The Top Engagement Survey Questions You Didn't Know to Ask

Before You Carry out the Employee Engagement Survey

Before you carry out the employee engagement survey, there are a few things you should know.

First of all, don’t limit your survey to just employee feedback. You want to measure how satisfied employees are with their workplace, how well the company culture fits their needs, and whether or not your brand as an employer is viewed favorably.

Second, your surveys will only be effective if they’re well-designed—which means that you need to have a clear understanding of what you want to learn from them before you start asking questions.

Third, every person involved in creating your survey (and everyone who will be distributing it) needs to understand how important it is for everyone involved to be honest about their answers.

 

Top Engagement Survey Questions You Should Ask

After evaluating your objectives for the survey and mapping out a strategy for asking the questions, you should select your questions. Here is a list of eleven potentials we think every HR manager should ask during their engagement survey. 

Communication within the Office

A lot of things go into making sure that employees stay engaged and motivated in their jobs, and one of those things is communication between managers and employees. When managers seek and consider people’s ideas and input, they can make better decisions and encourage innovation that will have a positive impact on employee engagement.

Top-to-down communication, as well as peer-to-peer communication, is an important aspect of ensuring employee engagement in an organization. 

If employees do not talk to one another enough at work, an effective survey should determine the cause of this problem. The survey can also provide an opportunity for employees to comment on their level of communication with managers.

According to a report from McKinsey, it was discovered through improved communication and collaboration, companies can improve the productivity of their workers by up to 25%. Another study found that businesses with more effective communication have a 50% chance of fewer employee turnovers.

 

1. At Work, I Can Offer Feedback And Ideas, And Be Heard

For questions like this, you should use the 5-Point Likert Scale where 1 denotes Strongly Agree and 5 denotes Strongly Disagree. The Gallup report using the Likert Scale showed that 25% of employees strongly agree that their opinions count at work. The report further posited that if this number is doubled, there’s a chance of increasing productivity by 10% and reducing employee turnover by 22%. 

Given the unprecedented nature of change, competition, and stagnant growth in organizations today, managers and leaders have begun to accept that they don’t need to be experts on everything. The more managers understand their limitations, the more likely they are to seek help from their team members. This is why effective managers implement feedback loops to ensure that employees feel involved in decision-making. Employees who feel valued and included tend to be happier and more productive.

 

2. I Have A Best Friend At Work

This can be a Yes or No (Y/N) question. 

Workplace friendships are not only a great way to make work more enjoyable, but they also have a direct impact on the performance of the team. According to a study from Gallup, when employees feel a strong sense of affiliation with their team members, they are more likely to take actions that benefit the business.

The best companies recognize that people want to be friends with their coworkers and company loyalty is built on these friendships. Hence effective team leads allow team members to share their personal stories and encourage them to get to know each other outside of work. They plan activities that will keep people connected, but won’t interfere with their performance outcome.

 

Leadership/Management Style

As a manager, it’s important to be able to convey your organization’s goals and values to your employees. It helps them feel more connected to their work, which leads to increased productivity.

In addition to conveying these goals, leaders also need to help their employees align their personal goals with the company’s goals. When this happens, employees are more likely to be engaged in their work and feel as though they are making an impact on the organization. The goal of this set of questions is to assess how well the manager is performing with these fundamental responsibilities. The manager can then identify the areas in which he or she needs to build skills.

 

3. I Feel/Know That My Team Leader Is Capable And Efficient

This question can also be assessed using the 5-point Likert Scale. When employees don’t believe in their leader’s capacity and efficiency, it can lead to reduced optimism. And without optimism, there will be fewer opportunities for creativity and innovation, which can ultimately affect productivity and employee satisfaction.

As a manager, showing passion for your work is one way to increase employee engagement. This passion can also help promote a collaborative leadership style among workers when the going gets tough. 

 

4. I Trust And Respect My Manager

The ability to build trust and respect is one of the most important skills of effective leadership.

When there’s respect and trust for the manager, it is a pointer to the quality of leadership the manager is providing. A team leader or manager who inspires their employees to execute their jobs well can create an environment where employees feel comfortable working together and can work towards a common goal.

Working to help the team meet its goals is another way that a manager can gain their trust and respect.

 

Opportunities To Learn And Grow

An employee engagement survey should also examine the extent to which employees have the opportunity to grow personally and professionally. The company can then utilize this information to ensure that its employees are continually trained and educated.

