Employee satisfaction surveys are inconclusive. No matter how many polls you conduct, the results aren’t revealing anything substantial about the main difficulties facing your organization. And most of the time this is because you’re not asking appropriate employee engagement survey questions.
You need to ask the proper employee engagement survey questions to get a steady supply of useful input. Let’s understand why such surveys are good for your organization.
Why Use a Survey To Measure Employee Engagement?
According to a Salesforce study, people who feel heard at work are 4.6 times more likely to deliver their best performance. Direct questions allow you to better understand how your employees are feeling at any given time.
Nevertheless, the reliance on direct inquiries to measure their emotions is not the sole basis of this connection. In the domain of remote employment, an environment characterized by a plethora of opportunities and obstacles, comprehending the experiences of remote personnel emerges as a matter of utmost importance. The absence of in-person interactions within remote teams may impede the precise evaluation of their emotions, thus potentially impacting employee satisfaction and retention.
Employee engagement surveys are even more useful when you have a remote team. The lack of in-person interactions could mean that you miss out on how your remote workers think or feel about the organization. But working from home is one of the best ways companies have to increase their employees’ productivity. Remote teams aren’t the problem. It’s the methodologies companies use to engage their employees that sometimes are inefficient.
In the era of remote work, understanding the unique challenges and opportunities that come with it is crucial. Remote work can offer flexibility and autonomy, but it can also lead to feelings of isolation or disconnect from the team. Therefore, it’s essential to include questions in your survey that specifically address the experiences of remote employees. This will help you identify areas where you can better support your remote workforce and ensure they feel as engaged and valued as those in the office.
Integrating HR planning into the evaluation and improvement of employee engagement is essential. Successful solutions will entail a thorough grasp of both current requirements and the long-term ambitions of employees.
In refining HR strategies for better employee engagement, the adoption of HR Templates for Human Resources can be remarkably beneficial. These templates bring a level of sophistication and clarity to the myriad of HR tasks, from nuanced employee feedback analysis to streamlined communication channels.
They serve as a blueprint for consistency and precision in HR operations, ensuring that every aspect of employee interaction is handled with care and professionalism. Moreover, these templates can be a boon for time-strapped HR teams, freeing them up from routine paperwork to focus on more impactful, strategic employee engagement initiatives.
By incorporating these well-crafted templates, HR departments can elevate their role from administrative functions to becoming architects of a vibrant and engaging workplace culture
PMs, frequently the driving force behind organizational change and enhancement, can significantly benefit from utilizing sophisticated HR planning tools. These resources assist in harmonizing the ambitions of employees with the broader goals of the organization, leading to a workforce that is more committed and effective.
One effective approach to strengthening engagement and understanding your team better is through leadership development workshops. These workshops not only help to hone the leadership skills of your managerial staff but also open avenues for dialogues between different levels of the organization.
This is particularly crucial in a remote working environment, as it provides an interactive platform for employees to voice their opinions, share their concerns, and build stronger connections with their leaders. The insights gained from such workshops can be invaluable in crafting your survey questions, as you will have a more nuanced understanding of the issues that matter to your employees.
You can increase the likelihood that the feedback you receive is honest, helpful, and productive by employing pulse surveys and asking employees simple questions at any time (while providing them the option to respond anonymously). You could end up surprised when you learn about some challenges that you were unaware of. Moreover, surveys are one of the many effective ways to collect data. You can analyze this data in the future to understand what worked and what didn’t.
As we dive into the world of remote work, the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance becomes crystal clear. It’s all about embracing flexibility, giving employees the room they need to juggle their work with life’s other demands. This approach not only boosts morale but also keeps burnout at bay, ensuring that everyone can bring their best selves to the table.
Setting boundaries between work hours and personal time isn’t just good practice; it’s essential for building a workplace that’s both productive and joyful. When work-life balance is a key part of your company’s culture, you’re not just improving day-to-day engagement—you’re also nurturing a team that’s robust, committed, and ready to tackle whatever the future holds with optimism and strength.
