A community can earn high marks from the people who live there and still be quietly losing the employers who keep it running. Both things can be true at the same time. Residents may rate the local economy as healthy because they have a job, a short commute, and shops nearby. Meanwhile, the business owner down the street may be struggling to fill open roles, waiting weeks on a permit, or deciding whether to renew a lease at all.
That gap matters. Most local governments listen closely to residents, and they should. But residents and businesses experience the same community in very different ways. If you only hear from one, you only see half of your local economy.
This is where The National Business Survey (NBS) earns its place next to The National Community Survey (NCS). One captures how people feel about living in your community. The other captures whether your community works as a place to operate, hire, and grow.
The NCS is Polco's flagship resident survey. It measures resident perceptions across ten livability domains, including economy, mobility, safety, education, and community design, using 123 metrics and scientific sampling. On the economy, it tells you how residents view job opportunities, the overall business environment, and economic development where they live.
That view is valuable, and it is real. But it is a resident's view. Residents rate the economy mostly from the outside. They experience it as workers, shoppers, and neighbors. They can tell you whether the community feels prosperous. They usually cannot tell you why a manufacturer cannot find welders, or whether the permitting process is quietly pushing a developer to build one town over.
Employers hold a different set of facts. They know how hard it is to hire for the skills they need. They know whether local regulations and taxes help them or slow them down. They know which roads, utilities, and services their operations depend on every day. And they know whether they plan to expand here, hold steady, or leave.
The NBS is built to surface exactly that. It gathers statistically representative feedback from local businesses across four focus areas:
Because the NBS uses representative sampling across business types, sizes, and sectors, it gives leaders something a single chamber meeting or a handful of loud voices cannot: a defensible read of what the whole business community actually experiences. You can also add custom questions on local issues like permitting satisfaction, workforce housing, broadband, or supply chain, and benchmark your results against a national dataset.
The point is not to choose between residents and businesses. It is to see your community through both lenses at once.
Laguna Beach, California, is a clear example. The city ran the NCS and the NBS in the same year. Residents reported a very high quality of life, with especially strong ratings for economic health. On its face, that looks like an economy in great shape.
The business responses told the rest of the story. Owners rated the community highly overall, but many worried about keeping their businesses running in the future. Limited affordable housing, workplace parking, and affordable childcare made it hard to support a full workforce. Business owners also said the city could do more to retain existing businesses, attract new ones, and support new jobs. Same economy. Two very different vantage points. Only together did they give leaders a full picture to act on.
The complementary value shows up in planning, too. In Cape Coral, Florida, residents flagged the economy as their top priority on the NCS. The city responded with an incentive and grant program to attract and diversify local business. Over the next few years, economy-related ratings on the NCS climbed, with economic health up 14 percent and the quality of local businesses up 21 percent between 2019 and 2021. Resident input pointed to the priority. Business-focused strategy and investment moved the numbers.
When you hear directly and credibly from employers, you can act with more confidence. The NBS is built to support:
Benchmarking adds one more layer. It lets you see whether your business climate is keeping pace with peer communities, and whether the initiatives you launch are actually working over time.
Residents will tell you whether your community is a good place to live. Businesses will tell you whether it is a good place to work, hire, and grow. Both answers shape your budget, your policies, and your economic future. Hearing only one leaves a blind spot you cannot afford.
The National Business Survey and The National Community Survey were built to work together. Used side by side, they turn a partial view of your economy into a complete one.
Ready to hear from every part of your community? Request a demo to see how Polco's benchmark surveys can give you the full picture.