NHS People Pulse

Listening and responding to our NHS people is as important as ever.

The People Pulse is a national online pulse survey, developed for all provider and commissioner organisations, to support local listening and engagement activities. Results provide a regular national, regional and local view of employee experience and wellbeing.

The survey continues to allow us to explore various aspects of experience and sentiment of our NHS people. It takes only five minutes to complete and asks employees how supported, informed, motivated or anxious they may feel, and what support would make the biggest difference to their experience at work. Results from the People Pulse inform local and national actions to improve the experiences of our people and patients.

The People Pulse is running at a monthly frequency. It is sponsored by NHS England therefore organisations can benefit from using this tool for free.

The People Pulse can be used as a method of data collection for the National Quarterly Pulse Survey which organisations are expected to implement in July 2021.

Organisations can express their interest in taking part in the People Pulse by contacting the Staff Experience and Engagement team via email england.peoplepulse@nhs.net

Benefits of People Pulse

  • Free to use – NHS England currently sponsors this programme and use of the survey platform and will aim to continue this support beyond 2021/22.
  • The monthly Pulse survey is voluntary and offers full anonymity – it is accessed via a universal link where respondents self-select their employer and can opt out of demographic information.
  • The Pulse survey can be used by trusts to meet the quarterly staff survey data requirement from July 2021
  • Low burden and easy to implement – all maintenance and design of the survey is handled centrally, and organisations only need to promote the survey on a regular basis; we provide a suite of images and templates to support local communication teams.
  • Quick to complete – the set of questions is designed to take five minutes to complete.
  • Almost instant results – available within four working days from close of each survey wave; organisations get access to their own reporting dashboard.
  • Access to raw data – each organisation has access to both a reporting dashboard and the raw data to allow deeper analysis from July 2021.
  • Benchmarking – each organisation can compare their results against NHS average.
  • Created in collaboration with colleagues from NHS organisations – a number of colleagues from both provider and commissioning organisations contribute to the design of the platform and questions.

Case studies