Matter Pulse Surveys are short check ins, anonymous by default, sent to everyone in your Slack or Microsoft Teams channel on a schedule, drawn from a library of 108 research backed questions, that roll up into an Engagement Score, ten engagement categories and an employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS).
Who can use this: Pulse Surveys are part of the Surveys add on, available on any paid Matter plan and included in the free trial. Workspace Owners and Admins turn them on and read the results; everyone in the channel answers.
Pulse Survey video guides
A short walkthrough of the settings, the survey experience and the reports. Pick your platform.
Slack
Microsoft Teams
What are Pulse Surveys?
A pulse survey is a handful of questions, asked often, instead of a long survey asked once a year. Each person gets a few questions on a set schedule (three a week by default), answers them in a minute inside Slack or Teams, and the answers build a continuous picture of how the team is doing. Answers are anonymous by default, and an Admin can switch a workspace to attributed surveys in the settings. Matter supplies the questions, which you can customize, rotates them so nobody sees the same one twice in 90 days, and scores the results for you.
Why Pulse Surveys with Matter
Answered where people already are: the survey arrives as a message in Slack or Teams. No link, no login, which is why completion rates are high.
Questions you do not have to write: 108 questions across 10 engagement categories and 27 subcategories, researched and validated by HR experts.
Built against survey fatigue: one consistent agree or disagree scale, the right number of questions for the cadence, and no repeats within 90 days.
Rewards built in: give Matter coins for each completed survey to lift participation.
Anonymous by default: every anonymous survey says so at the top, names are never attached to answers: Admins and group managers can read individual answers, but not who gave them. Admins can switch to attributed surveys if your team prefers to see who said what.
How Pulse Surveys work
1. Turn them on and check the settings
Pulse Surveys are off by default. Turn them on under Settings, then Pulse Surveys in the web app, then review the frequency, the eNPS question, who gets notified, coin rewards, excluded members and who can launch.
➡️ Learn more: Pulse survey settings
2. Preview the experience
Click Preview Pulse Survey in the settings and Matter sends you a sample survey in Slack or Teams, so you can see exactly what your team will see before you launch.
➡️ Learn more: Pulse survey member experience
3. Matter asks the questions
On your cadence, each member gets a survey drawn from the question library, with the eNPS question included on the schedule you set. People answer in the message itself.
➡️ Learn more: Pulse survey questions, List of pulse survey questions, categories, and subcategories, Are pulse surveys anonymous?
4. Read the results
Open Pulse Surveys in the web app to see the Engagement Score, each category and subcategory, the eNPS and the participation rate, filtered by date range and segmented by groups and segments. Selected members can also get anonymous comments in real time and a weekly digest, delivered privately in Slack or Teams.
➡️ Learn more: Pulse Survey Engagement Score, Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS), Pulse Survey Participation Rate, Member Groups, Member Segments
How the scores are calculated
Scores use a rolling 30 day window: on any day, the score reflects the answers collected in the previous 30 days. Because a pulse survey only reaches each person a few times a month, a fixed weekly score would swing with every quiet week or company holiday; the rolling window smooths that out and shows the trend. When you pick a date range, each point on the chart is the 30 days ending on that date.
Terms to know
Engagement Score: the single number that sums up how your team answered across all categories.
Categories and subcategories: the ten themes with the biggest effect on engagement, each broken into subcategories, that every question maps to: Company Culture, Feedback, Happiness, Leadership, Manager Effectiveness, Personal Growth, Recognition, Satisfaction, Team Dynamics and Wellness.
eNPS: employee Net Promoter Score, from the one question that asks how likely people are to recommend your company as a place to work. Matter uses a 5 point scale.
Participation rate: the share of members who answered at least one question in the period.
Frequency: weekly, every two weeks, monthly, every two months or quarterly, with 1 to 20 questions per survey (3 by default).
FAQs
Are pulse surveys really anonymous?
Yes, pulse surveys are anonymous by default: names are never attached to answers, so Admins and group managers can read individual answers but not who said what. An Admin can switch the workspace to attributed surveys under Anonymity in the pulse survey settings, and every survey says at the top which it is. Are pulse surveys anonymous?
Why a 5 point eNPS instead of the usual 0 to 10?
A fully labelled 5 point scale is easier to answer, especially on a phone, and research (including a case study from the creator of NPS) shows it measures the same underlying intention as the 0 to 10 scale. Why a 5-point eNPS and not an 11-point or 4-point eNPS?
Can we write our own questions?
Yes. Pulse surveys start from Matter's library of 108 validated questions, and admins can edit it or add their own questions from View Question Library on the Pulse Survey page. For one off surveys, see the Employee Survey Guide.
Can we leave some people out?
Yes. Add them to the excluded members list in the settings. Pulse survey settings
Can we reward people for answering?
Yes. Turn on rewards in the settings and set the coins per completed survey.
Why Matter instead of Google Forms?
Delivery inside Slack or Teams, anonymity by default, a validated question library, scoring and trends, and coins for completion. Why pulse surveys versus Google Forms?
Which plans include Pulse Surveys?
The Surveys add on, on any paid plan, and every workspace during the free trial.
Still stuck? Email support@matterapp.com.