We’re currently living through a challenging era for employee retention. Just when it seemed that the “Great Resignation” was finally coming to a close, the phenomenon known as “Quiet Quitting” began to trend.
As employees continue to reevaluate their choices and work-life balance in a post-pandemic world, organizations need to prioritize employee engagement like never before. And the best way to gauge whether or not your employees are engaged is to simply ask them.
Keep in mind that although these are all “yes or no” questions, you will get more precise answers by having participants rate their level of agreement on a scale of 0 to 5 or 0 to 10. For example, answer options could be presented as a Likert scale that ranges from “Definitely” to “Somewhat” to “Unsure” to “Not really” to “Not at all.”
Overall employee engagement questions
The first step is to directly ask employees about their level of commitment to the company. To accurately assess their level of engagement, you should ask about feelings of pride, accomplishment, motivation, and satisfaction related to their work.
- Are you proud to work for this organization?
- Does working here give you a sense of accomplishment?
- Are you satisfied with the work you do?
- Do you find your duties and assignments interesting?
- Are you motivated to contribute more than what’s expected of you?
- Do you see professional growth and long-term career opportunities working here?
- Would you be comfortable referring a friend to work here?
- Do you enjoy working for your supervisor?
These questions focus on whether employees take pride in what they do and who they do it for.
Communication questions
A big part of engagement boils down to whether or not your employees feel like they’re being heard—or are even comfortable speaking up in the first place.
To determine whether your workplace benefits from healthy, open communication, you should ask questions like:
- Does senior management provide clear direction and expectations?
- Does senior management explain the rationale behind key decisions?
- Does senior management seek input from a diverse group of employees before making key decisions?
- Does your supervisor effectively communicate about issues that affect you?
- Is your supervisor willing to listen to new ideas?
- Do you believe you can influence decisions at this organization?
- Do you know where to look within the organization to get the information you need?
Feedback and recognition questions
Feedback and recognition has a huge impact on employee satisfaction, work performance and overall morale. Employees want to feel appreciated, so that they know that all the hard work they do isn’t being overlooked or taken for granted.
To find out whether employees feel “seen” as well as heard, ask questions such as:
- Do you feel appreciated for the work you do?
- Have you received recognition for your accomplishments?
- Are you complimented regularly for your work by leaders and colleagues?
- Are you encouraged and expected to give feedback to improve this organization?
- Does your supervisor regularly provide constructive feedback?
- Is the evaluation process for assessing your work performance fair and helpful?
Work environment questions
The last few years have radically altered many traditional work environments, as organizations have switched to hybrid office-WFH models, or even gone fully remote. It can be hard to sustain a rich, rewarding corporate culture in a new, more virtual work environment. That’s why it’s important to ask employees how they feel about their sense of their own workplace, and whether they feel comfortable and supported.
- Do you believe that the workplace’s vibe is positive and motivational?
- Are “office politics” an issue in the workplace?
- Does your supervisor create a professional work environment?
- Does your supervisor encourage collaboration within and across different teams and departments?
- Do you feel the organization is committed to fostering diversity and inclusion?
- Do you feel the organization operates in a socially responsible manner?
- Do you feel you are provided with all of the tools you need to do your job?
- Do you feel that work is distributed fairly?
Work-life balance questions
Employers often try to differentiate themselves from other organizations by touting their flexibility, their generous PTO policies, and other ways that they promote a healthy work-life balance.
In addition to offering your own competitive benefits, you should check to confirm that your employees are actually able to maintain a healthy division between their work life and their personal life.
Ask questions about stress, happiness and time management, such as:
- Do you have enough time to do your job well?
- Do you have fun at work?
- Are you regularly stressed out by deadlines and workloads?
- Do you usually have to take your work home with you?
- Do you find yourself working on weekends and holidays?
- Do you ever feel like you’re missing out on significant time with friends and family due to work?
Management and leadership questions
Leaders and management play a huge role in determining an employee’s engagement levels. It’s important to identify any issues that could exist between employees and management.
- Do you believe that senior management makes good decisions overall?
- Do you feel like senior management understands your needs as an employee?
- Does your supervisor have strong management skills?
- Do you enjoy the professional relationship you have with your supervisor?
- Can you count on the support of your supervisor when addressing problems or issues?
Expanding on the essential employee engagement survey questions
These 40 questions will hopefully serve as a great starting point when you’re designing your next employee engagement survey. And it’s a good idea to also include some more standard questions about benefits and compensation, as well as training and professional development opportunities.
Fortunately, Sogolytics comes complete with an employee engagement survey template that already has dozens of questions on a variety of topics. And it’s easy to customize, meaning you can add or remove questions based on what questions you believe are most relevant to your employees.
