10 Questions to Include in Your Employee Engagement Survey

We’ve seen the world of work change in many ways over the last few years, which means your HR team has likely seen its priorities change almost as often. You’ve handled the challenges of a global pandemic, a highly unpredictable labor market, and a shift in employee expectations. You weathered the Great Resignation, which saw nearly 50 million U.S. employees quit their jobs in 2021 alone. And today, your team is facing the new challenges of declining engagement and quiet quitting.

If your company, like many others, is turning its focus from talent acquisition to retention, you need a way to measure employee engagement levels. One way you can do that is with employee surveys. Surveys can also help you recognize the main drivers of employee engagement, engagement trends, and gain a better understanding of how your employees are feeling. The survey results guide your HR team toward employee engagement strategies that your employees respond to. 

In today’s post, we’re sharing some of the engagement survey questions that businesses have found to be most effective. You’ll also see examples of how we ask these questions on our own engagement survey at ClearCompany. We’ll also share some of the benefits of using employee engagement software to manage your surveys.

Creating Your Engagement Survey

There are many types of employee engagement surveys you can send depending on what you want to measure. For example, pulse surveys are excellent for gathering a high-level view of engagement. They are typically sent out annually and the questions remain the same so your team can spot changes and trends across the company and even by department and role. The questions are close-ended and use rating scales which make it easier to measure and compare data.

If you’re digging deep to improve employee engagement in a specific area, you’ll want to get more detailed and may want to include open-ended questions in the survey. Building a variety of surveys is an excellent way to ask questions about different topics and give employees the chance to have their voices heard. There are many topics you can cover with engagement surveys, but today’s post focuses on what to ask in a general engagement survey.

Before you send out a survey, read our blog on the employee engagement survey process and determine how yours will work. Then, choose the type of survey you will send, the questions that will be asked, and a rating scale. Finally, analyze your results to learn more about engagement at your company.

We’ve compiled 10 examples of employee engagement survey questions to help you get surveys off the ground and set a benchmark for engagement at your organization.

Want to learn more about employee engagement? Read our complete guide, What is Employee Engagement?

Employee Engagement Index Questions

The ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees is 1.8:1, the lowest in a decade, according to Gallup. Disengaged employees can be harmful to your business, so it’s important to establish a baseline engagement level and stay above it. You can do that with employee engagement index questions. Engagement index questions reflect the desired outcomes of high engagement — they tell employees how your company hopes they are feeling.

These questions are often written as statements, and employees use a three-, four-, or five-point scale to indicate their level of agreement with the statement. At ClearCompany, we use a four-point scale for our engagement pulse survey:

• 1 - Strongly Disagree
• 2 - Disagree 
• 3 - Agree
• 4 -  Strongly Agree

This way, high scores mean higher engagement, while low scores point to the opposite, and HR can quickly understand engagement survey results overall and by the question.  For example, you can ask employees how much they agree with the statement, “I rarely or never think about looking for a new job.” Ideally at your organization, most or all of your employees would agree or strongly agree, but if they don’t, you’ve pinpointed an engagement issue you can then address.

Here are four statements you can include in your survey as an employee engagement index:

1. I would recommend this company to others as a great place to work.

2. I find the work I do challenging and engaging.

3. I am fairly compensated (salary, benefits, company perks) for the work I do.

4. I am given the opportunity to be involved in decisions that impact me.

Leadership Questions

These questions ask employees to rate how they feel about company leadership. They also ask if employees see leaders as a motivating force or a discouraging obstacle. With managers being responsible for 70% of the variance in engagement levels, it’s important to understand how your employees perceive them. Negative perceptions could be a cause for low engagement, while high levels of trust in management encourage motivation. 

When managers are engaging with their teams, they’re far more likely to spot areas of disconnect before they become a larger issue. They can ensure employees’ voices are being heard and their needs are being met. That helps build trust and prevent quiet quitting from becoming a trend that spreads across your organization. 

Try asking your employees to rate these statements about their opinions of leadership at your organization:

5. The leadership team has communicated a vision for this company’s future that excites and motivates me.

6. The executive team contributes to a positive work culture.

7. I am comfortable communicating with and providing feedback to my manager and the management team in general.
Do you know if your managers are doing their part to foster #EmployeeEngagement? Find out with an #employeesurvey — get 10 questions to ask:

Communication Questions

Communication that promotes engagement rather than harming it needs to be a two-way conversation that includes positive feedback as well as useful advice. Consistent, constructive feedback and regular expressions of gratitude help create an environment where that is possible. You can find out if this environment exists at your organization with your employee engagement survey.

Communication questions help gauge whether or not employees feel like they know how they’re doing at work and if they feel appreciated for the work they’re doing. These questions can tell your organization if managers have set clear expectations, if employees feel comfortable talking to their managers, and if they feel your company is helping them grow. Employee engagement statistics show that these factors have a big impact:

• Employees are 3x more engaged when their managers give feedback daily vs. annually.

• 37% of employees say getting personal recognition is the best way to motivate them.

• 28% of employees would stay at a company longer if they feel trust is part of organizational culture.

Include these statements or similar alignment questions on your engagement survey:

8. I receive regular communication/feedback from my manager about my performance.

9. I am recognized for my accomplishments and contributions to this company.

10. I see the opportunity for career advancement/progression at this company.

Surveys are a Window to Engagement

Engagement surveys are an excellent tool to help businesses understand how employees feel about the company culture, their work environment, work-life balance, their team members, and more. They open a line of communication that may not have been there before — and just asking for employees’ feedback can lead to higher engagement and better business outcomes. Not to mention, surveys can help HR implement engagement strategies that actually work for your employees long-term. 

ClearCompany’s Employee Engagement Software comes with more than a dozen survey types built in so you can get employees’ opinions on hot topics — or build your own custom survey from scratch. But you don’t have to be a ClearCompany client to start using employee surveys to measure Talent Success™. 

Get started right away with our Employee Survey Templates bundle. You’ll get access to three surveys available in the ClearCompany Employee Engagement Suite:

• Employee Engagement Survey
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Survey
• Stay Motivators Survey