According to research by Gallup, only 8% of employees strongly agree that their organization takes action on the surveys it runs. That means that more often than not, the other 92 per cent filled in a form and then felt like nothing happened.
We see that gap open up time and again in the weeks after a survey closes when results sit in a spreadsheet while the executive team asks for one more cut of the data, and the calendar eats the follow-up. By the time somebody communicates anything, employees have stopped connecting it to the statements they were initially even surveyed on.
How you share results is what decides whether next year’s survey gets honest answers. We’ve created a guide that runs from analysis to leadership, then to managers, then to everyone, and finishes with a plan people can hold you to.
8%
Employees who see action taken
Gallup’s share of employees who strongly agree their organization acts on survey results.
38%
More likely to stay long term
Great Place To Work research on employees at high-trust organisations planning a long-term future with their employer.
What are the seven steps to sharing employee survey results?
Analyze the data, benchmark it, brief leaders, brief managers, tell everyone, then publish an improvement plan with owners and dates.
| Step | What it involves |
|---|---|
| 1. Analyze survey data thoroughly | Review results with fresh eyes, looking for patterns and themes across responses. |
| 2. Benchmark against industry standards | Compare your scores to relevant benchmarks for meaningful context. |
| 3. Prepare key findings for leaders | Write an executive summary covering strengths, opportunities and next steps. |
| 4. Communicate results to leadership first | Present findings to executives before any broader distribution. |
| 5. Share results with managers | Equip people managers with team-specific data using tools like Great Place To Work’s Emprising platform. |
| 6. Present findings to all employees | Be transparent with the whole workforce about what you learned. |
| 7. Create a workplace improvement plan | Set out actionable next steps with clear ownership and timelines. |
How do you share your employee survey results effectively?
Work through the seven steps in order, because each one sets up the next. Leaders who hear the results last will resist them, and managers who get data without guidance will sit on it.
1. Analyze survey data thoroughly
Before sharing anything, set aside dedicated time to review your employee survey results. Block off at least an hour, free from meetings and email, to study your data with full attention.
Start by writing down the questions you had before launching the survey. Did you suspect certain departments were disengaged? Were you curious how remote workers felt compared with on-site staff? Use those original questions to frame your analysis.
Look for patterns across demographic groups. Filter results by department, tenure, location and role level. This segmentation shows you where employee experiences diverge and where they hold steady across the business.
Pay close attention to open-ended responses. Employees often share specific suggestions in their own words that numeric scores cannot capture, and those comments give your quantitative findings their context.
2. Benchmark against industry standards
Numbers without context tell an incomplete story. An 80% satisfaction score reads well until you learn the industry average sits at 92%.
Benchmarking grounds your results in reality. Compare your current scores against your previous surveys to track progress over time, then against external benchmarks from organisations in your sector and size range.
The Great Place To Work Certification process gives you access to benchmark data from thousands of companies. You can see how your employee engagement scores compare with industry-specific cuts.
That external view tells you whether a particular score signals a genuine concern or sits within normal range for your field.
3. Prepare key findings for leaders
Executive teams need information they can act on. Distill your analysis into a focused summary that respects their time while carrying the essential insights.
Structure the executive summary around three categories: areas of strength, opportunities for growth, and recommended next steps. Include specific data points and resist the urge to hand over every metric you have.
Focus on findings that connect to business outcomes. Low engagement in customer-facing roles, for example, often correlates with higher turnover and weaker customer satisfaction. Drawing those lines shows leaders the commercial stake.
Prepare talking points for the questions executives will ask. Be ready on methodology, response rates, and how results compare with previous surveys or external standards.
4. Communicate results to leadership first
Senior leaders should see survey results before anyone else in the organization. That sequencing gives executives room to ask questions, absorb the implications and align on messaging before wider communication starts.
Book a dedicated meeting and allow a full hour, with your presentation capped at 30 minutes and the rest kept for discussion.
Present the data honestly, including the areas where results fell short. Trust erodes the moment leaders sense HR is spinning findings or burying concerns. Showing positive and constructive feedback together demonstrates that you have listened properly.
End the session with clear next steps. Agree who will brief managers, when all employees will hear the results, and your early thinking on action planning.
5. Share results with managers
People managers hold the keys to turning survey insights into daily workplace improvements. They need their own team-specific data alongside guidance on how to use it.
Schedule a structured session with all managers and make attendance expected. That signals the meeting matters and that their part in post-survey action is essential.
Position the conversation around solutions. Frame challenges as organizational opportunities, and ask managers what support they need to work through the findings with their teams.
Tie engagement metrics to managers’ performance reviews going forward. Once engagement forms part of how managers are evaluated, it gets the same attention as operational metrics.
Great Place To Work’s Emprising platform helps here by giving managers direct access to their team’s results. They can see where their people need support without waiting for HR to distribute reports.
6. Present findings to all employees
Employees invested time and trust when they completed your survey. Sharing results promptly honours that contribution.
Aim to communicate with all employees within 30 days of the survey closing. Longer delays suggest the organisation has forgotten the survey or does not prioritize employee feedback.
Open by thanking employees for participating. Acknowledge their honesty and reinforce that their responses are shaping decisions.
Share results through several channels: all-hands meetings, team discussions, written summaries and internal newsletters. People absorb information differently, so varied formats widen your reach.
Be transparent about the challenges the survey revealed. Employees already know when something is broken, and pretending otherwise damages credibility. Naming the concerns shows you are listening and prepares people for the changes ahead.
ALSO READ: Employee Feedback Action Plans: A Practical Guide For Leaders
Connect results to the idea of a high-trust culture. Help employees see how their feedback builds a workplace where people feel respected, valued and proud of what they contribute.
