Employee engagement survey questions
The most useful employee engagement survey questions ask about one thing at a time, cover a few themes the team can actually change (the manager, growth, workload, recognition, belonging and intent to stay), use the same agreement scale for most statements, and finish with two or three open questions.
What an engagement survey should measure
Engagement is a broad word, so decide on a few themes before you write a single question. A common set covers the work itself, the manager, growth, recognition, workload and tools, belonging, and intent to stay. Pick themes the organisation can change. A theme nobody can act on produces a score nobody uses, and a survey that covers too many themes is harder to finish.
Example employee engagement survey questions
The table below gives one statement per theme. Most are agreement items answered on the same five-point scale, which keeps the form quick and makes the results comparable from one theme to the next.
| Theme | Example question | Response format |
|---|---|---|
| Manager | My manager gives me feedback that helps me improve. | Strongly disagree to strongly agree |
| Growth | I can see a realistic next step in my career here. | Strongly disagree to strongly agree |
| Workload | My workload is manageable in a normal week. | Strongly disagree to strongly agree |
| Recognition | When I do good work, someone tells me. | Strongly disagree to strongly agree |
| Tools | I have what I need to do my job well. | Strongly disagree to strongly agree |
| Belonging | I can raise a concern in a team meeting without it counting against me. | Strongly disagree to strongly agree |
| Intent to stay | I expect to still be working here in a year. | Strongly disagree to strongly agree |
| Overall | How satisfied are you with working here overall? | 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied) |
| Open | What is one thing we should keep doing? | Free text |
| Open | What is one thing that would make your job better? | Free text |
Write one idea per question
The most common defect in engagement surveys is a statement that asks two things at once. “Do you feel supported and recognised by your manager?” can have a yes from someone who feels supported and not recognised, and the answer records neither. Split it into two statements: “My manager supports me when I need help” and “My manager recognises the work I do.” The double barreled questions guide shows more examples of the same defect.
Wording rules that protect the answers
- Remove praise words. “Our excellent benefits meet my needs” tells people what to think. Write “Our benefits meet my needs.”
- Use the same scale for the whole block. Changing from agreement to frequency halfway through makes people re-read every statement.
- Test the wording before sending. Pew Research Center describes pretesting new questions with focus groups, cognitive interviews or a small pilot, and revising them before they reach a production survey. Five or six colleagues from different teams will show you which statements people read differently.
The order of statements also changes answers. Pew reports that questions placed earlier in a survey can shape how people answer later ones, so put the general statements first and the specific ones after.
The small-team pitfall
An anonymous survey can still identify people. If a team has three members, a breakdown by team tells the manager exactly what two people said. Before you launch, choose the smallest group you will report on, and merge any team below it into a larger one. State that rule in the invitation, so people know how their answers will be used.
Check before you publish results
A worked example
Suppose a 20-person company runs an eight-statement survey, two statements per theme for manager, growth, workload and recognition. The team averages well on manager and poorly on growth. The growth statements are the ones to read first, because the score says a specific thing is wrong: people cannot see a next step. The open questions then show what they mean. If several comments mention the same missing promotion path, the fix is a clearer path, not a new perk.
The example uses invented numbers to show the reading order. It is not data from a real survey. Read your own results the same way: theme first, statement second, comments last.
Check before you send
- Each statement makes one claim and can be agreed or disagreed with on its own.
- Every statement in a block uses the same labels, in the same direction.
- No statement uses a praise word or assumes an answer.
- You have written down the smallest group you will report on.
- Three or four colleagues from different teams have read the draft and said what each statement means to them.
Build it in Seagit Forms
Seagit Forms has no grid or matrix field, so each statement is its own radio question with the same five answers. The star rating field is a separate tool; use it for one overall score if you prefer stars to words. To start, open the employee satisfaction survey template and replace its statements with the themes you chose. For an anonymous survey, read the anonymous survey guide before you share the link.
Sources
- Pew Research Center, “Writing Survey Questions”: pewresearch.org (pretesting, question order).
Common questions
- How many employee engagement survey questions should I ask?
- There is no fixed number that the research behind this guide supports. Keep the survey short enough that people finish it, and time a few colleagues on a draft before you send it to everyone.
- Should engagement questions use a 5-point or a 7-point scale?
- A 5-point agreement scale is the most common choice for workplace statements, and it is the one this guide uses. The Likert scale examples guide covers the trade-offs in more detail.
- How do I keep an engagement survey anonymous?
- Do not ask for names or emails, and leave the collect email setting off, which is optional in Seagit Forms. Also decide the smallest team you will report results for before you launch, because a breakdown of one or two people reveals who answered.