If you’re not careful about designing your employee survey questions, you won’t get the results you want.
A quarter of managers see employee surveys as a “checkbox” exercise. Over a fifth don’t even review survey results, and more than half review results but don’t take action.
Is it any wonder then that employees see feedback surveys as a waste of time?
But if you act on the results of a survey, it can make a huge difference to everything from employee engagement to retention to productivity.
So let’s take a deeper dive into employee survey questions and why surveys matter.
Why employee surveys matter
Feedback is an important part of growth for us as people.
It’s also important for any business to grow and succeed in both the short- and long-term.
If your business has a productivity problem, how can you identify the cause if you don’t ask the people working within your business every day?
Employees need to feel like they have a voice inside of your organization, otherwise you risk them becoming disengaged.
Every employee wants to feel like their employer cares about them. Asking for their opinions and feelings on a situation with thoughtful employee survey questions is a surefire way to make them feel valued.
Should you ask questions anonymously?
It doesn’t matter what your company culture is. People are more likely to be honest if they feel safe and secure.
When criticizing their employer, people are naturally going to feel nervous.
But no employer is perfect; there are always going to be issues employees want to raise but may not feel comfortable doing so with their name or face attached.
Anonymity provides protection from fear of punishment or penalization if they say something negative.
It also shows employees you really do value their feedback because it’s not about being able to check off who’s done the survey. It’s about collecting valuable information to help your business improve.
In addition, there’s always the possibility that people will respond to employee survey questions differently if their name, gender, race, religion, sexuality, disability status, or other protected characteristic is attached.
This unconscious bias happens in almost every business, so offering anonymity helps avoid this while still giving you the information you need.
Types of employee survey questions
To get the most useful results, it helps to ask both closed- and open-ended employee survey questions. That way, you get a balance of qualitative and quantitative data.
You can then compare the quantitative information in charts and graphs to show both internal and external stakeholders.
The quotes you collect from open-ended employee survey questions, meanwhile, provide you with vital information on what your employees would like to see change.
Closed questions
Closed employee survey questions don’t provide much depth, but they can give you breadth.
They don’t have to be yes/no, but the information provided should be quantifiable in some way, whether that’s numerically, on a scale, or something else.
Here are some examples of closed questions you could ask in your employee feedback survey:
- Do you feel able to speak up if there’s a problem?
- Are you happy in your job?
- How long have you worked for the company?
- Do you feel valued at work?
- Do you receive company updates in a timely fashion?
- Do you find your work meaningful?
- Are your responsibilities clearly defined?
- Do you feel management is transparent?
- Do you feel your thoughts and opinions are taken seriously?
- Do you see opportunities for personal and professional advancement?
- Do you feel supported at work?
- What training and support options would you like to see (e.g. coaching, mentoring, etc.)?
- Are you happy with your benefits and pay?
- Do you feel connected to the company’s mission?
- Are you aware of the company’s purpose and does it resonate with you?
- Do you get along with your colleagues?
- Are you comfortable sharing your thoughts and opinions?
- Do you feel you can be yourself at work?
- Do you feel respected?
Open questions
Open employee survey questions are where you get your juicy information from. This is where you can find out what your employees really think and what they want from you.
It’s these types of questions where anonymous reporting can be beneficial. Employees will feel more able to share examples or information that they may not feel comfortable sharing with their name attached out of fear of reprisals.
Here are some examples of open employee survey questions you could ask in your employee feedback survey:
- What’s your favorite thing about working here?
- What’s your least favorite thing?
- How do you feel about your team?
- What could we do differently/better?
- How can we support you in your role?
- If you were CEO, what would you do differently?
- How do you describe the company when talking to friends or family?
- How would you describe the relationship between you and your manager?
- How would you describe your work environment?
- What does an ideal work environment look like to you?
Conclusion
The only way that employees will believe that surveys are more than checkbox exercises is when businesses start implementing real change based on the feedback provided in response to employee survey questions.
That starts, of course, with managers and HR actually reading the results.
While this can be a slow process, there are tools out there that can streamline it so that you spend less time analyzing and more time implementing.
Asking employees what they really think helps improve your retention rates by giving you the chance to address problems before they take over. This gives you important opportunities to support your employees and make changes that improve your company culture, employee engagement, and job satisfaction.
As a result, employees will provide a better quality of customer service and are more likely to recommend your business to their network when you’re hiring.
If you’d like to automate the process of sending and analyzing your employee surveys, get in touch to book your free Workrowd demo. Visit us online or reach out directly at hello@workrowd.com.
