Discover best practices and 30 example employee engagement survey questions to boost participation, gather actionable feedback, and improve workplace culture.
It can be difficult to know what to include in an employee survey. That’s why we have created a template that you can use for FREE to ensure your employee surveys are engaging. Get the responses that will help you understand your audience.
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Positive work experiences don’t happen by accident. They happen as a result of intentional leadership and thoughtful design. Building a strong employee experience strategy takes effort, but the payoff is real. Typically, it results in higher performance, stronger retention, and improved well-being.
As statistics shared by the top American multinational research and management consulting company, Gallup, show, most organizations aren’t meeting their employees’ needs. The issue, they state, is that employees don’t only want a job. They want the opportunity to thrive.
Let’s look at the positives. Gallup has found that organizations with highly engaged employees experience:
Those are compelling stats!
Insight Survey, which undertakes employee satisfaction and engagement research, says it’s very simple.
“Happy, satisfied employees deliver good work, resulting in happy customers and profits. Research shows that employee turnover costs companies big money every year – as much as 25% – 200% of an employee’s annual compensation.”
Insight Survey
The solution they promote is employee satisfaction surveys that help organizations understand the concerns employees have.
These are great, but it requires more than a yearly engagement survey, demanding ongoing, organization-wide commitment. Also, as the Academy to Innovate HR (AIHR) states, “Employee engagement surveys are only as valuable as the insights they reveal.”
The first step is to identify the data that will be valuable for your organization. Then you need to design survey questions that will capture meaningful insights into how employees feel about their work, their teams, and their leadership — not just whether they’re satisfied.
But surveys are just the starting point. What matters most is how organizations respond. Real engagement is built through ongoing action, communication, and follow-through. It cannot rely on a one-off data collection process.
Designing effective employee engagement surveys is reliant on asking the right questions in the right way to unlock meaningful insights. Well-crafted surveys help organizations understand what drives employee satisfaction, identify barriers to engagement, and act on feedback to create a thriving workplace culture. Following proven best practices ensures the questions you ask are clear, relevant, and actionable, resulting in higher participation and more trustworthy results.
Quantum Workplace highlights some pivotal aspects that make employee engagement surveys successful. For example, with the right questions, a well-designed employee engagement survey is critical for gathering actionable insights to improve culture, productivity, and overall engagement. Also, regularly sharing survey results and acting on employee feedback builds trust, drives ownership, and fuels meaningful organizational change.
We have pinpointed five best practices for you to concentrate on:
Every survey question should serve a purpose. Avoid vague or overly broad questions that don’t lead to change. Instead, craft questions designed to uncover insights leaders can act on, whether that’s improving communication, strengthening recognition, or fostering belonging.
Actionable data bridges the gap between collecting feedback and implementing meaningful organizational change, empowering leaders to prioritize initiatives that directly address employee needs and drive measurable improvements in engagement and performance.
Numbers tell part of the story, but context brings it to life. Include a mix of quantitative questions (e.g., rating scales) to identify trends and qualitative open-ended questions to capture employees’ perspectives. This balance helps leaders understand both what’s working and why employees feel the way they do.
Complex or ambiguous questions lead to confusion — and ultimately to unreliable data. Use straightforward language and avoid jargon so that employees can respond with confidence. Clarity boosts completion rates and ensures that the feedback you gather accurately reflects employee sentiment.
According to Quantum, trust grows when employees see that their voices matter. Sharing survey results openly — and communicating the actions your organization plans to take — fosters transparency and drives ownership. Employees who feel heard are far more likely to engage with future surveys and remain committed to the organization’s goals.
A robust engagement survey platform can streamline every step, from crafting the right questions to analyzing results and identifying trends. Quantum emphasizes the importance of selecting a partner who provides intuitive dashboards, actionable analytics, and tools that turn insights into measurable improvements. Cerkl Broadcast is the ideal omnichannel platform to do this for you.
