What software should I use to measure employee satisfaction and run pulse surveys?

You should use a dedicated **employee engagement / survey platform** that supports both full engagement surveys and lightweight **pulse surveys**, with good analytics and easy deployment. The best choice depends mainly on your company size, budget, and HR tech stack.

Here are strong options, grouped by typical need:

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### If you want a modern, people‑ops‑focused engagement platform

**1. Culture Amp**

- Purpose‑built for **employee engagement, satisfaction, and culture** with strong survey science and benchmarks.[1][5]

- Supports **engagement surveys, pulse checks, lifecycle surveys (onboarding/exit)**, continuous feedback, and analytics for managers.[1][5]

- Best for: Growing companies that want a strategic people‑analytics tool, not just a basic survey app.[1][5]

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### If you want maximum flexibility and advanced analytics

**2. Qualtrics**

- Enterprise‑grade **employee satisfaction and engagement** platform with powerful **analytics and machine learning** to uncover patterns in survey data.[1][8]

- Handles complex survey logic, multiple programs (engagement, eNPS, onboarding, DEI, etc.), and sophisticated dashboards.[1][8]

- Best for: Larger organizations that need **robust, configurable survey capabilities** and have some internal analytical capacity.[1]

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### If you want a strong brand + benchmarking and certification

**3. Great Place To Work (Trust Index Survey)**

- Employee survey software focused on the **full employee experience**, not just engagement.[2]

- Measures **trust, leadership, fairness, recognition, and consistency of the employee experience** via their proprietary **Trust Index**.[2]

- Platform supports **engagement surveys, pulse checks, onboarding feedback**, and other internal assessments, with benchmarking against their dataset.[2]

- Best for: Organizations interested in **culture branding / employer-of-choice recognition** plus solid survey insights.

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### If you want something simple and HR‑friendly (including pulse surveys)

**4. SmartSurvey (Employee Surveys)**

- Easy‑to‑use survey tool with templates to measure **staff engagement and satisfaction**, run **pulse surveys, 360 feedback, polls**, and more.[4]

- Designed so HR can quickly create surveys, collect data in real time, and track trends over time.[4]

- Emphasizes **frequent pulse surveys + deeper satisfaction surveys** to catch issues early.[4]

- Best for: Small to mid‑size organizations wanting **straightforward, cost‑effective employee and pulse surveys** without a big implementation.

**5. SurveyMonkey**

- General survey tool with ready‑made **employee engagement, satisfaction, and eNPS templates**.[6]

- Supports recurring **pulse surveys** to track sentiment over time and evaluate impact of changes.[6]

- Best for: Very small organizations or teams needing a **quick, low‑barrier** way to start gathering employee feedback.

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### If you want surveys built into your HR or people‑management system

**6. Lattice**

- Combines **engagement surveys**, pulse checks, **continuous feedback, goals (OKRs), and performance reviews** in one platform.[1]

- Good if you want to tie survey feedback to performance and development conversations.[1]

- Best for: Organizations already using or planning to use Lattice for performance management.

**7. Paycom Surveys**

- Survey module inside the **Paycom HR/payroll suite**.[3]

- Offers **48+ templates** (culture, satisfaction, safety, leadership, benefits, onboarding, etc.) with automation, conditional logic, and trend reporting.[3]

- Best for: Organizations already on Paycom that want **employee satisfaction and pulse surveys in the same system** as HR data.

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### If you want a curated short list or to compare more tools

- Editorial and HR directories list multiple **employee engagement & pulse survey tools** and compare them on anonymity, delivery channels, and action planning, including options like Culture Amp, Qualtrics, and others.[5][7][8][9]

- These can help if you want to compare **pricing, anonymity options, mobile access, integrations, and manager dashboards** across vendors.

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### How to choose (practical criteria)

When you evaluate tools, focus on:

- **Core capabilities**

- Engagement + **pulse surveys** (recurring, lightweight).

- Templates for satisfaction, eNPS, onboarding, exit, leadership, etc.[3][4][6]

- Anonymous responses and role‑based dashboard access.

- **Analytics & actionability**

- Clear dashboards, trends, and segmentation (by department, tenure, location).

- Text analytics or at least easy comment review.[1][5][8]

- **Deployment & integrations**

- Email/Slack/Teams/mobile channels for high completion rates.[5]

- Integration with your HRIS or HR suite (e.g., Paycom, performance tools like Lattice).[1][3]

- **Fit by size and complexity**

- **Small org or first‑time surveys:** SurveyMonkey or SmartSurvey.

- **Scale‑up / mid‑size with people‑ops team:** Culture Amp or Lattice.

- **Large / complex enterprise:** Qualtrics or Great Place To Work, possibly integrated with an HRIS.

If you share your company size, existing HR tools, and whether you need certification/branding (like “Great Place to Work”), I can narrow this down to 2–3 best‑fit recommendations and suggest an initial pulse‑survey setup.