How to get authentic feedback from employees?
If you want authentic feedback, the best and most cost-efficient way to collect genuine insights is through employee engagement surveys (and worksheets), you will need to make it clear to your employees WHAT the survey is for and if possible, also the action steps that you intend to take after the survey has been conducted.
If required, you can also set the feedback as anonymous to protect the identities of the people giving feedback. Doing so allows the employee to understand that the survey is not meant to penalise anyone, but rather, is meant to improve the overall business.
What is an employee engagement survey?
An employee engagement survey is defined as a type of survey questionnaire to obtain opinions and reviews and evaluate employee mood and morale, a degree of engagement, and also monitor employee achievements.
Why is employee engagement survey important?
Employee engagement surveys are used by organisational leadership to gain feedback on and measure employee engagement, employee morale, and performance.
It is important to know the sentiments on the ground if you want genuine insights.
Should Employee Surveys Be Anonymous?
There is always a chance of biasness or inaccurate data if the employee surveys are not conducted properly.
For example, members of a clique may team up with each other to be biassed in their feedback to ‘protect’ each other. Conducting such surveys that encourage such behaviour leads to wasted time, as the feedback you receive are usually useless for improving the situation.
While it is good when employees are there for each other, if this leads to the overall cooperation staying stagnant and not improving, the whole company’s growth will in turn be affected as well.
Generally, employee surveys are used by HR and Management and are usually kept anonymous to motivate the workforce to comment on their good and bad experiences without any hesitation.
How to conduct employee engagement surveys?
In this digital age, there are plenty of tools you can find online (including some free tools!) that you can use to conduct employee engagement surveys. I will share more about this in the ‘11 useful employee engagement surveys’ section below.
How to conduct employee engagement surveys?
In this digital age, there are plenty of tools you can find online (including some free tools!) that you can use to conduct employee engagement surveys. I will share more about this in the ‘11 useful employee engagement surveys’ section below.
20 effective employee surveys (and worksheets) to get authentic feedback from your employees
1. Employee Performance review worksheet
It is always good to access your employees not just based on your gut feeling (which may lead to misunderstandings when conveyed across to the employee), but also with black and white data.
A simple and effective way to go about doing this is to have a checklist where both you and your employee can run through and rate on each point. Doing so allows both of you to have a more constructive and authentic discussion on your employee’s skill sets and also a better idea on how to move forward and what are the next KPIs to set.
Get your own Employee Performance Review Worksheet for free
Use this Employee Performance Review Worksheet to have a productive appraisal process.
The Net promoter score (NPS) survey is a great way to find out whether your employees think that your workplace is one that they will recommend to others to work in.
The NPS survey is a simple survey that asks the user to rate from 1-10 how they find their experience in the company and whether they would recommend others to work in the company. Usually if you want your employees to give genuine responses to the NPS survey, it is best to keep it annonymous.
Since the NPS survey is such an easy survey to set up, it can be one of the first surveys that you send out to your employees. Good news is that all you need for your NPS Survey are a few key questions that are listed below.
Net Promoter Score Survey Form - Questions and Recommended Answer Format
How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?
[Likert Scale of 1-10]
What is the primary reason for your score?
[Textbox]
What could we do to improve your experience?
[Textbox]
What department are you from
[Dropdown of all departments in your company]
Watch video on how to set up your own Net Promoter Score (NPS) Survey for Free using Google Tools.
3. Company culture survey
Every company will have its own unique culture. In every company’s culture, it is inevitable that cliques, biases and interest groups will form.
The purpose of conducting company culture surveys is to examine whether your employees feel comfortable with the culture of your company. Using the feedback that your employees have submitted, you will be able to start taking action steps to improve your company’s culture so that your employees can look forward to coming to a positive workplace everyday.
Here are some questions that you can use for your company culture survey:
Are you satisfied with your company culture? Why or why not?
Do you feel respected in the workplace? Why or why not?
What would make this company a better place to work?
Would you recommend someone to work here?
What can we do to improve our company culture?
4. Team Dynamics survey
Unsure about what your team is going through when working on tasks together? Use a Team Dynamics survey to find out more about how your employees are actually feeling!
Here are some great questions regarding Team Dynamics that you can ask:
Does your team inspire you to do your best work?
Does your team help you successfully complete your work?
Do you believe you have the appropriate amount of information to make correct decisions about your work?