While there are different types of surveys that organizations can use to increase employee engagement — including annual and short pulse surveys — all can become a vital component of your internal comms strategy. The questions you ask will depend primarily on your goal and what you want to learn from your employees. Whether you’re seeking insights into culture, leadership, recognition, or well-being, tailoring your questions ensures the feedback you gather is relevant, actionable, and aligned with your organization’s priorities.
Craft effective surveys to measure employee sentiment and boost engagement
Open-ended questions encourage employees to share their thoughts in their own words, providing deeper insights beyond ratings or scales.
Close-ended questions make it easier to quantify feedback and identify trends across teams and departments. For example:
Adding a little fun can boost participation and humanize surveys, making employees more open to sharing.
Managers play a critical role in shaping the employee experience, so it’s valuable to understand their perspective too. These questions are aimed at this level of leadership.
Remote employees often experience unique challenges and opportunities. These questions can help to uncover insights that drive better connections.
An inclusive approach ensures all employees feel heard, valued, and supported.
Creative questions inspire reflection and often lead to unexpected insights.
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but the length of your employee engagement survey should balance depth of insight with response fatigue. Too few questions may miss critical feedback, while too many can overwhelm employees and lower all-important completion rates.
For annual, organization-wide surveys, aim for 30 to 50 thoughtfully crafted questions. These provide a comprehensive view of engagement, culture, leadership, and well-being without becoming overly time-consuming.
For shorter pulse surveys, focus on five to 15 targeted questions designed to measure sentiment on specific initiatives, organizational changes, or emerging issues. These surveys are faster to complete and keep participation high, making them ideal for tracking engagement trends throughout the year.
The key is quality over quantity. Every question should have a clear purpose, tie back to your goals, and produce insights you can act on. When designed thoughtfully, even a short survey can deliver the data you need to strengthen engagement and improve the employee experience.
Craft effective surveys to measure employee sentiment and boost engagement
A well-designed employee engagement survey can provide actionable insights, but common mistakes can undermine its effectiveness and even damage employee trust. Avoiding these pitfalls ensures the feedback you collect is accurate, meaningful, and representative of your entire workforce. Thoughtful survey design not only improves participation but also ensures the results reflect reality, giving leaders a stronger foundation for driving change.
Questions that imply a “right” answer or subtly nudge employees toward a particular response can skew your results.
For example, instead of asking, “How much do you appreciate our excellent leadership?”, frame it neutrally: “How would you rate the effectiveness of our leadership team?” Neutral, objective phrasing ensures employees feel comfortable providing honest feedback.
Avoid vague or overly broad questions that leave too much open to interpretation, like “Do you feel fulfilled at work?” Without context, responses to abstract concepts are difficult to interpret and act upon.
Instead, break questions down into specific, measurable elements. For example, ask about career growth opportunities, clarity of expectations, or alignment with organizational values.
Including too many questions can cause fatigue and lower completion rates. When employees feel overwhelmed, they may rush through the survey or abandon it altogether, resulting in unreliable data. Focus on quality over quantity by ensuring each question has a clear purpose and directly supports your survey goals.
Engagement drivers often vary across roles, departments, and locations. Using the same set of questions for everyone may overlook important nuances. Tailor certain questions to specific groups where relevant.
For example, remote employees might need questions about connection and collaboration, while frontline teams may require questions about resources and workload.
Benchmarking your employee engagement survey questions helps you understand how your organization compares to others, as well as identify gaps and set realistic goals for improvement. It’s not just about collecting data — it’s about placing your results in context so leadership can make informed decisions that drive meaningful change.
Start by using industry benchmarks from reputable sources to compare your engagement levels, satisfaction scores, and key metrics against similar organizations. Insights from reports by firms like Gallagher, Deloitte, or Quantum Workplace can highlight whether your results are on par, exceeding expectations, or signaling deeper issues.
“The questions you ask are just as important as how you ask them. While you may be tempted to ask for open-ended feedback for each of your engagement questions, this can quickly lead to survey fatigue. At the same time, asking an employee to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ doesn’t give you enough context as to what is a priority.”
Quantum Workplace
You can also benchmark internally by tracking survey results over time. Measuring year-over-year trends, or comparing results between departments or locations, gives you a clearer picture of what’s improving and where to focus attention.