Here, we’ve put together a comprehensive guide to employee engagement survey questions to help you learn more about the survey’s purpose and how to conduct one. Before we get to the execution of your survey, let’s dig a little deeper into what really drives employee engagement. What makes your employees happy?
The Drivers of Employee Engagement
Manager-Employee Relationship
The most fundamental driver of employee engagement is the manager-employee relationship. This relationship has been linked to employees’ contentment or dissatisfaction with their work or workplace and their consequent decision to stay or leave.
How and what you communicate with your employees are critical aspects of this professional relationship. As a manager, you face the challenging task of creating authentic yet professional connections that benefit the firm, the employee, and you.
Employee engagement is all about “I” (me) and my circumstances. Employees must have a strong feeling of purpose and autonomy in their job, even if they do not completely influence the final decision, product, or result. Ownership of their job is strongly linked to their sense of purpose and autonomy.
Leadership
Video on empathy by Simon Sinek
Different companies have different definitions of leadership. From all the 9 leadership styles, servant and coaching leadership seems to be up and coming – more of a relationship focussed way of showing employee recognition. Leadership is a key driver of engagement that transcends job classifications. A manager has a critical role to play in fostering employee engagement. This accountability manifests itself in how you enable your staff to accomplish their jobs, how you conduct yourself, and how you, as a role model, communicate messages across many platforms.
In the realm of a remote workforce, the manager-employee relationship takes on a new dimension, requiring adaptability and innovative approaches. Building strong connections in a remote setting calls for proactive efforts such as check-ins, team-building activities, and personalized recognition.
The insights gleaned from employee engagement surveys are pivotal in shaping strategies that bolster team spirit and collaboration. Integrating team-building activities, as suggested in the article, is a key approach to achieving this. These activities not only break the ice but also build a bridge of trust and open communication amongst team members.
They serve as a practical application of survey feedback, transforming insights into actionable steps that enhance team cohesion. This approach underscores the article’s emphasis on the importance of not just gauging employee sentiment but actively fostering a supportive and connected workplace culture.”
With effective strategies in place, managers can successfully navigate the challenges of remote work and cultivate strong bonds with their team members.
This is also the case for some internal corporate events or team building events. As the whole team can achieve higher results not only in the process of work, but also in personal relationships and then the team spirit increases many times, as well as the productivity of employees.
A leader is someone who draws people together for a similar goal and inspires confidence in their team, to make things happen for everyone.
Career Development
Employee development plan.
Another factor that influences engagement is career growth and development. Most employees, particularly those from the younger generations, will hold multiple positions at various organizations throughout their careers. These shifts are part of their professional development. These are important to note because they relate to an employee’s desire to remain at work. It is no surprise that Amazon has “Hire and develop the best” as one of the 16 Amazon Leadership principles, it is that important.
An employee training platform can play a significant role in enhancing employee engagement. By providing a platform where employees can learn new skills, improve their knowledge, and grow professionally, you’re not only investing in their personal development but also showing them that they are valued. This can lead to increased job satisfaction and engagement. Furthermore, a well-designed training platform can help identify gaps in skills or knowledge, allowing for targeted training that can improve overall performance.
If employees see career growth opportunities in their organization, they will work harder to achieve their professional goals. This is good to highlight positions, use channels like your employee newsletter and intranet are good places to communicate them often. and guide them towards opportunities for growth. Their decision to stay will subsequently result in the company’s growth.
By ensuring that career development opportunities are continually promoted and available via the intranet and other internal communication channels, organizations can foster a culture of continuous learning and professional growth. This, in turn, increases employee satisfaction and retention, which ultimately contributes to the overall growth and success of the company.
Employees who see prospects for advancement and growth within a company develop a stronger feeling of loyalty.
Incentives
Even if financial and external incentives might not be the only factors that influence employee engagement, they’re still vital to consider. Your employees are here for more than just ambition. They’re here to grow. Besides a take-home salary and extra bonuses, non-monetary incentives like paid vacations, etc., can make a big difference to how they perceive your organization. From incentives arising as rewards to motivate your people during their personal challenges to holiday season freebies and more, there’s a lot you can do to drive employee engagement from an incentive perspective.