When something unexpected comes up in your work, do you usually know whom to ask for help?
Do you have a good understanding of our informal structures and processes
5. Remote Working survey
Ever since the pandemic, working from home and hybrid working has increasingly become the norm. Many of us have now experienced the benefits of working from home.
However, managers and bosses are still hesitant to make hybrid working or working from home a permanent thing as they are afraid that their employees will start to slack or moonlight during working hours when working from home.
To understand how your employees feel about working from home, here are some questions that you can ask:
How will this change affect me?
What does it mean for my team?
What does it mean for my goals or work?
Do you believe the organisation has your best interests in mind when making business decisions?
Are you satisfied with the way we’ve managed both our business and people during this time [specify disruption/situation/time frame as needed]?
Do you believe we’ve maintained adequate communication with all employees?
Have you continued to collaborate with your team during this time?
6. Job Satisfaction Survey
An employee satisfaction survey, also called a job satisfaction survey, is an employee feedback tool that allows employers to find out about the employee experience, directly from employees themselves. The purpose of the employee satisfaction survey is to provide actionable data to improve the employee experience.
To find out more about your employees’ job satisfaction levels, here are some questions you can ask.
Do you enjoy your job?
What aspects of your job do you think can be improved?
What do you prioritise when it comes to your job satisfaction?
Do you believe you have the appropriate amount of information to make correct decisions about your work?
7. Exit Interview Survey
There are plenty of reasons why an employee leaves any organization. Some of the reasons why an employee leaves may even surprise you, especially when you do not work with them.
Here are some common reasons why employees leave any organization.
- Toxic company culture
- Low salary
- Poor management
- Lack of healthy work-life boundaries
- Not allowing remote work
An Exit Interview Survey is a great way to find out from leaving employees what your organization needs to improve on.
Use this Exit Interview Survey Worksheet to get constructive feedback from your employee. Be open to finding out hard truths!
8. Management Performance Survey
Want to better understand what your employees think about the management? Sometimes, it is good to hear feedback from your employees, especially if the feedback can help make your work environment a pleasant and growth oriented place.
Here are some questions that you can ask in your Management Performance Survey:
Do you think that your direct manager has done a good job in guiding you?
What do you think your direct manager needs to improve on?
Do you feel that your direct manager is able to lead your team well?
Are there any tools that you want to recommend to your direct manager to improve the team’s processes?
9. Employee Onboarding survey
Poor onboarding processes are among the most common reasons for why new hires leave. You may have set up procedures to welcome new employees, but you can’t be sure they’re effective unless you ask new hires about them.
Easily find out what your new hire thinks about their onboarding process with these survey questions:
What would have made your first day better?
How would you rate your understanding of the expectations of your job?
How would you rate the duration of your orientation process?
What would you have liked us to share with you before your first day?
In addition to conducting surveys, you can also have an Employee Onboarding Checklist, to ensure your new hire(s) are always informed of everything they need to know.
Get your Employee Onboarding Checklist for free here.
In addition to conducting surveys, you can also have an Employee Onboarding Checklist, to ensure your new hire(s) are always informed of everything they need to know.
10. Post Project Feedback
If you do not want the same issues and mistakes to keep happening for every project that your company embarks on, you need to get feedback from the ground on what can be improved. Consider doing a post project feedback survey whenever your project has ended.
Doing so can help you get useful insights from all employees involved in each project and can help you identify if there are any key concerns that need to be addressed. Chances are that they know about the actual issues more than you.
Send this post-project feedback worksheet to your employees whenever any project is completed.
11. Smart Goals Worksheet
It is important that your employees’ goals in the company adhere to the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound). In order to ensure that the goals are SMART, your employees will need to set aside some time to fill up a SMART GOALS Worksheet.
The SMART Goals Worksheet is not a Survey per se, but it can most definitely help you better understand in more micro detail what each of your employees’ professional goals are.
The SMART Goals Worksheet is not a Survey per se, but it can most definitely help you better understand in more micro detail what each of your employees’ professional goals are.
12. Peer Review Survey
It can be nerve wrecking to know what others think about you. However, this may be the easiest and most accurate way to see how the rest of the team views an employee.
Here is a list of peer-to-peer survey questions that you can use as part of a performance review or evaluation.
Open-ended Questions
An open-ended question refers to questions that require the surveyee to respond in a free-flow way. They can choose to respond in a few words or in a few sentences!
