33 employee feedback survey questions you need to be asking

We have previously discussed the value of surveying employees in 3 ways to a meaningful employee listening program and Recruitment and retention strategies for a better employee experience, and if you really want to know how your organization is doing when it comes to the employee experience, collecting employee feedback is the best way to find out.

And while there are ways to ensure you get the most out of your survey efforts (more on this later), the keys to receiving the most useful feedback are asking the right questions in the first place, providing an easy (and safe) way for employees to respond, and showing that leadership is committed to acting on this feedback in a practical way. 

For this post, let’s focus on asking employees for feedback. What are the “right” questions to ask? We’ve got you covered! We asked around and came up with this list of 33 questions you should consider including in your employee surveys in the New Year and beyond.

Employee survey questions

• Would you recommend this company as a good place to work?
• Do you feel connected to your coworkers?
• Do you feel comfortable asking your manager for help?
• Thinking back to your onboarding experience, how effective do you feel it was in getting you up to speed?
• Do you have access to all the tools and resources you need to effectively do your job?
• What could the company do to improve your work life?
• In a typical week, how often do you feel stressed out?
• On a scale of 1-10, how fulfilled are you?
• How would you rate your work-life balance on a scale of 1-10? 
• Do you feel supported if you need to make use of flexible working opportunities?
• Are you proud to work here? Why?
• Do you feel that the company offers opportunities for development and promotion?
• What challenges are you facing? Is there anything your manager or colleagues could do to help?
• Do you feel like you’re progressing professionally, and if so, how? If not, how can we help?
• How would you rate your level of happiness at work?
• If you were to accept a position at another company tomorrow, what would be your reason(s)? 
• Do you feel comfortable contributing ideas in our workplace?
• How regularly is your manager recognizing your efforts?
• Are you involved in decisions that affect your job?
• Do you feel like the company has set clear goals and expectations for employees?
• Is our company dedicated to fostering diversity and inclusion in the workplace?
• Name two or three things you like best about working here
• Name two or three things you like least about working here
• Does the feedback you receive from your manager help you grow in your position and career?
• Do you trust leadership to lead the organization to success?
• Do you enjoy the work you are doing, and why?
• Are you satisfied with the company’s benefits, excluding your salary?
• When something unexpected comes up in your work, do you know where to seek help?
• In what ways do you feel/not feel like part of a team?
• What kind of events and team-building activities would you be most interested in? 
• When the company makes changes, do you understand why they are done?
• Do you find your work meaningful?
• Is there something you think we should have asked you in this survey that we missed?

Did you miss Attune ’22, which brought together leaders in communication, employee experience, technology, and the science of engagement to help companies create digital experiences that work for all their workers? Don’t fret, you can watch all the amazing sessions and keynotes on demand!

Making employee surveys more useful

We told you we would return to this, so here we are! But we won’t entirely rehash the above-mentioned previous posts on the subject, so we’ll keep this part short. Here are a few ways to jumpstart your survey program to make it the most useful for employees and employers.

Build better surveys

• Make them clear
• Keep them simple and short
• Offer a variety of formats
• Use templates (the Firstup intelligent communication platform can help with this!)
• Avoid coercive/leading questions that make it clear that one of the answers is the “right” one. Example: “How awesome are we?”
• Avoid Yes/No responses when possible
• Target your audience(s)
• Offer opportunities for anonymous answers—and mean it, no looking!
• Have fun!

Empower those close to employees

• Give those closest to colleagues the tools they need to build on existing levels of trust.
• Engage with employee resource groups to target tough questions and discussion guides. 
• Run location-specific or role-specific focus groups.

Commit to action before asking

• Before you ask any questions, be ready to respond to what you get back.
• Communicate the course of action for your findings. 
• Understand that when decisions are made without input from employees, they tend to start holding back their ideas.
• Show employees that you trust them and value transparency.

Ask useful questions, get useful answers

If your company wants to better understand how your employees feel about their work, you need to ask them questions that will give you the “inside track” of how they are doing. In addition, you need to be ready to act on that feedback in a meaningful way. Because companies with a high level of employee engagement are more profitable by a factor of 21%, you must listen and act on input from your team! 

For companies looking to better understand and act on the needs of their employees, the Firstup Analyze dashboard—built into our intelligent communication platform—helps employers to monitor and drive action by showing how your people respond to critical initiatives. Business leaders can generate reports on every aspect of an employee engagement and communications program, from executive summaries to in-depth detail. 

To learn more about Firstup, click the button below for a demo!