Finally, benchmark the questions themselves. Use widely recognized engagement drivers, like leadership effectiveness, communication quality, recognition, and career development, to ensure your survey covers the right topics and aligns with best practices.
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Even the best-designed survey won’t deliver value if employees don’t participate. Low response rates can distort results and limit your ability to act on feedback.
To improve participation, organizations need to make surveys accessible, timely, and relevant to all employees, while also reinforcing the value of their input. By removing barriers and meeting employees where they are, you can capture a more accurate picture of engagement across your workforce.
Both omnichannel reach and employee retargeting are effective strategies to improve participation.
To maximize participation, be sure that surveys reach employees on the channels and devices they prefer. For desk-based office workers, this may be via email or an intranet platform. For frontline or deskless employees, it might be mobile notifications, text messages, or app-based prompts.
Timing also matters a lot. Sending surveys during peak focus hours or after key milestones increases the likelihood of thoughtful responses. A true omnichannel approach ensures no segment of the workforce is overlooked.
Not every employee will respond to your survey when you first send it out. That’s why retargeting is essential. Send gentle reminders to employees who haven’t completed the survey, but do so strategically. Vary the timing, adjust the channel, or emphasize the value of their input in each reminder. Smart retargeting helps boost overall response rates without overwhelming employees, ensuring you gather more representative and reliable data.
When employees see that leadership values their input, they’re more likely to engage. Encourage senior leaders and managers to promote every survey in team meetings, via internal channels, or even in personal messages. Visible endorsement signals that feedback is taken seriously and that survey results will shape meaningful organizational changes.
Employees want to know that their voices matter.
One of the most effective ways to boost participation is to close the loop by sharing past survey results and the actions taken in response. Demonstrating how previous feedback has driven improvements builds trust and encourages employees to contribute again, knowing their input makes a real difference.
Cerkl Broadcast is built to transform employee engagement by delivering the right message to the right people at the right time across all channels. It addresses common participation challenges by combining personalization, analytics, and seamless delivery into one unified internal communications platform.
With Cerkl Broadcast, you can publish once and reach every employee, everywhere. Whether your team is using email, intranet, Slack, Microsoft Teams, or a mobile app, Cerkl ensures that messages land where people are most likely to see them. This broad reach is especially critical for engaging hybrid, deskless, or frontline workers.
Say goodbye to rigid distribution lists. Cerkl Broadcast taps into HR systems, payroll, and other directories to build dynamic and granular audience segments, on the fly. You can target messages by department, location, role, or even interest, ensuring communications are always relevant.
Collecting feedback shouldn’t mean launching a full-scale survey. Cerkl’s pulse surveys embed into your internal emails, allowing you to gather instant responses with just one question per Email Blast. This low-effort, focused approach makes feedback timely, continuous, and easy to act on.
With real-time email analytics and cross-channel insights, you can track open rates, click-throughs, trending content, and engagement patterns. This helps you understand what resonates, refine outreach strategies, and report the impact of your internal comms to leadership with real data.
Ready to put these questions into action? Download our free Employee Engagement Survey Template to save time, boost participation, and gather the insights you need to improve workplace culture. It discusses surveys and answer formats, and has another 30 questions to inspire and guide you.
Get your free copy today and start building a more engaged workforce.
Craft effective surveys to measure employee sentiment and boost engagement
What is an employee engagement survey? An employee engagement survey is a tool that organizations use to gather feedback from employees about their experiences, satisfaction, and level of commitment at work. It captures how employees perceive key areas such as organizational culture, leadership, recognition, and overall workplace engagement.
Why is it important to measure employee engagement? Measuring employee engagement provides leaders with insights into what drives motivation, retention, and productivity. These insights guide targeted improvements that boost performance and create a healthier workplace culture.
What should you avoid when creating employee engagement survey questions? Avoid biased or leading questions, abstract concepts, or overly long surveys that can distort results and reduce participation. Also, ensure your questions consider differences across roles, departments, or locations to capture accurate and inclusive feedback.
Craft effective surveys to measure employee sentiment and boost engagement
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