Gallup reports that one in three workers strongly agree they have opportunities to learn and grow at work. The experts also predicted a productivity increase of up to 14% if the number is doubled. Another report states that people who see a path to growth are 5x less likely to leave a company.

Employee growth questions in engagement surveys should majorly revolve around training and development.

 

5. The Company Gives Me Access To Opportunities That Help Me Grow Professionally

Studies have shown that lack of career development and growth is the top reason employees leave a company. The desire to learn and grow is a basic human need and is required for employee satisfaction. 

If you use the Likert scale, and the majority of your employees disagree, then there’s a high probability you are experiencing stagnant growth. This element is critical to improving organic growth in your company.

 

6. I Feel My Work Is Contributing To My Personal Development

Providing learning opportunities for your employees is another way of improving employee engagement. Effective leaders are interested in the growth and development of their employees by challenging them, providing learning opportunities, and assessing what they have learned. 

Finding roles, positions, and projects that enable your employees to apply their unique talents and strengths is the key to developing your employees. When individuals feel that their work is contributing to their personal growth, they are more likely to be motivated on the job.

 

Employee Recognition

In the workplace, recognition is like oxygen. It’s necessary for survival and growth, but it’s something many leaders take for granted. It should be noted that employees who are recognized have higher motivation and an enhanced self-image and are more likely to take on more responsibility.

Employment recognition doesn’t have to be a one-way street, as employees can also recognize their colleagues’ contributions. According to the Gallup-Workhuman report on Workplace Recognition Study, 19% of managers and leaders say employee recognition is a priority in their organization.

In your engagement survey, it is important to assess the level of employee recognition from the employees themselves. WorkHuman reports that employees who are recognized by their leaders only a few times each year become 5x more likely to become actively disengaged from the company.

 

7. I Am Motivated To Do My Best Work For The Company

This is another question that can be assessed using the Likert Scale. 

Recognition is one of the most important factors in keeping employees engaged with their jobs. A recent Gallup-WorkHuman report found that when employees feel recognized by their managers, they are 5x more likely to feel connected to their company culture. And employees who feel fulfilled by recognition are going to be less than half as likely to look for other job opportunities.

When employees don’t feel motivated to do their best work for the company, it can be linked to the fact that they’re not appreciated enough for their work.

 

8. The Company Rewards Loyalty And Hard Work Appropriately

If you give your employees lots of recognition, they’re more likely to stick around in your company over the long term. 74% of employees who do not receive recognition from their managers do not plan on remaining in the company for the next year. And 27% of employees who do not receive recognition from their managers are likely to be struggling with stress levels.

Employees who are fulfilled by the recognition they receive are 44% more likely to be thriving in their lives. Hence, if you score low on employee recognition, work towards improving it because recognized employees equal productive employees. 

 

Level Of Work-Life Balance

Work/life balance is another element to consider in your employee engagement survey. To maintain a highly engaged workforce, employers need to ensure they’re creating an environment where employees can maintain a balance between their work and their life outside work.

Employers also bear responsibility for helping their workers create this balance—by creating a system that helps workers create a healthy mix of work and non-work activities, employers can help make sure their employees don’t burn out or feel overworked.

 

9. I Have A Healthy Work/Life Balance

A good work-life balance is essential to employee satisfaction and productivity. In a topsy-turvy work-life balance, employee productivity will suffer.

In a study by the Corporate Executive Board, it was found that employees who believe they have a good work-life balance work 21% harder than employees who don’t. In another report by SHRM, 89 percent of human resources professionals report that implementing flexible work arrangements leads to less employee turnover.

 

10. I Always Take Work Home To Complete Projects

It is not uncommon to work past normal hours or bring work home.

As companies switch to remote working, boundaries have started to blur for employees—especially when it comes to early morning and late night meetings. Employees are expected to be available 24/7 and this behavior has become the norm. But when employees are burned out, the actual productivity is going to fall irrespective of how many hours they spend at work.

Hence, if employees have to always take work home, it will ultimately affect their decision-making and productivity.

Final Thoughts: As You Carry Out The Survey

We hope you find these 10 questions helpful in your quest to improve employee engagement. But don’t stop there! There are hundreds of other questions you can ask in your employee engagement survey. We are intentional about guiding you in asking the relevant questions and taking the relevant steps to improve employee engagement.