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Employee engagement survey questions

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WHAT IS AN EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT SURVEY?

An employee engagement survey is adopted company-wide, involves all employees, and is conducted once a year.

The annual engagement survey is a tried-and-true method of assessing employee engagement throughout a firm. This form of survey is particularly useful for assessing general engagement trends and developing standards to measure subtleties over time.

IN ADDITION TO THE YEARLY EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT SURVEY

Engagement surveys give a thorough picture of an organization’s strengths and prospects, as well as a knowledge of what motivates engagement. While the objective of these surveys has evolved over time, yearly engagement surveys remain a crucial first step in developing a continuous listening strategy.

Surveying workers on essential workplace problems, in addition to providing them a voice, may make them feel like they are a significant part of the greater company makeup and mission.

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ELEMENTS OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT SURVEY

  1. They are strictly confidential.

It makes sense to collect attributed feedback with some staff questionnaires. Comprehensive employee engagement surveys, on the other hand, should preserve individual employees’ identities while still aggregating data for a comprehensive, company-wide perspective. When these surveys are kept anonymous, your staff are more likely to react openly and honestly, increasing our response rate.

  1. They are used as a teaching tool.

It is not always easy to identify and address problems inside your firm. Employers may use engagement surveys to gain insight into what is engaging (and disengaging) people so they can make educated decisions about how to proceed.

  1. They are exhaustive.

Employee engagement surveys should assess all aspects of employee engagement, including job, team, and organizational engagement.

  1. They provide employees with a voice.

Giving employees a voice is a critical component of increasing employee engagement. Every employee has the chance to offer their thoughts and be heard by managers and leaders through surveys.

  1. They are distinctive to our company.

When feasible, employee engagement surveys should be tailored to include questions that are specific to our organization’s needs. In a fast-growing business, for example, you may include questions regarding change management. This guarantees that our data is valuable and relevant.

  1. They are also practical.

Employee input may be sent, completed, collected, and analyzed considerably more easily via surveys. With the addition of user-friendly survey technology, our feedback efforts will be greatly aided.

  1. They are also actionable.

Taking action on employee input is one of the most critical aspects of assessing them. Engagement surveys give the data required to identify what areas need to be addressed in order to enhance engagement over time.

  1. They promote accountability.

Employee engagement surveys assist firms in holding their employees accountable for their overall engagement and achievement. Everyone has a role to play in increasing engagement, and employees at all levels can help us succeed.

  1. They create benchmarks.

Creating a point of reference for firms to gauge performance may aid in improving engagement year after year and in comparison, to rivals in the industry.

WHAT DOES AN EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT SURVEY MEASURE?

Everyone in a company contributes to engagement. However, not everyone is equally engaged or driven.

Measuring employee engagement allows you to acquire insight into employee perceptions of organizational accomplishments and areas for growth. Using key engagement factors allows HR directors to simplify where they should focus their efforts.

The e9 model is one measuring concept that examines the intensity of employee engagement at three different structural levels:

  • Employees’ commitment to their jobs.
  • Employees’ level of commitment to their team.
  • Employees’ level of commitment to their organization.
  • NEED FOR EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT SURVEYAn employee engagement survey is an essential component of your entire employee listening strategy. It is practically difficult for any employer to sit down and have a one-on-one talk with every employee. Our employee engagement survey is a simple means for workers to communicate with leaders and express their views and opinions about their work experience.Employee engagement surveys (and the insights and tactics derived from them) also have a significant influence on corporate performance. An engagement survey may help us with the following by providing trending data, market benchmarking, and extensive reporting:
    • Recognize our company’s strong points.
    • Make it clear where we need to improve.
    • Give every employee a voice 
    • Assist in bridging the gap between employee engagement and our bottom line.
    • Increase employee trust
    • Contrast and compare various employees’ groups
    • Motivate meaningful action and make better decisions.
    • Controlling Constant Change
    • Assist us in developing a competitive culture.

    WHO SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT SURVEY?

