105 Employee Engagement Survey Questions

You found our guide to employee engagement surveys.

Employee engagement surveys are tools leaders use to gauge employee sentiment, diagnose issues, and brainstorm possible improvements. These surveys serve a variety of purposes such as improving internal communication, raising morale, decreasing turnover, or connecting colleagues more meaningfully. The tone of the survey can vary depending on the intent; some surveys stick to a formal and informational tone, while others are more fun. This format is also know as an “employee happiness survey.”

These surveys are an employee engagement best practice, similar to poll questions, and are useful for employee retention and employee engagement campaigns.

This post includes:

• the best employee engagement survey questions
• fun questions to ask on engagement surveys
• team building survey questions
• employee happiness survey questions

So, let’s get to it!

List of employee engagement survey questions

Here is a long list of questions you can use in employee engagement surveys. You can adapt many of the questions to read “on a scale of 1-10,” or “how often do you feel…always, often, sometimes, rarely, never,” or you can leave the wording as is.

Retention questions

1. How long have you worked for the company?
2. Is your position in a field that you studied?
3. Before accepting this role, did you ever plan or imagine working in a similar position?
4. Do you enjoy working here, the majority of days?
5. Are you proud to work for this company?
6. Do you see yourself working here in one year? Two years? Five years?
7. How likely would you be to recommend the company to a job-seeking friend, family member, or professional acquaintance?
8. If you could travel back in time to when you received your job offer for this company, would you advise your past self to accept?
9. What factors most impact whether you like your job?
10. Do you enjoy working with your current team?
11. Do you feel that your supervisor is fair, supportive, and invested in your growth?
12. Do you feel as if you have friends at work?
13. Do you feel as if you have a voice in the company?
14. Do you feel as if teammates and supervisors recognize your efforts and accomplishments?
15. Do you feel as if leaders present you with adequate opportunities for learning and improvement?
16. What trainings or development opportunities would most interest you?
17. Are you satisfied with your current compensation and benefits?
18. List the three employee benefits that are most important to you.
19. Are there any additional benefits you would like to see the company provide?
20. Are there any upcoming company events or developments that excite you? If yes, which ones?
21. Do you see a future for yourself with the company? If no, why not?
22. Do you find your work meaningful?
23. If another employer offered you a position at 10% above your current pay rate, would you consider accepting? Why or why not?
24. Is there any other way we can make the workplace a more enjoyable environment?

Small business questions

25. Do you feel like you have the tools needed to do your job? If not, what tools do you need?
26. What word would you use to describe your feeling at the end of most work days?
27. Are you happy with your role within the company?
28. Do you feel as if every team member pulls equal weight?
29. Do you feel like the business owner and/or manager is approachable?
30. Do you feel that the business owner and/or manager knows what goes on at the company in his/her absence?
31. Are job expectations clear and realistic?
32. Do you feel that other employees comply with the rules?
33. Does the business have systems that ensure smooth day to day operations?
34. What changes would improve workflow?
35. When something confusing or unexpected happens at work, do you know who to ask for help?
36. What do you most enjoy about your job?
37. Do you feel that working with a small staff affords you fewer or more opportunities?
38. How long do you plan to continue in this role/in the company?
39. If you won the lottery tomorrow, would you still come to work?
40. Is there any other way we can improve day-to-day operations?

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Communication questions

41. What is your role within the company?
42. What communication platforms do you use on a daily basis?
43. What form of communication do you use most frequently?
44. On average, how many hours a day do you spend communicating with colleagues?
45. On average, how many hours per week do you spend in meetings?
46. Do you feel as if you attend too few meetings, too many meetings, or the perfect amount of meetings?
47. Do you feel as if your colleagues communicate well?
48. Do you feel as if your manager communicates instructions clearly?
49. Do you feel that your supervisor provides you with enough information for you to do your work effectively?
50. Do you feel that higher management shares important and timely updates?
51. Do you feel as if the company uses too many communication platforms, too few, or exactly the right amount?
52. Are there any communication platforms or techniques you used at previous workplaces that you feel would benefit our company?
53. How often do you read internal company emails?
54. What kind of content would you like to receive through company emails? (Note: you can offer suggestions such as health/wellness tips, motivational tips, impressions from the CEO, company updates, and invite employees to check off all that apply.)
55. Is there any other way we can improve communication within the organization?

