The guide
Everything you need to know about the pulse survey template
What is the Pulse Survey Template?
The Pulse Survey Template is a short, ready-to-launch set of 13 questions designed to take the temperature of your team on a regular basis. Unlike a long annual survey, it focuses on the here and now, asking how people rate their wellbeing this week, whether their workload felt manageable, and whether they felt motivated, stressed, or supported. It also touches team collaboration, feedback, and sense of progress. Run it weekly, fortnightly, or monthly to catch shifts in morale and workload early, so you can respond before small issues build into larger engagement or retention problems.
Why run a pulse survey
Annual surveys give depth but arrive too late to act on week-to-week changes. A short pulse survey fills that gap with a fast, frequent read on how people are really doing. Responses show whether workload feels manageable, whether stress is rising, whether people feel supported by their manager, and whether they are making meaningful progress. Because it is quick to complete, it sustains high response rates over time and reveals trends rather than single snapshots. Those signals help managers adjust workload, offer support, and spot early warning signs, keeping engagement steady between your larger surveys.
What this pulse survey covers
The 13 questions stay deliberately short and time-bound, most framed around this week. Wellbeing and workload includes rating overall wellbeing this week and whether the workload felt manageable. Mood and pressure covers feeling motivated to come to work and feeling stressed or overwhelmed. Support and team includes feeling supported by your manager and whether the team collaborated effectively. Feedback and progress asks whether people received helpful feedback or guidance and whether they made meaningful progress on their work. Keeping the set brief and consistent means you can run it often and watch each measure move over time without adding survey fatigue.
How to use this free template
Copy or download the 13 questions and load them into a survey tool you already use, such as Google Forms, Typeform, or your internal HR platform. No signup is required. Keep responses anonymous so people are honest about stress and workload. Because this is a recurring survey, set a fixed cadence, weekly or monthly, and keep the wording identical each time so results stay comparable. Share the link at the same point in the week, keep it quick to finish, and review trends rather than reacting to any single response.