    Organizations that are new to employee engagement surveys sometimes question who they should solicit input from. The answer is simple: every employee’s opinion counts.

    Every employee, regardless of age, tenure, position, or any other demographic, contributes to our united workforce, and their degree of participation has a direct influence on our organization’s overall performance. We risk the following if we do not poll everyone:

    Inaccurate outcomes

    Only surveying a portion of our employee base will provide us with a limited understanding of what motivates employee engagement. We’ll squander time and energy gathering insufficient data and devising subpar engagement methods.

    Engagement has declined

    If we don’t offer everyone a chance to provide input, we may actually reduce involvement. We’re giving the message that not all feedback is valued—and as a result of the feedback, we could implement new methods that are only of interest to a select few rather than the whole population.

    TYPES OF EMPLOYEE SURVEY

    Traditional employee engagement surveys may only be conducted once a year, but they should not be the only means to get employee input. The following are the most prevalent forms of employee surveys:

    Surveys of broad participation

    A company-wide survey that assesses and evaluates employee engagement levels across the organization.

    Pulse survey

    Pulse surveys are quick and easy to do, and they may be on any topic and sent to any audience at any time.

    Lifecycle assessments

    These include onboarding, new hire, and departure surveys, which assess an employee’s engagement over the course of their employment.

STEPS TO CONDUCT EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT SURVEY

1. Recognize our Current Position

Before we do anything else, it’s critical to understand where we are now in terms of engagement.
We may do so by gathering employee input by asking a few easy questions, such as: 

    • How engaged do you think you are on a scale of 1 to 10?
    • What is the one thing you would alter about your employment if you could?
    • Would you change jobs for a bigger salary?

Such queries may not provide concrete answers right immediately, but they are a start.

We may assess the overall attitudes of our staff by gathering basic data, and then work from there to define clear objectives.

  1. Obtain Feedback from Senior Management

In addition to directly questioning employees, consult with senior and departmental managers about the level of participation.
Furthermore, include them in the entire process of determining how to boost employee engagement.

  1. Establish a Goal

With a basic sense of where our firm stands now, collaborate with the management to define clear objectives and explain what we hope to achieve by conducting the employee engagement survey.

Among the possible goals are:

    • Determine how to raise employee engagement levels within the company.
    • Look for measures to improve staff retention.
    • Improve two-way communication between employees and their supervisors (s)
    • Determine how to change a poisonous corporate culture.
    • Learn how to raise employee’s Net Promoter Score® (eNPS®)

Set a specific aim or two for our survey based on where we are now and what our main barriers are.

  1. Make a list of important questions to ask each time.

Create a list of both closed-ended and open-ended questions to ask staff at regular intervals while keeping our objectives in mind.

These might be about anything, from workplace culture to personal development chances.

Don’t just throw in any old question. Instead, include the ones that can truly assist you in obtaining the info we want to attain our objectives.

  1. Find a Way to Conduct the Survey and Disseminate the Results

How do we intend to distribute the employee engagement survey? Annual polls are still widely used. However, an increasing number of businesses are choosing to use “pulsing” instead.

In a nutshell, pulse surveys are rapid and extremely brief surveys consisting of single questions that might offer us current and relevant data.

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EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT SURVEY QUESTIONS

  1. On a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied are you with your job?

To get employee engagement correct, start with this question and ask it on a frequent basis. It is, without a doubt, the most direct question to ask employees about job happiness. Finding out where our company’s morale is on a 10-point scale on a regular basis helps us to track it over time. Consistency, on the other hand, is essential.

  1. Would you recommend someone for employment here?

The chance of an employee suggesting someone reflects the individual’s level of work satisfaction. If they’re dissatisfied with their employment, we can guarantee they don’t have many positive things to say about the firm to their friends.

  1. Do you know where you want to go in your job or how you want to advance?

According to a Gallup study, employees who are given the opportunity to grow are twice as likely to say they will spend their whole career with their employer. Determine whether our employees have a clear knowledge of what is expected of them. If their answers are skewed, we’ll need to start giving growth chances to keep employees from departing all at once.