Team building questions

56. How long have you worked in your current department?
57. Do you know everyone on your team?
58. Do you enjoy working with your team?
59. Do you feel close to your team?
60. Do you feel as if you get equal say within your group?
61. Do you feel as if your direct leader treats all group members equally and fairly?
62. What, in your opinion, is the biggest barrier to effective teamwork within your current group?
63. How often do you collaborate with other departments?
64. Do you feel like you know many people in other areas of the company?
65. Do you feel like you are a valued member of your team?
66. In team settings, what is your typical role?
67. Do you feel as if you have friends at work?
68. How often do managers and teammates compliment you on your work?
69. How often do managers and teammates offer to help you?
70. How often do you offer help to teammates?
71. Do you feel as if you can go to any member of your team for help?
72. Do you feel as if you can depend on your teammates?
73. Do you feel as if your teammates care about you on a personal level?
74. Do you feel like your teammates know non-work facets of your personality?
75. Do you feel as if your manager, teammates, and other company colleagues would support you through a personal crisis?
76. Would you prefer to do team building activities on the clock or during non-work hours?
77. What team building activity have you most enjoyed here?
78. What kinds of team building activities or outings most interest you?
79. Are there any team building activities you participated in with another group that you feel your coworkers would benefit from or enjoy?
80. Is there any other way we can improve teamwork within the company?

Fun questions

81. If you were CEO for the day, what changes would you make?
82. If you found out that this company was a Japanese prank show, would the reveal surprise you?
83. If we had an unlimited budget, what would you want us to buy for the office?
84. Can you suggest a good Netflix show for us to binge this weekend?
85. If you could have any fictional character as a coworker, who would you choose?
86. If you could swap places with any one coworker for a day, who would you choose?
87. Tell us your favorite safe-for-work joke.
88. If you could pick any animal to be an office pet, what type of animal would you choose?
89. What is the craziest bit of information you learned recently?
90. Would you rather work barefoot or commando?
91. Describe your job as if explaining it to a five-year-old.
92. Cake or donuts?
93. What is your biggest work pet-peeve?
94. The storage closet is actually a portal to another dimension. Where does it lead?
95. What is your go-to daydream white at work?
96. If you could travel anywhere on earth, what destination would you choose?
97. If you could make everyone in the company read one book or watch one movie, what would it be?
98. What is your most useless skill?
99. Dinosaurs or unicorns?
100. A coworker challenges you to a duel. You pick the game. What do you choose?
101. A mysterious box appears outside your front door. What do you hope is inside?
102. Share a random shower thought.
103. Tell us the strangest fact you know.
104. If you appeared in a newspaper story, what would be the most likely headline?
105. Is there anything else you would like to share?

Employee Engagement Survey Tips

For optimal results, follow employee engagement survey best practices. These best practices include:

• Keep surveys short. Employees should be able to complete the survey in five to ten minutes.
• Avoid overly wordy or confusing questions.
• Word questions objectively to avoid showing bias.
• Target your survey to measure a certain objective
• Assure respondents that survey answers are confidential
• Reflect and take action on survey results.

While structuring your survey questions based on your intended goal can be most helpful, you could also mix and cherry-pick questions from several lists. Throwing in a few fun questions can lower defenses and increase the likelihood of employees answering candidly.

Anonymity is one of the most important aspects of any survey. Employees will feel more comfortable responding when sure that survey answers are anonymous. To put employees at ease, you can use a third party survey application such as Survey Monkey, or another program from our list of employee engagement software.

Acknowledging the survey results is a crucial followup step. Employees will enthusiastically respond to questionnaires if they feel like their voice matters. If teammates suspect that you will ignore results and follow your own agenda, then they may not submit the survey. Once you receive all contributions and sort the data, you should share findings with your group. Also, you can word the leadup and followup of the survey delicately to express that you value opinions, even if you do not act upon every suggestion.

Example: “Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey. Your responses will help us improve the experiences of our clients and employees. Please know that we value your ideas and will carefully review all recommendations. If we do not immediately act upon your suggestion, do not consider it a personal slight. Due to circumstances, we may not be able to do justice to your proposal at this time. We may revisit the idea in the future. Either way, we appreciate your honesty and dedication.”

Final thoughts

Well, that’s our post on employee engagement surveys. While choosing the right questions is important, success more often boils down to following best practices.

Next, check out our list of employee engagement books, this list of ideas for employee of the month and these fun ways to boost staff job satisfaction.

We also have a reference list of reasons for employee turnover and examples of employee engagement theory.