Here are some open-ended peer-to-peer survey questions that you place in your Peer Evaluation Survey:
- What are this employee’s strengths?
- What are 3 words that you would use to describe this employee?
- How well does this employee adapt to changes?
- What area do you think that this employee can improve on?
- What is one thing this employee should continue doing?
- This person always finds creative solutions and takes initiative when problem-solving.
- How well does this person manage their time and workload?
- This person embodies our company values.
- What is this person’s greatest strength or asset in their work at [company name]?
- Can you provide a specific example of an area in which this person can improve?
- What sets this person apart from others?
Likert Scale Questions
A likert scale question refers to a question that asks you to rate your level of satisfaction from Strongly Like/Agree to Strongly Dislike/Disagree.
Here are some Likert Scale Peer to Peer Survey Questions you place in your Peer Evaluation Survey:
- This person prioritizes their workload effectively and meets deadlines.
- This person prioritizes their workload effectively and meets deadlines.
- This person has strong interpersonal skills and helps everyone feel welcome on the team.
- This employee is always open to receiving both negative and positive feedback
- This person values diverse perspectives, even if they are different from their own.
- This person listens well to others
- This person is effective in providing helpful feedback to others
- This person is able to act independently
- This person treats others with respect
- This person is resilient in the face of adversity
- This person puts the needs of the greater good (eg overall company growth) above their own advancement when necessary
- This person is innovative and resourceful in doing whatever it takes to get the job done well
- This person inspires and supports others to do their best work
- This person is continually learning and improving their leadership and performance
- This person effectively communicates their ideas across
- This person is accountable and does what they say they will do
- This person builds good rapport with others
- This person is effective at coordinating their tasks with other employees to increase their effectiveness
- This person is good at planning
- This person goes to meetings on time
- This person maintains a positive attitude when dealing with unexpected challenges
- This person shares good ideas
- This person is a person of integrity
- This person seems to understands why other people act the way they do
13. Workplace Personality Types Survey
Do you agree that human issues are the most difficult to deal with in the workplace?
Sometimes, the issues could be due to the tardiness of certain colleagues. Other times, it could be due to miscommunication and a million other reasons that cause human issues in the workplace.
THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TEST is a well known personality test that measures the following 5 traits in a person.
Openness – How open a person is to new ideas and experiences
Conscientiousness – How goal-directed, persistent, and organized a person is
Extraversion – How much a person is energized by the outside world
Agreeableness – How much a person puts others’ interests and needs ahead of their own
Neuroticism – How sensitive a person is to stress and negative emotional triggers
Take the Big 5 Personality Test
Fun fact: At Krowme, we also took the Big Five personality test and gained some very interesting insights.
To name a few,
- Our support team members love getting things done
- Our Research and Development team members are open-minded and love experimenting
- Our sales team is more on the extroverted side (Not a surprise, however, there are definitely plenty of introverted sales people out there who are great at their job).
Fun fact: At Krowme, we also took the Big Five personality test and gained some very interesting insights.
To name a few,
- Our support team members love getting things done
- Our Research and Development team members are open-minded and love experimenting
- Our sales team is more on the extroverted side (Not a surprise, however, there are definitely plenty of introverted sales people out there who are great at their job).
14. Working Style Survey
The work environment brings together a multitude of personalities. Some people are hardworking and dedicated, others make excellent leaders, and some, well, make us wonder why they were hired in the first place!
With the Working Style Survey, you can find out more about each of your employees’ work personality – their ability to work with others, their attitude, and their work ethic, among other traits.
15. Team Bonding Survey
Sometimes, the way to get some of your team members out of their shell is to organise fun activities to do together. Some fun activities include board games, exercise classes or even craft classes. You may discover a thing or two that you didn’t know about before!
Get your employees to choose what activity they want to do together. This way, there is a higher chance of your employees enjoying the Team Bonding Experience.
Here are some questions that you can ask for your Team Bonding Survey
What is your department?
Which of the following activities do you want to have for your Team Bonding?
-
Pottery
-
Zumba
-
Soap Making
-
Candle Making
-
Baking
-
Canoeing
-
Cooking
-
Bowling
-
Badminton
-
Board Game Night
-
Gaming Night
What size do you prefer for your team bonding?
-
Small – 5-10 pax
-
Larger – 15+ pax
16. Workplace Information Security Questionnaire
The security requirement for each company can vary. However, in general, there are 4 categories of basic security measures required for all companies in today’s digital landscape.