25 Employee Engagement Survey Questions
Several factors to be considered when you’re creating your employee engagement survey. That’s why we discussed drivers of employee engagement first to help you understand the areas you should focus on.
Here are 25 employee engagement survey questions that could help you get the most out of your survey.
Satisfaction Survey Questions
What does a truly satisfied team member look and act like? They’re excited to come to work, they overdeliver, and they’re always looking for more than what’s assigned to them. However, dissatisfaction is more difficult to identify and quantify. The following questions delve into how your employees feel about your company and whether or not they are happy working with you.
How do you feel about your work today?
This question goes to the heart of the situation by focusing on the present moment and enquiring about each employee’s attitude. It invites a deeper discussion and shows your employees that your organization is concerned about their feelings. It’s also beneficial to learn if any employees in a certain group or job are dissatisfied. This could indicate a broader problem that goes beyond the specific employee, which you should check properly.
Consider displaying visuals with various happy to sad faces and allowing your employees to select the one that best suits their current mood. This makes it simple for employees to respond, and it may allow them to voice feelings they are hesitant to express.
Are you excited to come to work?
This question is intended to evoke both strong and neutral responses. Employees who are enthusiastic about their jobs convey their enthusiasm to others. A neutral response allows you to dig deeper and ask what would get them excited about coming to work if they were less engaged.
Are you satisfied with your compensation and benefits?
Employees who believe they are underpaid or that others are overpaid, on the other hand, are more likely to be dissatisfied. Furthermore, inquiring about benefits will allow you to learn which perks are important to your employees and which advantages they would value if they were offered.
Would you recommend this organization to your friends?
People who work with your company are the single best source of promoting word of mouth. Whether a present employee would recruit their friends or warn them to stay away is a telling indicator of the company’s overall performance and the employee’s emotions about it. This is an excellent question to ask on a frequent basis so you can compare results to previous surveys.
Do you enjoy working with your team?
Team members that are happy feel valued and share their joy with their coworkers.
Include a follow-up question that allows employees to clarify their responses, possibly indicating team members who merit special recognition. You can also get complaints about your coworkers or bosses. This is a good time to point employees to other resources if they need assistance with a problem or a specific complaint if the survey requires employees to reveal their identity. On the other hand, if you’re conducting a survey that allows employees to stay anonymous, you’ll receive more candid answers. This will help you to understand generalized challenges within teams or departments.
Useful Lifehack!
In order to increase the labor efficiency of the team, you can add such an interesting thing as employee recognition. It will help you find a common language with your subordinates, see what they are not satisfied with, and, of course, what they like. A lot of big corporations have already added this to their work, and it has only benefited them.
Future-related Questions
Any employee engagement survey should include a question on whether your employees intend to stay with your company in the long run. The questions in this section will help you identify areas where your company needs to reach out to talented but dissatisfied employees.
Do you see yourself working here even after a year?
Include a text field with this question so that employees who intend to leave can mention their reasons for doing so. This will help you understand improvement areas for the organization. For example, if someone intends to leave for career growth, you can start more learning and growth programs in your organization for them to see growth opportunities.
Do you have the necessary tools to maximize your potential in this organization?
This question allows the employee to assess what is preventing them from progressing and to find areas where they may improve. Consider including a text section for comments and a question about what resources might best support the employee in their work.
Has anyone in the company asked you about and supported your career goals?
This question reveals whether or not your company’s leadership is actively communicating with employees about career advancement. You may include a suggestion to meet with HR or a manager to discuss career goals.
Does your work aid your development and challenge you enough?
This will determine how enthusiastic people are about their jobs. Employees have recently said that “professional advancement” is one of the top reasons people want to quit their firm, followed by “lack of recognition.” Employees whose work is extremely demanding for reasons beyond their control may feel frustrated or undersupported, so don’t build false challenges as a substitute for genuinely engaging tasks and responsibilities.
