A Penny for Your Thoughts: Monetary Incentives Improve Response Rates for Company-Sponsored Employee Surveys

Two studies were conducted to assess the extent to which prepaid monetary incentives increase response rates to company-sponsored employee surveys. The first study indicated that providing a prepaid monetary incentive to a randomly selected group of employees from among a sample of 7,268 employees increased response rates from 31.7% to 43.5%. A second study based on 4,925 employees from another company replicated this finding and tested for effects of novelty and incentive size. Although response rates in the second study were significantly higher for employees who received an incentive (24.9%) compared with those who did not receive an incentive (20.8%), no significant effects were found for novelty or incentive size. The implications for using incentives to increase response rates in company-based surveys are discussed.