How to improve staff travel survey response rates

A staff travel survey is only useful if enough employees take part.

But getting a good response is not simply a case of sending the survey link to everyone and waiting.

Employees are busy. Some may not immediately see why the survey is relevant to them. Others may intend to complete it and forget. And some groups can be much harder to reach than others.

So how can you improve staff travel survey response rates without making the process complicated?

There are six things worth getting right.

1. Explain why the survey matters

Employees are more likely to complete a survey when they understand why the organisation is asking for their time.

Be specific.

Instead of simply saying:

"We are carrying out a staff travel survey."

Explain what you are trying to understand.

For example:

• How employees currently travel to work.

• Where parking pressures exist.

• How commuting patterns differ between worksites.

• What practical travel alternatives may be available.

• What could make journeys to work easier or more affordable.

• What evidence is needed to support a workplace travel plan.

The wording should also remain neutral.

If employees think the purpose of the survey is simply to persuade them to stop driving, some may decide that it has little relevance to them.

That matters because single-occupancy car drivers may be some of the most important people to hear from.

The objective should be to understand how everybody travels, including where driving remains the most practical option.

2. Tell people how long it will take

One of the easiest ways to remove uncertainty is to tell employees how long the survey should take before they begin.

For example:

"The survey should take around three minutes to complete."

That is much clearer than describing it simply as a “short survey”.

It also helps employees decide whether they have time to complete it now rather than leaving it for later and forgetting.

But the estimate has to be realistic.

If you promise a three-minute survey and employees find themselves working through several pages of detailed questions, you may damage trust rather than increase participation.

Completion time should therefore influence the design of the survey itself.

3. Keep the survey genuinely short and relevant

Every additional question creates friction.

That does not mean removing information you genuinely need. It means being disciplined about what belongs in the core survey.

Before adding a question, ask:

• Do we need this answer?

• Will we actually use it?

• Is it relevant to everyone?

• Could we get the information another way?

• Could we ask it later of a smaller group?

Relevance is especially important.

For example, there may be little value in asking someone with a long-distance commute detailed questions about cycle parking, cycling confidence and changing facilities.

Those questions might be useful later for employees who live within a realistic cycling distance, but asking everybody everything makes the survey longer and can make it feel less relevant.

A better approach is often:

Keep the initial survey short, then use targeted follow-up questions for the employees to whom they actually apply.

That helps reduce respondent effort and can also make the survey feel more genuinely mode-neutral.

4. Make it easy for the whole workforce to take part

Email may work perfectly well for an office-based workforce.

It may work much less well for:

• Shift workers.

• Frontline staff.

• Clinical teams.

• Drivers.

• Manufacturing employees.

• Site-based workers.

• Employees who rarely use a work computer.

Think about where employees actually receive workplace information.

Depending on the organisation, the survey could also be promoted through:

• QR codes.

• Posters.

• Staff intranets.

• Team briefings.

• Internal newsletters.

• Screens in communal areas.

• Line managers or local champions.

The survey window also matters.

If it is only open briefly, employees who work part-time, follow rotating shifts or happen to be on leave may never get a realistic opportunity to participate.

The easier it is to access the survey at a convenient time and on a suitable device, the fewer unnecessary barriers there are to participation.

5. Give respondents something back

This is one of the areas where workplace travel surveys can be improved most.

Traditionally, employees complete a survey and the organisation receives the value.

The employee provides information about their journey, but may receive nothing personally useful in return.

There is no reason it has to work that way.

Employees could receive something directly related to their commute, such as:

• A personal commute plan.

• Information about relevant travel alternatives.

• A comparison of journey time, cost and emissions.

• Details of workplace travel support relevant to them.

Or the incentive may simply be:

• A voucher.

• Entry into a prize draw.

• A larger prize for one or more respondents.

• A team-based incentive.

• A charitable donation linked to participation.

The important question is:

What does the employee get for giving up their time?

A prize draw may encourage someone to complete the survey.

Useful information about their own commute can create a more direct exchange of value.

Whichever approach is used, explain it clearly in the invitation rather than expecting employees to discover the benefit after they start.

6. Monitor participation and use reminders intelligently

Do not wait until the survey closes to discover that participation was lower than expected.

Monitor the response while it is live.

That allows you to ask:

• Are some worksites responding much more strongly than others?

• Are certain teams or workforce groups missing?

• Are desk-based employees responding but frontline staff are not?

• Is another reminder needed?

• Would a different communication channel work better?

  
  

Reminders are useful, but simply sending the same message repeatedly is unlikely to be the most effective approach.

A reminder can reinforce:

• Why the survey matters.

• How long it takes.

• The closing date.

• What employees receive for participating.

Where possible, local managers or workplace champions can also help reach groups that central communications may miss.

The important point is to plan participation rather than assume it will happen.

A high response rate is not always a good response rate

It is tempting to judge a staff travel survey by one number:

the response rate.

But a high percentage does not automatically mean the findings represent the workforce well.

Imagine that employees who already walk, cycle and use public transport are particularly interested in the survey and respond in large numbers.

Meanwhile, many single-occupancy car drivers decide it is not relevant to them and do not participate.

The headline response rate might still look respectable.

The picture of workplace travel may not be.

So the better question is not simply:

How do we get more responses?

It is:

How do we get enough of the workforce to participate to give us a credible picture?

That means making the survey relevant to different types of commuter, keeping the burden low and thinking about who may be missing while the survey is still open.

Make participation part of the survey design

Improving staff travel survey response rates is not really about finding one clever promotional tactic.

It comes from the whole experience.

Employees need to understand:

• Why the survey matters.

• How long it will take.

• Why the questions are relevant.

• How easy it is to participate.

• What they will receive in return.

Then the organisation needs to monitor participation and make sure important parts of the workforce are not being missed.

Get those things right and a stronger response rate is much more likely to follow.

More importantly, you are more likely to end up with a survey that provides a credible picture of how your workforce actually travels.