Usually a workplace security questionaire is not about what your employees think or feel. Instead, it should consist of the workplace security measures that you want your employees to acknowledge, and also to test their knowledge on information security practices.
Here are the questions that you can place into your Workplace Information Security Questionaire.
Office Space
Do you acknowledge that you need to retrieve all printed documents from the printer after you print them?
Do you acknowledge to always do a spring clean of your files on server share and remove confidential documents if you spot any?
Do you acknowledge not to openly stick passwords or place confidential items around your desk area?
Do you acknowledge to always ensure that your desk is clean and that your devices are shut down at the end of the day?
Work Email
Do you acknowledge to use a strong password for all your work platforms?
Do you acknowledge to always check to see if the email is legitimate before you download any attachments?
Have you added the following email disclaimer to your email?
The information contained herein (including attachments) is classified and is intended solely for the addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately and delete this message. Any unauthorised use of this message or any accompanying document is strictly prohibited and any such action may result in legal proceedings. YOUR COMPANY NAME does not guarantee and is not liable for the security of any information electronically transmitted, or for the proper and complete transmission of the information contained in this communication, or for any delay in its receipt.
Do you acknowledge to always encrypt your confidential files before sending them to the recipient?
Anti Virus
Do you acknowledge to always ensure that your antivirus is present on your monitor, and is in active and working condition?
Do you acknowledge asking for technical help to reinstall your antivirus if you see any issues with your antivirus?
In addition to having an anti virus, I acknowledge to adhere to every good security habit that ensures that my organisation’s information security is always kept secure.
Remote Work
- I acknowledge to never share my work-related login/password details with my colleagues/friends/family/anyone else who is not supposed to know it.
- I acknowledge never to connect to a public wifi network for work-related purposes.
- I acknowledge to never visit r-rated sites on any of my work devices
- I acknowledge to never leave my vpn/remote connections turned on especially if I have ended work for the day
- I acknowledge to never share company issued devices with any third-parties without consent
17. Work From Home Survey
Ever since the pandemic, working from home and hybrid working has increasingly become the norm. Many of us have now experienced the benefits of working from home.
However, managers and bosses are still hesitant to make hybrid working or working from home a permanent thing as they are afraid that their employees will start to slack or moonlight during working hours when working from home.
To understand how your employees feel about working from home, here are some questions that you can ask
How will this change affect me?
What does it mean for my team?
What does it mean for my goals or work?
Do you believe the organisation has your best interests in mind when making business decisions?
Are you satisfied with the way we’ve managed both our business and people during this time [specify disruption/situation/time frame as needed]?
Do you believe we’ve maintained adequate communication with all employees?
Have you continued to collaborate with your team during this time?
18. Staff Welfare Survey
Do you want to check in with your staff on whether they are happy with their Staff Welfare? Use a survey to get their feedback!
Here are some questions that you can ask regarding your company’s staff welfare.
Which of the following do you prioritise most?
Flexible Benefits
Flexible lunch hours
Leave
Do you think that your basic staff welfare needs have been met?
What do you like about your current Staff Welfare that has been provided by the company?
19. Internal Operations Survey
Too busy to figure out how to improve your company’s internal operations? Get your employees to give feedback instead! Chances are that they will be more than willing to give constructive feedback because they likely will want their work processes to be as smooth as possible.
Here are some questions that you can ask regarding the internal operations of your company.
Does it take long for you to find your files?
Are you and your colleagues always up to date with company announcements?
Do you think that other colleagues may be informed of important company announcements before you?
Do you know the correct file naming structure for your files?
Are there any company processes that you would like to improve on?
20.Work Culture Survey
It is inevitable that every company will have its own work culture and character. Sometimes the work culture may be less than desirable and can play a part in an employee’s decision to leave or stay in the company.
As someone in higher management, you may be out of touch with the work culture in your company. Therefore, it is important to survey your employees to get their feedback on your company’s work culture.
Here are some Work Culture Survey Questions that you can ask:
Do you like the culture in our company?
How would you describe the work culture in our company in 3 words (eg. intellectual, comical, book-lovers, english-speaking, mandarin-speaking, serious etc)
What is the ratio of introversion and extroversion in this company?
What is the ratio of introversion and extroversion in your department?
Does this ratio affect your morale at work?
Is there anything else that affects your morale at work?
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