Did you recently think about resigning from your role in this organization?
You might need to reassure staff that this survey is confidential or give them unclear options for answers like “Not sure.” It’s preferable to discover the facts so that systemic issues may be addressed before they negatively impact performance and morale.
Alignment Questions
Do employees believe that what they do matters and that management values them? Employees who are highly motivated and engaged have great alignment, which means their ambitions align with their function in the firm as a whole.
Do the organization’s values and vision inspire you?
The goal here is to determine how employees feel about your vision and mission. Do they consider themselves as active participants who represent the company’s ideals to clients and coworkers? Some employees may be unclear about your company’s goals and principles. You might include them on the same page as the query to serve as a reminder. If you don’t have them, it’s time for you to create vision and mission statements to align your employees with your goals.
Do you get recognized for your achievements at work?
Even if they don’t show it, most people crave appreciation, recognition, and admiration, especially from managers and other leaders. Employees who do not feel valued are more prone to look for it elsewhere. Employee recognition on a regular basis is an important strategy for increasing employee appreciation and engagement.
Does the company culture and environment make you feel supported?
This is a test to evaluate if the employee perceives the company’s culture as a complement to their ambitions or as a hindrance to them. Has your company made it a priority to create an inclusive and representative culture? The answer to this question may expose unpleasant realities about your company’s culture, but identifying these difficulties is the first step toward creating a culture that every employee can be proud of and participate in.
Exploring the reasons people want to quit can illuminate the underlying concerns within the organizational ethos. A notable element that contributes to employee discontentment may be the inadequate equilibrium between work and personal life, along with insufficient provisions for individual welfare. A value system that places employee well-being at the forefront can cultivate a more dedicated and satisfied workforce.
Furthermore, the dearth of transparent and equitable prospects for professional growth can result in employee frustration and diminished motivation. Embracing complexity when formulating a holistic career advancement initiative can empower employees to visualize a future within the organization.
Do you think your work in the organization is meaningful?
Employees that are satisfied with their jobs work harder and are happier. They are more likely to persevere through adversity and remain devoted to your organization in the long run. Employees that are engaged can easily perceive the influence of their job and the organization’s efforts.
Do you feel like your reporting manager is invested in your success?
The answers to this question provide important information about your managers and whether or not your employees are on track to succeed. Demonstrating an interest in each employee’s work and career objectives is the first step toward creating a leadership culture that encourages employee engagement.
Do you feel like the management here is transparent and approachable?
Your employees need to understand the hierarchy of the organization and, at the same time, feel like they can trust or approach anyone and everyone despite their position. This kind of inclusive and trustworthy relationship between the management and employees fosters a sense of belonging in employees.
Open-ended Questions
Employees can communicate what’s genuinely on their minds in their own words when asked open-ended questions. Include a few open-ended questions in each survey that are specific to your company. As mentioned above, it’s also a good idea to offer a text field for optional comments on certain other topics.
Do we need to change any practices? If yes, which ones need a change?
Employees are asked to look outward and provide their recommendations in response to this topic. Employee engagement goes way up when they perceive themselves as active members in a responsive organization.
Do you think our culture has any flaws?
Encourage employees to point out any areas of discomfort or dissatisfaction with your company’s culture. Consider their suggestions as opportunities to improve wherever necessary.
How can we assist you in increasing your workplace engagement?
Inquire directly with staff about ways to engage them. They’ll be grateful that you listened, and they’ll be proud to see their suggestions implemented.
Is there anything more you’d like to mention?
This question guarantees that you do not miss out on valuable feedback that could help your company improve. Listen closely when people communicate their vision for a more powerful, effective company, and be grateful they trusted you with the truth.
Miscellaneous Poll Questions
These are those questions that don’t require your employees to answer in the text. They can simply give a rating on a scale or pick an emoticon representing happiness, neutrality, or dissatisfaction.
Are you happy with the facilities and amenities?
Are you satisfied with your work timings and the work-life balance?
Do you notice any discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, etc, in the organization?