  1. How would you grade your work-life balance on a scale of 1 to 10?

Employees must strike a balance between work and personal life in order to stay productive and interested. If staff are feeling unbalanced, this is a clear indicator that burnout is on the way.

  1. What would be your hypothetical reason for quitting tomorrow?

This inquiry can reveal issues such as poor communication, a lack of openness, and a sense of being undervalued. Responses to this ultra-insightful engagement question will tell you if our workers believe they’re here to stay—or whether there are underlying concerns prompting them to hunt for jobs elsewhere.

  1. Are you happy with the benefits you’re getting?

Employee incentives have a significant impact on overall work satisfaction levels. They also aid in attracting new employees to the organization. Ask your employees if they are content with the advantages they are receiving to ensure that we are keeping up with our rivals.

  1. Do you believe you are valued at work?

According to our research, only 21% of employees feel highly appreciated at work. Use this question to determine how valuable our organization’s employees are.

  1. How frequently do you receive praise from your boss?

Find out how the leadership team is performing when it comes to employee recognition. If the majority of employees have stated that they have gone more than two weeks without being recognized, morale is likely to be low. As a result, disengagement, loss of productivity, attrition, and, of course, a decline in total work performance might occur.

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9. Did you receive any acknowledgment the last time you completed a large project?

Feeling appreciated at work is a powerful incentive. This question will assist in determining if leaders (or peers) have missed the mark when it comes to acknowledgment. If workers do not believe their hard work is sufficiently appreciated, we can collaborate to develop a solution.

  1. Do you think you’ll be able to maximize your potential here?

Employees want to work in an environment that fosters their drive for advancement. The more prospects for advancement your company can provide, the longer workers will stay.

  1. Would you reapply for your current job if given the opportunity?

This is a difficult question. The more satisfied a person is with their existing employment, the more likely they are to reapply for the same position. As a result, if an employee rates on the lower end of the scale, they are most likely dissatisfied and will not stay on the job for long.

  1. Do you envision yourself working here in a year’s time?

This is a rather self-explanatory question. It can, however, reveal a lot about your retention rate. If the majority of our staff say they don’t picture themselves working there in a year, it’s time to make some adjustments.

  1. Do you believe the management staff here is open and honest?

According to prior study, transparency is the most important characteristic that correlates to workplace pleasure. In our 2019 Employee Engagement Report, however, we discovered that just 22% of employees thought their management was highly transparent, despite the fact that nearly twice as many managers felt themselves to be so.

  1. How would you define our culture in three words?

Find out what our workers think about our culture—whether it’s fun, aggressive, or supportive. Use the findings to identify strategies to build and improve our culture to better meet the demands of our employees.

  1. Do you enjoy your job?

Employees put in a lot of time at work. Find out if our workers believe our company’s culture is worth waking up to every day. 

BEST PRACTICES TO WRITE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT QUESTIONS

  1. More questions: The purpose of these surveys is to listen to and learn from our staff. While certain questions will need additional contextual information, asking more closed-ended questions provides us with more feedback and data to draw upon. Additionally, surveying our staff more regularly allows us to remain on top of any shifts in perceptions.
  2. Keep the Questions Simple: If a question looks to be too long or confusing, divide it into several questions to receive better and more clear replies. This is very useful for obtaining more segmented analytics information.
  3. Open-Ended vs. Closed-Ended Questions: When writing employee engagement survey questions, we must strike a careful balance between open-ended and closed-ended questions.Closed-ended questions can provide quantitative feedback, but open-ended questions can provide qualitative input. As a result, it is critical to include both sorts of questions in order to obtain a well-rounded evaluation of our employee engagement.
  4. Take Survey for a Spin: Once we’ve developed our survey with pertinent questions, send it to our colleagues or friends to get feedback on the questions. Check that all of our survey logic is working and that our response options are comprehensible.

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4. LIKERT SCALE QUESTIONS

The Likert scale is a 5- or 7-point scale used to assess a respondent’s level of agreement with a statement or the intensity of their reaction to something.

