Please check, and feel free to remove, add or amend any text and placeholders (shown in brackets) to best suit your organisation and survey context. Shaded boxes are customisation guidance for you — delete all guidance notes before sending.

Email Template

Opening: Tailor the “why” to your organisation's strategic commitments, using your own language — e.g. “successfully supporting our people through change” if you've just restructured or are navigating transformation, or your "commitment to fostering a safe and thriving workplace" if assessing psychosocial hazards or engagement. Grounding it in your organisation's own language and genuine commitments lands far better than using generic language or simply stating obligations like WHS Regulations or reporting requirements.

1. The survey opens [date] and closes [date]. It takes about [5–10] minutes to complete using Teamgage, an independent survey provider.
2. You'll receive your link directly from Teamgage via [email/SMS/MS Teams etc.].
3. All employees are welcome to take time out from their work to complete it during work hours.

The essentials: Confirm the actual completion time with Teamgage and be honest about it. State the delivery channel precisely — and if part of your workforce has no regular email access (frontline, shift, field workers), add a line on how they'll receive their link (SMS, QR posters, kiosk time). “During work hours” is a small line with a big effect on response rates — keep it, and make sure supervisors know to allow it.

What happens next: Only commit to a results date you can hit — then hit it. Belief that something will happen with the results is the single biggest driver of honest participation, and the fastest way to destroy it is silence after close.

Also include the following paragraph only if you plan on using Teamgage Conversations to follow up on comments made

If using Teamgage Conversations: we recommend briefing everyone about how Conversations works ahead of the Survey — a clumsy first reply (“who is this about?”) can undo the trust the email built. The recommended paragraph above does two jobs: it pre-warns people so a follow-up message doesn't feel like they've been identified, and it explains the mechanic that makes “anonymous conversation” possible (replies are routed through the platform, so identity is never revealed). 

Support & contact: We recommend including details for your EAP for a survey that included psychosocial diagnostics or wellbeing questions, especially if it invites people to reflect on stress, conflict and demands, so a support pointer both covers duty of care and signals the topic is taken seriously. Include the EAP name and phone number in full, not a link to the intranet.

The survey contact should be a named person who has been briefed on the anonymity setup (including how Conversations works, if used) and can answer any questions confidently and accurately.

Sign-off: Send this from a named senior leader — CEO, Managing Director, or equivalent — from their own mailbox, not a generic HR or comms address. Visible leadership sponsorship matters because it signals the organisation genuinely wants to hear about workload, stress and support, and is prepared to act. If the CEO can't send it, the most senior operational leader for the group being surveyed is the next best option.

Additional Tips

Video recording: If possible, we also recommend that the leader also records a short (60–90 second) video saying the same things — and communicating survey intent and details using multiple channels - this lifts participation, particularly in dispersed or frontline workforces.

Timing: Send this email 3–7 days before the survey opens. Any earlier and it's forgotten; any later and rumours fill the gap. Brief managers before this email lands so they can answer questions consistently rather than speculate.

Pre-send checklist

1. Sender is a named senior leader, sending from their own address
2. Managers briefed before the email goes out
3. Completion time and delivery channel confirmed with Teamgage
4. Decision made on Teamgage Conversations — paragraph included or removed, and responders briefed on tone
5. Results share-back date is realistic and diarised
6. Plan in place for staff without email access
7. All guidance notes and this checklist deleted before sending