Do you notice or suffer from any company politics in your team?
Are there any sexual harassment-related challenges you face in the organization?
These poll questions are important for you to understand if any of your employees are facing issues at the ground level. Also to address any kind of power abuse or bullying/discrimination that you may be unaware of. Since these are just polls without text answers, the employees will be more comfortable answering them while it could reveal a lot about your organization.
Employee Engagement Survey Best Practices
Here are some tips to make your employee engagement survey more effective:
Create Short Surveys
The duration of your survey might have a big impact on how many employees respond. Always keep in mind that filling out a survey is extra labor for an employee, so respect their time and keep the survey short and sweet. To increase response rates, create a survey that takes approximately 5-10 minutes to complete.
Avoid Jargon
It’s easy to forget that not every employee in a company understands HR lingo. In your surveys, avoid utilizing technical terms and instead use inclusive language that everyone can comprehend. No one likes being asked questions they don’t understand.
Simple Questions First
Asking the simple questions first will encourage your employees to complete the survey. You want people to believe it’s a simple task. End your survey with simple questions as it encourages the employees to relax and recall the survey as a good experience.
Keep in Mind the Design
An engagement survey’s success depends on its user-centered design. People rarely fill out surveys because they enjoy them; rather, they are doing you a favor, and you should make it as simple as possible for them. No one will bother to fill out a survey if the design is confusing.
What To Do After The Employee Engagement Survey
An effective employee engagement plan does not start and stop with well-crafted survey questions. What matters most in terms of actually driving engagement in an organization is what HR and leadership do with the survey data.
So, what do you do with all the answers and data?
You can recognize, measure, and act on employee input to generate positive change by following these steps.
Thank Your Workers
You’ve finished your first survey, and now you need to figure out what to do with the results. Before you start going over the results and making action plans, take a quick moment to thank your staff.
A simple thank you email to the employees who participated in the survey, especially if it was voluntary, shows that you value their time and effort in answering the questions.
Analyze The Survey Results
Information is useless unless it’s organized. As a result, the engagement software/platform you choose has a big impact on your ability to effectively interpret and evaluate survey results.
A good analytics platform can immediately uncover the strengths and shortcomings of your company. Rather than manually sifting through the data, you can use software that helps you focus on the most troublesome areas, allowing you to dive even deeper to find the source of any problems. Individuals, teams, or departments struggling in a certain area can be identified by segmenting data.
Hold Team Meetings
Managers play a vital role in personalizing survey results for their teams. They can explain what the data means for individuals and teams once the business has presented an overview of the outcomes and a synopsis of the path ahead.
In larger firms, where the sheer breadth of an employee base can make it easier for employees to feel lost in the crowd or irrelevant in the grand picture, smaller team or department meetings are especially vital. An organization can ensure a more personalized experience by distributing survey results to team members in smaller groups.
Develop Action Plans
If this is your company’s first time doing an engagement survey at scale, the results will likely suggest various areas for improvement. HR and managers should develop action plans on a small scale first and then gradually create an organization-wide improvement plan.
Announce The Action Plans
The staff should be informed about the company’s plans and objectives. This not only promotes a sense of transparency but also shows employees that management is paying attention to the survey results. Employees are able to notice that the company’s management – from the C-suite to department managers – is making an effort to improve the organization.
It might seem cliché, but the power of simple, thoughtful gifts and presents can significantly heighten employee engagement. Leveraging a list of platforms dedicated to employee appreciation platforms list can be a game changer in enhancing your team’s motivation. This approach is a proven strategy to invigorate your workforce’s enthusiasm.
Conclusion
Now that you know all the necessary reasons, steps, and the right questions to create an employee engagement survey, it’s time to get to work. No matter how small or big your organization is, nothing helps you improve or thrive more than your own employees’ feedback does. Take it seriously, do it with all your heart and act on it with all your efforts.
Positive changes and growth come with “delivered” promises. Plan your employee engagement surveys with the right questions and analyze the answers. Follow up with the necessary steps to create the right growth environment for your organization.
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