The scale grows symmetrically, with the median number (e.g., a ‘3’ on a 5-point scale) representing a point of neutrality, the lowest number (always a ‘1’) representing an extreme opinion, and the highest number (e.g., a ‘5’ on a 5-point scale) representing the opposing extreme position.

Likert-type question examples:

  • How strongly do you agree with the following statement: [company’s] payment method is easy and straightforward?

1 – Strongly disagree

2 – Somewhat disagree

3 – Neither agree nor disagree

4 – Somewhat agree

5 – Strongly agree

  • How satisfied were you with your customer service experience?

1 – Very dissatisfied

2 – Somewhat dissatisfied

3 – Slightly dissatisfied

4 – Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

5 – Slightly satisfied

6 – Somewhat satisfied

7 – Very satisfied

When should we utilize Likert scale questions?

Because the responses are provided in a set sequence, Likert-type questions are also known as ordinal questions. Likert scale questions, like other multiple-choice questions, are useful when we already know what our clients are thinking. For example, if our open-ended questions reveal a complaint about a recent modification to your ordering procedure, we may utilize a Likert scale question to evaluate how the average user felt about the change.

5. RATING-SCALE QUESTIONS

Rating scale questions have responses that correspond to a number scale (such as rating customer support on a scale of 1-5, or likelihood to recommend a product from 0 to 10).

Rating questions include the following:

  • On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to suggest us to a friend or colleague?
  • On a scale of 1 to 5, how would you rank our customer service?

When should we utilize rating questions?

A rating question is the way to go whenever we want to offer a numerical value to our survey and/or examine and compare patterns.

A common rating question is used to calculate Net Promoter Score® (NPS®): the question asks consumers to assess their probability of suggesting items or services to their friends or colleagues, and the findings allow us to look at the results historically to see if we’re improving or worsening. Customer satisfaction surveys and product reviews (such as Amazon’s five-star product ratings) also employ rating questions.

6. ‘YES’ OR ‘NO’ QUESTIONS

These are easy questions that demand a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response.

Yes/No questions include the following:

  • Was this article beneficial? (Yes/No)
  • Were you able to locate what you were searching for today? (Yes/No)

When should we use ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions?

  • Using ‘yes’ and ‘no’ questions, we can easily categorize our replies. Assume we’re seeking to figure out what hurdles or objections are preventing individuals from trying our product. We may put a poll on our price page, ask folks if anything is holding them back, and then follow up with the part that said ‘NO’ by asking them to clarify.
  • These inquiries are also excellent for getting our foot in the door. When we ask a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question, the response takes relatively little effort. When a person commits to answering the first question, they are more likely to answer the subsequent ones.

WORDINGS OF QUESTION

The words and phrases used in a question are crucial in conveying the meaning and aim of the question to the respondent and ensuring that all respondents read the question in the same manner. Even little language adjustments can have a significant impact on the responses individuals offer.

A large amount of study has been conducted to assess the impact of different ways of asking questions and how to minimize disparities in how respondents understand what is being asked. The challenges surrounding question phrasing are extensive and cannot be completely addressed in this small space, but here are a few key points to consider:

To begin, it is critical to ask clear and detailed questions that each respondent will be able to answer. If a question is open-ended, responders should be aware that they can react on their own terms and what sort of response they should offer (an issue or problem, a month, number of days, etc.). Closed-ended questions should allow for all acceptable replies (i.e., the list of alternatives should be exhaustive), and the response categories should not overlap (i.e., response options should be mutually exclusive).

It’s also a good idea to limit yourself to one question at a time. Questions that ask respondents to evaluate more than one concept (known as double-barreled questions) – such as “How much confidence do you have in President Obama to handle domestic and foreign policy?” – are difficult for respondents to answer and frequently result in difficult-to-interpret responses. It would be more effective in this case to ask two separate questions, one about domestic policy and one about foreign policy.

Net Promoter®, NPS®, NPS Prism®, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld. Net Promoter Score℠ and Net Promoter System℠ are service marks of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.

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