40 Employee Survey Questions That Actually Get Answered

Most Survey Questions Fail Before Anyone Reads Them

The internet is full of employee survey question lists. Most of them optimise for looking comprehensive rather than for being answered honestly — sixty-item banks that produce twenty-minute surveys, vague double-barrelled prompts ("I feel supported and valued"), and questions no one would answer truthfully without ironclad anonymity.

The forty questions below follow four design rules instead:

1. One idea per question. "I feel supported and valued" is two questions wearing one label; when it scores low, you don't know which half to fix.
2. Answerable on a consistent scale. Almost everything here works on a 1–5 agreement scale, so results compare across teams and quarters.
3. Actionable when low. Every question points at something a manager or HR team can actually change. If a low score has no owner, cut the question.
4. Honest only under real anonymity. Several of these questions — especially wellbeing and manager feedback — only produce truth when respondents know results are structurally anonymous, not anonymous-by-promise.

Group them into short, purpose-built surveys rather than one long one. The groupings below mirror the six survey templates that ship in MindSafe, so every set can be run as-is.

Engagement Questions (1–8)

The engagement fundamentals: run quarterly, on a 1–5 agreement scale. These eight cover the drivers that decades of organisational research keep confirming — and the first six are exactly the engagement template.

1. I am proud to work here.
2. I see myself still working here in two years.
3. I clearly understand what is expected of me in my role.
4. I receive meaningful recognition for good work.
5. I have real opportunities to learn and grow.
6. I have the tools and resources I need to do my job well.
7. I understand how my work contributes to the organisation's goals.
8. Decisions here are made and communicated in a way I can trust.

Why these work: question 2 is the quiet star — intent-to-stay is the single most predictive engagement item, and asking it plainly beats inferring it. Questions 3 and 6 are the most actionable; low scores map directly to fixable management behaviours.

Wellbeing and Burnout Questions (9–16)

The most sensitive block on this list, and the one where anonymity design decides whether you get truth or theatre. The first four are the wellbeing deep-dive template; the rest extend it.

9. My workload is sustainable.
10. I can fully switch off outside working hours.
11. I can raise problems without fear of negative consequences.
12. I know where to get support when I am struggling.
13. I have enough energy at the end of a typical workday for my life outside work.
14. The pace of the last month has felt manageable.
15. I rarely feel close to a breaking point at work.
16. If I were struggling, I believe this organisation would respond well.

Why these work: 9 and 10 are the earliest measurable burnout signals. 11 is the psychological-safety question — arguably the most important single item on this entire list, and the one most distorted when employees doubt anonymity. Never run this block attributed, and never show results for groups smaller than five.

eNPS Questions (17–18)

Two questions, one benchmarkable number. This is the entire eNPS template — resist the urge to add more.

17. How likely are you to recommend us as a place to work? (0–10)
18. What is the main reason for your score? (open text)

Why these work: the 0–10 scale converts to a single score (promoters minus detractors) you can track quarterly and benchmark externally, and the follow-up turns the number into a diagnosis. Keeping it to two questions is what gets you the response rate that makes the number trustworthy.

Onboarding Questions, 30 Days In (19–24)

New hires see your organisation with fresh eyes for a few weeks only. The first five are the 30-day onboarding template.

19. My first month matched what I was told during hiring.
20. I had the equipment and access I needed from day one.
21. I know who to ask when I am stuck.
22. Have you had a one-on-one with your manager in your first month? (yes/no)
23. What almost made you regret joining — and what convinced you otherwise? (open text)
24. I would recommend our hiring process to a friend applying here.

Why these work: 19 measures the promise-reality gap that predicts early attrition better than any satisfaction score. 22 is deliberately binary — a yes/no about a concrete event is impossible to fudge and immediately actionable. 23 is the bravest question on this list, and consistently the most valuable open response new hires give.

Exit Questions (25–30)

Departing employees are your most honest respondents — if the survey is anonymous and structured for aggregation. The first five are the exit template.

25. What is the primary reason you are leaving? (multiple choice: compensation, career growth, management, workload or burnout, company direction, personal circumstances, other)
26. I felt supported by my direct manager.
27. My contributions were valued here.
28. Would you consider returning in the future? (yes/no)
29. What is the one thing we should fix first? (open text)
30. At what point did you start seriously considering leaving? (multiple choice: past month, 1–3 months ago, 3–6 months ago, more than 6 months ago)

Why these work: 25 as a fixed multiple choice is the design decision that turns exits into data — free-text reasons cannot be trended, categories can. 30 quantifies your detection latency: if most leavers checked out more than three months ago, your listening cadence is too slow — the argument for a daily pulse alongside periodic surveys.

Manager Effectiveness Questions (31–36)

Upward feedback works when it measures observable behaviours rather than personality, and when small-team anonymity is structurally guaranteed. The first five are the manager effectiveness template.

31. My manager gives me feedback that helps me improve.
32. My manager removes blockers rather than creating them.
33. My manager genuinely cares about my wellbeing.
34. My manager keeps me informed about decisions that affect me.
35. What should your manager start, stop, or continue doing? (open text)
36. My manager gives me the autonomy to do my job well.

Why these work: every scaled item names a behaviour a manager can change, which is what turns a score into a coaching plan. This is also the block where the five-respondent floor is non-negotiable: a manager of three must structurally be unable to see results, or no one answers question 33 honestly.

Open Questions That Earn Their Free Text (37–40)

Open questions cost respondents the most effort, so use them sparingly — one per survey — and make them specific enough to answer in a sentence.

37. What one change would most improve your experience at work?
38. What is currently the biggest source of pressure in your work?
39. What is something we should keep doing exactly as it is?
40. What question should we have asked, but didn't?

Why these work: 37 and 38 force prioritisation — "one change", "biggest source" — which produces rankable answers instead of essays. 39 protects what's working from well-meaning reorganisation. 40 is your survey's error-correction mechanism; it reliably surfaces the topic your next survey should cover.

The Rules That Matter More Than the Questions

Forty good questions run badly will still fail. The delivery rules:

• Never run them all at once. Six to eight questions per survey, purpose-grouped as above. Total annual time-cost per employee should stay under twenty minutes across everything.
• Keep scales consistent within a survey. Mixing agreement scales with satisfaction scales in one instrument corrupts comparisons.
• Publish the anonymity rule before asking. "Results only appear once five or more people respond, including per team" changes what people write. Anonymity asserted after the fact changes nothing.
• Close the loop visibly. Share what changed because of the last survey before running the next one. Nothing predicts response rates better.
• Frequency belongs to the pulse, depth belongs to surveys. A daily one-tap pulse catches the shifts; these question sets explain them.

Run Them Without Building Anything

All six question sets above ship as editable templates in MindSafe, with results that are anonymous behind a hard five-respondent floor — organisation-wide and per team — plus eNPS scoring, CSV export, and reminders that never reveal who has responded. Browse the templates, or book a two-week guided pilot and run your first survey on your real roster this month.