How to Create an Employee Feedback Survey
One of the best ways to increase employee morale and engagement is to create an employee feedback survey and make improvements based on your findings. Research shows that companies with high employee engagement are often more profitable because of factors including improved productivity, work quality, and employee retention. As an added benefit, any improvements you make to the company culture will likely help you recruit top talent.
Now that you know the benefits of collecting and acting on employee feedback, you’re probably wondering how to get honest responses from your team. Here’s how to create an effective survey.
How to Create Your Employee Survey
It’ helpful to have a mix of written, verbal, anonymous, and non-anonymous surveys. You may want to create several types of employee feedback survey, including:
- Employee Engagement Surveys. These surveys will help you assess how engaged your team members are and how you can improve their work experience.
- Employee Pulse Surveys. These surveys usually cover one topic at a time, such as satisfaction with compensation and benefits; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives; or career advancement opportunities. These surveys are typically short and easy to fill out, meaning you can send them more frequently and see the impact of any changes you made based on previous feedback.
- Exit Interviews. People are prone to give constructive criticism when they’ve handed in their two weeks’ notice. Ask employees for feedback about their roles and work experience before they head out the door.
- Stay Interviews. Unlike exit interviews, stay interviews give you the opportunity to make changes that can keep your employees from quitting. Ask employees about their favorite and least favorite things about their job and working at the company.
- One-on-One Meetings. Have managers conduct regular one-on-one meetings with their direct reports to share feedback, ask for feedback on their role and responsibilities and the company culture, and discuss projects and goals.
How to Make the Most of Your Surveys
Use your employee feedback survey to ask questions about a variety of topics. You may want to cover the company culture, compensation and benefits, professional development initiatives, career advancement opportunities, diversity and inclusion programs, and job responsibilities so you know what your employees want and can make meaningful improvements. In addition to open-ended questions, ask quick-response questions like yes-or-no and scale questions.
Make it clear that constructive criticism is welcome and that employees won’t be penalized for sharing negative feedback. Employees may be less forthcoming in-person, so have some of the written surveys be anonymous.
Sample Employee Feedback Survey Questions
Ready to get started? Here are some sample questions you can use to get actionable feedback.
- How would you describe the company culture? What could be improved?
- How would you rate our professional development initiatives? Are there more resources that would help you achieve your goals?
- Do you think there is a clear and equitable promotion process? If not, what could be better?
- What are your main short- and long-term professional goals? What support and resources would help you reach them faster?
- Do you know the skills and achievements you need to get promoted?
- Do you think people are more collaborative or competitive? What could be done to increase teamwork?
- How would you rate your relationship with your manager? What could be improved?
- What do you like about your role and responsibilities? Are there any responsibilities you’d like to add or remove?
- How would you rate your satisfaction with your compensation and benefits?
- Are there any additional benefits you’d like to have? If so, what would be beneficial?
- What perks and HR policies — such as hybrid work, flextime, and a compressed work week — would improve your work experience?
- How likely are you to look for a new job?
- If you’re currently job searching or considering job searching, what is your main motivation for switching companies?
- How would you rate the leadership team? How could the team improve?
- Do you have a clear understanding of the company’s quarterly goals and current performance?
- How would you rate our diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts? What could be improved?
- Would you recommend our company to a friend? Why or why not?
Continue to Improve Your Company Culture
If you make changes based on what you learn from each employee feedback survey, you’re likely to see improved productivity, work quality, and employee retention. Keep on strengthening your company with hiring and management advice from Monster.