Employee engagement surveys prompt employees to share their feelings and opinions about a broad range of workplace issues, and they play a central role in any feedback culture. They provide you with a continual flow of ideas for strengthening your organization, almost in real-time.
They’re quick to fill out, provide data that is easy to analyze, and are proven to make workers feel that their point-of-view matters.
But to work well, employee surveys have to be used correctly. Here we’ll walk you through the three main steps to creating and implementing effective employee surveys as part of your continuous performance management strategy. We’ll also provide you with sample questions on important topics, and share a few best practices for getting the most out of your efforts.
Key Takeaways
- Employee engagement surveys are a quick and easy way for managers to gather feedback about a wide range of workplace issues.
- There are six steps to creating a great employment survey.
- First, plan out the process from start to finish.
- Second, decide whether you’ll administer a full engagement survey, do just a quick pulse survey, or implement a new-hire survey.
- Third, write the survey, focusing questions on specific behavior. Write questions in neutral or positive language, verify that the survey is focused on the topic at hand, and ask about actionable issues so you can be sure to follow up in a tangible manner.
- You can ask survey questions about management and company culture, enablement and efficiency, well-being and work-life balance, or growth and purpose.
- There are seven best practices when it comes to employee surveys: use Likert scales instead of “yes” or “no” answers; use multiple choice questions to measure employee preferences; make surveys as short as possible; make sure you have time to make changes based on survey results; consider carefully how often you will send out surveys; announce survey results not too long after the fact; and use performance management software to make the whole process easier.
- Primalogik’s integrated employee survey tool supports easy survey creation and implementation for startups and SMBs. It also helps you analyse survey results and maintain a log for future reference.
Table of Contents
1. Step One: Design a Clear Survey Process
2. Step Two: Choose the Right Type of Survey
3. Step Three: Write the Survey
4. 12 Sample Employee Survey Questions According to Topic
5. Employee Engagement Surveys: 7 Best Practices
6. Primalogik Provides an Integrated Survey Tool
Step One: Design a Clear Survey Process
No matter what the size of your company, you can use an employee engagement survey to gather actionable feedback.
Before you start, plan out a clear workflow process:
- Appoint one staff member to bottom-line the entire process.
- Use software that allows you to quickly create surveys and tally results.
- Synthesize and summarize the results so everyone can easily understand them.
- Decide when and how to share the survey results.
Step Two: Choose the Right Type of Survey
There are three main types of employee engagement surveys. You’ll need to choose the right one for what you need to learn from your staff. Using all three at different times of year can give you a high level of insight into employees’ needs and concerns.
The Full Employee Engagement Survey
This in-depth survey gives you a broad understanding of how employees feel about their company, its policies, and its culture.
The Pulse Survey
This gives you a quick look at how employees feel about a given issue, like a proposed change. Pulse surveys can help you gauge progress on changes you’ve made in response to the feedback you received on an employee engagement survey.
The New-Hire Survey
This one offers a way to learn whether new employees feel supported and confident in their roles and to determine where they might need additional support.
Step Three: Write the Survey
Writing a good survey requires a thoughtful approach. Participants should find the survey easy to understand, and HR leaders should find the data gathered easy to interpret.
To accomplish these two goals, we recommend the following:
Focus survey questions on specific behaviors
Great survey questions ask employees to make observations about their own everyday actions as well as the behaviors of managers and coworkers. Thinking in terms of behaviors rather than abstract ideas will help everyone to be as objective as possible.
Word the questions in neutral or positive language
With neutral or positive questions, you’re less likely to bias the answers, and employees can offer constructive feedback without feeling like they’re being overly critical.
Make sure your survey is clearly focused on the topic at hand
You can create surveys about employee satisfaction that ask about wellness, training, benefits, company culture and more. For best results, choose just one area to focus on per survey. This makes it easier for respondents to give accurate, thoughtful responses, and also makes it easier for you to analyse the data in an efficient, fast manner.
Ask about actionable issues
It’s preferable to ask questions about issues that you know you can act on. Employees will know their input is valued if they see concrete results as follow-up to survey efforts. Remember that the goal of gathering data is to build (or adjust) an actionable employee engagement strategy and adjust your questions accordingly.
