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Create a pulse

A pulse is a short survey that collects employee feedback on one or more aspects of the employee experience. Pulses typically contain a small number of questions and help organizations regularly measure employee sentiment and identify areas that may need attention.

Admins and survey managers can create a pulse.

1. Open pulse

Navigate to Apps > Butterfly EI > Pulse.

  1. Click Create your first Pulse.

⚠️ Warning: If you navigate away from the creation page before submitting the pulse, your entries are not saved.

Creating pulse involves four steps: Audience, Frequency, Drivers and Questions, Driver Order & Sub-Drivers, and General Settings.

2. Define the audience

  1. In the “Audience” step, select the team or teams you want to send the survey to.
    You can select only teams under your management.
  2. (Optional) Enable Select all Future Sub Teams to automatically include newly added subteams under the selected teams in future surveys.
  3. Click Next.

ℹ️Additional information:

  • If “Select all Future Sub Teams” is disabled, newly added subteams are not included unless you update the audience selection.
  • If employees are synced from Engagedly to Butterfly, they automatically appear in the audience list.
  • The default hierarchy in the audience list is Business Unit → Department → Team. The manager's name does not appear directly in the hierarchy. Instead, each team contains a smaller team named after the manager. You can request a change to this hierarchy through your sales or support contact.

3. Set frequency

  1. In the “Frequency” step, select how often the survey repeats and the day it goes out.
  2. Select the Starting on. This sets the date from which the schedule is applied.
  3. Select the time the survey goes out. The time is based on your audience's time zone.
  4. Select how many days the survey stays open.
  5. Click Next.

 

📒Note: The first survey is sent on the first scheduled day on or after the “Starting on” date.

Example: If you select Weekly on Friday and set Starting on to September 9, 2026, the first survey is sent on September 11, 2026, the first Friday on or after the selected date.

After you set these values, the system automatically calculates and displays the date of the next survey and its closing date.

4. Select drivers and questions

  1. In the "Drivers and Questions" step, open the drop-down and select Your Manager/s or your organization name. Regardless of what you select, both managers and admins can view responses. But managers can view responses of their team members, including everyone in their management hierarchy.
  2. Review the trigger question. Employees answer this using a mood rating scale.
  3. Select up to five drivers from the list.
  4. For each selected driver, select one or more questions from the list on the right. If you select multiple questions, they rotate across future surveys.
  5. (Optional) Click Suggest a new Question, enter the question in the text box, and click Send.
  6. Select Yes or No for "Display neutral label and numbers in rating questions."
  7. Click Next.

ℹ️Additional information:

  • You can select a maximum of 5 drivers per pulse survey. However, you can select any number of questions.
  • The Butterfly team receives an email notification with your suggested question. They review the suggestion and may include it in a future update if they determine that it is relevant and useful.
  • Enabling "Display neutral label and numbers in rating questions” adds a “Neutral” label below the midpoint rating and shows numbers (1–10) inside the rating stars.

5. Configure driver order and sub-drivers

  1. In the "Driver Order & Sub-Drivers" step, drag and drop the drivers under Driver Order to set the order they appear in the survey.
  2. For each driver, select its sub-drivers. You must pick a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 5 sub-drivers per driver.
  3. (Optional) Click Suggest a new Sub-Driver, enter the option in the text box, and click Send.
  4. Select Only One or Multiple for "How many sub-drivers are people able to select". This determines whether respondents can select one or multiple sub-drivers.
  5. Click Next.

📒Note: Our team receives an email notification with your suggested sub-driver. They review the suggestion and may include it in a future update if they determine that it is relevant and useful.

6. Configure general settings

  1. In the "General Settings" step, enter a title for the pulse. The title is visible only to you.
  2. (Optional) Enter a description. The description is only visible to your team members.
  3. Select Yes or No for "Enable Driver Comments." When enabled, respondents see a comment box after they select Other in the sub-driver list.
  4. Select Yes or No for "Enable General Comments." When enabled, respondents see a comment box at the end of the survey to enter additional comments.
  5. (Optional) If Yes is selected for "Enable General Comments”, select Use custom text for general comment question and enter the text in the text box.
  6. Click Submit to launch the pulse survey.

Create a pulse1

After creating a pulse, manage it as required. For more information, refer to Manage an existing pulse.

Create a pulse variant to use a different version of an existing pulse for specific audiences or requirements. For more information, refer to Set up a pulse variant.

You can preview your pulse to see how respondents interact with it. For more information, refer to Preview your pulse.