | Share insights with team leads, plan interventions |
Week 4 | Follow up on previous concerns, prep next month's focus |
Conversational surveys make employee wellbeing checks feel like genuine conversations—not HR paperwork. Employees can respond in their preferred language thanks to Specific’s localization features, and the AI agent’s friendly tone encourages honest, nuanced feedback.
The friendly, AI-led conversation also lets you end on a positive note—with a simple thank you message and a short explanation of how their input will be used. That last touch brings transparency, helping boost future participation.
Organizations with established wellbeing programs enjoy 11% higher revenue per employee and lower absenteeism costs[3], so this regular schedule is a small investment with big payoffs.
Crafting effective wellbeing survey questions
To get the best results, your wellbeing surveys should strike a balance: use a mix of quantitative metrics (so you can trend over time) plus a few open-ended prompts to explore the why.
Work-life balance rating (single-select)
Stress level check (NPS-style with followups)
Open-ended “How are you really doing?”
Team support satisfaction
AI followup questions transform brief responses into depth. The AI agent will ask for clarification or probe gently when someone mentions stress, burnout, or lack of support, pulling out context HR would otherwise miss. Learn more about this with our automatic AI followup questions feature.
If you want to analyze trends or chase down hidden risks, you can prompt Specific’s AI analysis like this:
Show me all responses mentioning overtime, exhaustion, or work-life balance issues from the last month
Or compare the impact of a new policy:
Compare wellbeing scores before and after our flexible Friday implementation
For fast setup, use the AI survey generator to create your own custom wellbeing pulse from a single prompt. Keeping these surveys under 5 questions dramatically boosts completion rates, ensuring higher data quality and lower drop-off.
Start your employee wellbeing pulse program today
If you’re not tracking wellbeing regularly, you’re missing early warning signs of burnout, turnover risks, and team morale issues. Conversational wellbeing surveys help you spot trends quickly, act on feedback, and show employees you genuinely care. Don’t wait—create your own survey and start building a healthier, more productive culture now.