7. Create a workplace improvement plan
Survey results mean nothing without action. The real work begins when you translate insights into specific, measurable improvements.
Focus on two or three priority areas and leave the rest for the next cycle. Spreading resources thin produces mediocre movement across many initiatives.
For each priority, set goals using the SMART framework: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Assign ownership to named individuals or teams.
Create checkpoints to monitor progress. Schedule monthly or quarterly reviews to assess whether actions are having their intended effect, and adjust course early when something is failing.
Communicate the improvement plan back to employees. Tell them what you are doing because of their feedback and when they can expect to see changes. This closes the loop and shows that their input drives real decisions.
What should you include when sharing survey results?
Include participation rates, headline scores with a comparison to last time, your strongest areas, your biggest gaps, and the specific actions you have committed to. Participation rates come first because they show employees how many colleagues contributed to the findings.
Share examples of actions you already took after previous survey feedback. That track record builds confidence that this survey will also produce change.
Be specific about next steps and timelines. The difference between a promise employees believe and one they ignore usually comes down to whether it has a date attached.
| Commitment type | How it sounds to employees |
|---|---|
| Vague | “We’ll look into this.” |
| Specific | “We’ll run manager training on feedback conversations by the end of Q2.” |
Great Place To Work research shows employees at high-trust organizations are 38% more likely to plan a long-term future with their employer. Transparent survey communication feeds directly into building that trust.
How often should you survey employees and share results?
Run one comprehensive survey a year, supplement it with shorter pulse checks, and share results on a schedule you can keep. Annual surveys remain the foundation of most listening strategies because they capture the full employee experience across every dimension of workplace culture.
Many organisations add pulse surveys through the year. These quick check-ins, typically five to ten questions, track progress on specific initiatives or emerging concerns.
Match your survey frequency to your capacity for action. Running surveys more often than you can respond to erodes trust, and employees tire of giving feedback that never turns into visible change.
Whatever cadence you choose, share results consistently. If you promise results within a month, deliver within a month. Reliability in communication builds the psychological safety employees need to answer honestly.
Consider aligning your survey schedule with your planning cycle. Running the survey before annual planning means employee feedback reaches budget decisions and strategic priorities while they are still being set.
How does Great Place To Work help you turn survey insights into action?
Collecting employee feedback is only the beginning. The harder part is interpreting results accurately and taking action that moves workplace trust.
The Trust Index Survey captures more than surface-level engagement. It measures the five dimensions of a high-trust culture: credibility, respect, fairness, pride and belonging. That depth tells you why employees feel the way they do, and which specific actions will improve their experience.
The Emprising platform delivers results through dashboards that make complex data usable. Leaders at every level can explore findings relevant to their own teams without waiting on custom reports from HR.
You also gain access to benchmark data from more than 22,000 organisations worldwide. See how your results compare with the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® and identify the practices that separate top performers in your industry.
Organisations that partner with Great Place To Work report half the turnover of typical workplaces. Their employees give extra effort and adapt faster to change.
Get started with Great Place To Work Certification to turn your employee feedback into lasting cultural improvement.
Not just another employee survey tool
Many employee engagement survey platforms can give you a dashboard. We give you a diagnosis.
| Feature | Great Place To Work® | Other Survey Platforms |
|---|---|---|
| Research foundation | ✓ 30+ years of peer-reviewed trust research | Generic engagement models |
| Benchmarking data | ✓ 170M+ responses from best-in-class companies | Limited or self-selected benchmarks |
| Survey methodology | ✓ Validated Trust Index™ framework | DIY question libraries |
| Expert consultation | ✓ Dedicated culture consultants and coaching | Self-service or basic support |
| Employer brand recognition | ✓ Certification™ and Best Workplaces™ lists | ✗ Not available |
| Global consistency | ✓ 150+ countries, 60+ languages, one standard | Varies by vendor |
| Culture action planning | ✓ Guided action plans with expert support | Reports without roadmap |
Frequently asked questions about sharing employee survey results
How soon should you share employee survey results after the survey closes?
Share results with employees within 30 days of the survey closing. That timeline shows you value their input and have put real resources into analyzing it. Great Place To Work recommends starting with leadership in the first week, then cascading to managers and all employees over the following weeks.
Should you share negative survey results with employees?
Yes. Transparency builds trust. Employees already know when something is broken, so hiding poor results damages your credibility with the people you most need to hear from next time. Great Place To Work’s approach centres on honest communication, presenting challenges as opportunities for growth.
Who should present survey results to employees?
Senior leaders should present company-wide results, which signals executive commitment to acting on feedback. People managers then share team-specific findings with their direct reports. Great Place To Work’s Emprising platform gives managers self-service access to their team data, which makes the cascade faster.
How do you handle survey results that are critical of specific managers?
Address manager-specific concerns privately and constructively. Treat the data as a development signal and use it to identify coaching opportunities. Training and support tend to shift manager behavior further than criticism does. The goal is building capability so those managers create better team experiences going forward.
What if employees don’t believe anything will change after the survey?
Combat survey fatigue by connecting current actions to past feedback. Show specific examples of changes you made because of previous surveys. Great Place To Work Certified companies build trust by following through on commitments consistently, which lifts participation and candor in future surveys.
How do you prioritize which survey findings to act on first?
Focus on findings that affect the largest number of employees, align with strategic priorities, and have feasible solutions. Great Place To Work’s benchmarking data shows where your scores sit furthest behind top performers, and those gaps usually represent your highest-impact opportunities.