12 Sample Employee Survey Questions According to Topic
Not sure where to start? Here is a list of appropriate questions for employee engagement surveys, according to topic. While these are often called survey “questions,” we recommend formatting them as statements to be rated using a Likert scale, or as multiple choice options when asking about specific preferences.
3 Survey Questions About Management and Company Culture
These questions measure the relationship between employees, their direct supervisors, and the broader team. They focus on psychological safety, trust, employee recognition and the quality of communication.
- My manager gives me the freedom to decide how I handle my daily tasks.
- I feel safe speaking up when I disagree with my team.
- I receive meaningful recognition when I produce high-quality work.
3 Survey Questions About Enablement and Efficiency
These questions focus on whether your company is providing the right resources and processes. For SMBs, this is critical for measuring the ROI of their software and tech stack.
- I have the right digital tools to complete my tasks efficiently.
- Our performance management software makes it easier to track my goals.
- Our internal processes are designed to help me work efficiently.
3 Survey Questions About Well-being and Work-Life Balance
These questions identify burnout risks and the effectiveness of your benefits package, which has a big impact on employee retention.
- My current workload allows me to truly disconnect during my off-hours.
- Multiple Choice: Which of these would most improve your well-being: mental health days, flexible focus hours, or enhanced dental/vision coverage?
- Multiple Choice: Which type of compensation matters most to you: vacation, salary, matching contribution, or health insurance?
3 Survey Questions About Growth and Purpose
This pillar measures if employees see a future with the company and if they feel their work actually matters to the bottom line.
- My current role is helping me develop the skills I need for the next stage of my career.
- I am given sufficient time during the week for professional development.
- I am being given the training needed to stay relevant as AI changes my role.
Employee Engagement Surveys: 7 Best Practices
While there is no one right way to implement employee surveys, there are a few things managers can do that generally make survey-taking a success.
1. Use Likert scales instead of “yes” or “no” answers
When measuring employee sentiment, avoid simple “yes” or “no” options. A 5-point Likert scale (using choices like “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree,” for example) shows you exactly how strongly employees feel, giving you numbers you can easily measure and compare over time.
2. Use multiple choice questions for specific preferences
Multiple choice answers give you detailed insight on employee preferences rather than general sentiment, helping you to quickly target specific solutions. For example, you can use multiple choice to let employees choose between different well-being benefits, like flexible hours or health insurance.
3. Make your survey as short as possible
Make your surveys short. Otherwise, employees might just start checking boxes to finish it. A pulse survey should take less than five minutes to complete, while a full employee engagement survey might take fifteen minutes.
4. Give yourself enough time to make changes based on survey results
Make sure you give yourself enough time to implement changes between surveys to show employees that you’re taking their feedback seriously.
5. Manage survey frequency carefully
Make sure you take survey frequency into consideration when managing your planning. You might send a pulse survey each month and a full employee engagement survey once per quarter, for instance.
6. Announce the results in a reasonable timeframe
Sharing the results with employees no more than a week after they come in will create a sense of transparency and will encourage participation in future surveys. Remember that real-time feedback is central to today’s continuous performance management practices, and the most successful surveys are those that lead quickly to relevant changes or announcements.
7. Use performance management software
Using a professional performance management software suite is the easiest and most efficient way to make the most of employee surveys. Linking your engagement results directly to performance metrics allows you to see how employee sentiment impacts productivity and goal achievement. A dedicated survey tool allows you to easily change questions, analyse results, and track changes so you can avoid duplicating surveys or missing key insights.
Primalogik Provides an Integrated Survey Tool
When employees see that surveys can genuinely make their organization an even better place to work, they’ll value the opportunity to take them.At Primalogik, we know that the right performance management software can make creating and maintaining a feedback culture easy. Our dedicated employee survey tool helps you measure employee satisfaction and shape a better workplace experience, whether you are an HR leader, consultant or manager. Use it to analyze survey responses in real-time, so you can identify and address emerging challenges before they impact the team’s morale. Book a demo today!