If you want to gain honest and helpful insights from your employees, you have to ask them the right questions. Furthermore, those questions must be relevant and asked in a manner that encourages workers to share their thoughts openly.
Which questions should you ask? That’s a difficult question to answer. The right questions can change depending on the circumstances your organization has recently experienced. For example, it would be difficult to imagine that any useful employee survey would ignore the pandemic. Two years ago, that wasn’t the case.
Before composing your questions, consider major events, organizational changes, and other issues that may directly or indirectly impact your employees. Then determine how you can best approach these topics in your survey.
With that being said, certain questions are almost always a good idea to include in your survey. This article will look at some smart questions to ask and tips on writing survey questions that get the most helpful responses.
Survey Question Tips
It’s not just what you ask; it’s how you ask it. Follow these guidelines to write questions that encourage employees to provide honest and insightful answers:
- Address only one item per question
- Write questions for readability and brevity
- Use specific questions to get specific answers
- Avoid hinting or pressuring employees to provide a particular answer
Create engaging surveys that include a variety of answer formats. An employee survey with nothing but pages of multiple-choice questions is mind-numbing. Alternatively, one that expects the subject to write a paragraph for every question is exhausting.
25 Great Questions for Employee Surveys
Here are 25 examples of key questions you should consider adding to your next survey.
Questions About Management and Leadership
Some of the most valuable information you can gather from your team relates to their thoughts on leadership within your organization. Questions in this vein include:
- Does your direct supervisor acknowledge your contributions in meaningful ways?
- Are you given concrete opportunities to work towards your professional goals?
- Can you give honest feedback to your supervisor?
- How can management improve communication?
- Do you feel as though management is on the same page?
Remember that people quit managers, not jobs. It’s important to know when leadership is falling short.
Questions About Growth Opportunities and Job Satisfaction
Are your employees happy with the progress they are making in their jobs? Can they envision a future with your company? It’s important to understand how they perceive opportunities available to them and understand what their goals are. Questions in this vein include:
- Are you pursuing education or training now, or do you plan to shortly?
- What are your top three career goals?
- Have you actively searched for another job in the past year?
- Which work-related achievement this past year made you proudest?
- What kind of training would you like to receive on the job?
- Do you find your work to be challenging and interesting?
Employee retention depends on workers feeling challenged, engaged, and poised for personal growth.
Questions About Engagement and Reputation
People want to work for an organization they respect and in a culture that is a good fit for them. These questions will help you learn how your workers feel about your company’s mission, ethics, and loyalty. Questions in this vein include:
- Other than compensation, what led you to apply here?
- If you were to leave the company, what would your primary reason be?
- Has management failed to be transparent in any way?
- List our top three organizational values
- Would you encourage a friend to apply here?
Engaged employees who believe their employers are trustworthy and ethical are more productive, more likely to remain on the job, and better able to advocate for your employer brand.
Questions About Work Environment and Culture
Are you delivering the kind of work environment and company culture that keeps your team motivated and productive? When people enjoy coming to work and spending time with coworkers, they are willing to go the extra mile for you. Questions in this vein include:
- What is a workplace perk that you would like to see us implement?
- List three things about the work environment that frustrate you?
- Would you socialize with your coworkers outside work functions?
- Describe a time when you had fun at work
- Do you feel supported by your immediate team members?
Culture analytics are invaluable in understanding what steps you need to take to attract and retain the best workers.
Questions About Motivation
It’s more important than ever to understand what motivates your employees. As many workers are now fully or partially remote, these questions are even more relevant. Questions in this vein include:
- What was the most meaningful recognition you received in the past year?
- Do you feel merit is the key factor in your ability to advance in the organization?
- How can we do a better job of motivating you?
The answers to these questions can help you determine whether your workers feel as though their efforts are appreciated.
A Question About Confidence
Do your employees have faith in your organization? Are they concerned about the ability of your company to survive upcoming changes and challenges?
- How confident are you that this organization will be thriving in 5 years, ten years, or twenty years?
If something has created a sense of impending doom, you need to find that out. Sometimes, this is caused by a lack of communication and transparency. When you aren’t sharing successes with your team, they could be filling in the blanks with fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
