Email is the most common way of inviting employees to participate in a survey. It's a very quick and efficient method, but it runs the risk of getting overlooked because of all the other messages in their inbox. Knowing how to create an effective survey email invitation will not only boost your response rates, but could even increase confidence in the survey process.
Avoid the IT pitfalls
The first hurdle is making sure the email invitation is received safely by the participants. To do so, inform your IT team about your email in advance and ask them to whitelist the Willis Towers Watson servers and domains. You will find a full list of instructions for IT in the Willis Towers Watson Employee Engagement Software Help section. If you’re sending the invites directly, ask your corporate communications team for advice and support.
Stand out from the crowd
Make your survey invitation stand out by including a logo at the top. It's also a good idea to use the survey name as the subject, so that employees immediately get what the email is about even before opening it.
Get the basics right
You need to include clear instructions for accessing the survey. This information is automatically included in emails generated by the Willis Towers Watson Employee Engagement Software. If you're creating your own invitations, make sure that these details are correct.
Some of the important information to include are the survey end date and contact information in case someone has a question or experiences a problem. Additionally, consider linking to a page where your data privacy procedures are explained (if you aren't using the default message provided in our software).
Add a bit of context
In addition to the basics, you should also consider including some background on the survey and why it's so important for employees to participate and share their views. If you're using Real-Time Advice, you can highlight how they may be presented with helpful tips and suggestions.
Make it multi-lingual
If your survey is available in multiple languages, make sure that's reflected in your survey invitations, so all employees feel equally included and empowered to participate. Willis Towers Watson Employee Engagement Software will send multilingual invites to everyone, but if you're creating your own invitations, make sure to target certain languages for specific groups, for instance sending a Japanese version to all employees in Japan. In these cases, we recommend always including English as a secondary language.
Additionally, if some of your employees do not have access to email, check out our article on engaging hard-to-reach employees.
Doing these five simple steps can increase your chances of successfully turning survey invitations into submitted surveys. To draft your next survey invitation, log in to Willis Towers Watson Employee Engagement Software today, or contact us for a demo.
Author
Willis Towers Watson Employee Engagement Software
Andromachie supports Willis Towers Watson Employee Engagement Software users through training videos, online help topics and the design of new features. When she’s not working, Andromachie loves to cook, draw and listen to podcasts. Follow Andromachie on LinkedIn.
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