How to run an employee engagement survey?

If you are here you already know the importance of employee engagement and now probably want to measure it or get to know how to go about an employee engagement survey. We have got you covered!

What is an employee engagement survey?

An employee engagement survey is a way of measuring employee engagement in an organisation qualitatively or quantitatively. Employee engagement is how committed, enthusiastic and dedicated employees are about the organisation, their role and work. It is important to assess employee engagement as it tells you how motivated your employees are about the company and their work.

Read: Employee engagement strategies with examples

Types of employee engagement surveys

When it comes to measuring employee engagement, one size does not fit all. Different survey types serve different purposes, and choosing the right format is key to building effective employee engagement strategies.

1. Annual engagement surveys

These are comprehensive surveys conducted once a year to assess overall employee engagement across the organisation. They typically cover areas like culture, leadership, growth, and satisfaction.
They provide deep insights and help HR teams plan long-term employee engagement activities.

2. Pulse surveys

Pulse surveys are short, quick surveys conducted frequently usually monthly or quarterly. They focus on specific topics like workload, manager effectiveness, or recent changes.
These surveys help track employee engagement in real time and allow companies to make quick improvements.

3. Lifecycle surveys

Lifecycle surveys are conducted at key stages of the employee journey, such as onboarding, role changes, promotions, or exit.
They help organisations understand how employee engagement evolves over time and identify gaps in the employee experience.

4. eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score)

eNPS is a simple but powerful metric that measures employee engagement in terms of loyalty. 

It typically asks:“Would you recommend this company as a place to work?”
This helps gauge overall sentiment and is often used alongside other employee engagement strategies.

When should you run an employee engagement survey?

Running an employee engagement survey at the right time is just as important as designing the right questions. Poor timing can lead to low participation and inaccurate insights.

Here are some best practices to follow:

• Avoid peak workload periods
  Do not run surveys during high-pressure times like product launches, audits, or financial year-end. Employees may rush through responses or not participate at all.
• Choose stable business periods
  Surveys work best when the organisation is in a relatively stable phase, allowing employees to provide thoughtful and balanced feedback.
• After major organizational changes
  Conduct surveys after events like policy updates, leadership changes, restructuring, or layoffs. This helps assess how these changes impact employee engagement.
• Run pulse surveys regularly
  Short pulse surveys every 4–8 weeks help continuously measure employee engagement and improve ongoing employee engagement activities.

How to design an employee engagement survey

Choose your goal

Not all surveys need to be comprehensive and cover every section of employee engagement. Your goal can be understanding the effectiveness of the organisation’s culture or effectiveness of communication or Learning and Development (L&D) programs. Or you could do an extensive survey to gather information about all the tenets and then go for another in-depth survey to understand a specific section in detail.

Audience and communication

Choose who the audience will be and how the survey will be shared with them. You also need to decide if it is going to be anonymous or not. When it comes to communication, you need to decide if sending it over email is enough and how many times to send it or if team managers should urge employees to take it up or what strategy will work the best to make all your audience participate in the survey.

Results and accountability

Decide if you are going to disclose the end results or not. When you receive the feedback who should be taking the responsibility to convert them into action items for the concerned people to work on. Generally, it is the HR department that takes care of this to avoid any kind of bias.

Employee engagement survey questions

Satisfaction

Employee satisfaction can have multiple tenets. The satisfaction can be with regards to their role, team, or organisation. It is important to know if they are satisfied or dissatisfied and specifically what is the cause to focus on the right things.

Here are some questions you can ask for employee satisfaction

1. Are you happy with how your team operates?
2. Is your team and manager supportive and fun to work with?
3. Are you happy or proud to be a part of this organisation
4. Are you satisfied with how your workdays look?
5. How excited are you when you start work after weekends

Alignment

This section will help you understand how aligned employees are with the core values and culture of the company. Employees who align well are more likely to stay loyal to the organisation. Employees who have highly aligned are highly motivated about their work and growth in the company too.

Questions you can ask to understand employee alignment

1. Do you feel your work is helping the organisation in succeeding?
2. Are you inspired by the values of the organisation?
3. Is the company actively fostering their core values?
4. Is the leadership/top management/ HRs taking initiatives to ensure the company’s values are instilled?

Culture

Good workplace culture is one of the biggest indicators of employee engagement. The culture should propel engagement and make employees know what is expected of them and make them feel belonged in the organisation.

Read: Building organizational culture for startups

Question to understand employees’ perception of workplace culture

1. Is the culture of this company supportive to allow yourself to function to the fullest?
2. Are your managers and the leadership team invested in empowering and exceeding workplace culture?
3. What could be improved in the company culture?
4. Do you feel respected by your team and the organization?

Growth and opportunities

One of the major reasons employees stick with a company is because of the growth they can achieve in the company. It also matters how companies invest in the same through L&D. It improves the performance of the company and the employees.

Questions to ask regarding growth and opportunities

1. Is your manager helping you with growth opportunities
2. Do you feel your role has any growth in the next quarter?
3. What is the growth you see for yourself in the company in the next financial year?
4. Is your work challenging and entitles you to be innovative?
5. Do you have the necessary tools and opportunities to maximise your potential in this company?

Read: How to upskill employees?

Recognition and appreciation

Employees seek recognition for the work they do. This is one of the most important factors while considering employee engagement within the company. Creating a habit of appreciation helps employees perceive that their company values them and empowers the employees to do work more efficiently. You can even ask your employees for employee appreciation ideas.

Questions to ask regarding recognition and appreciation

1. Is your dedication towards your work gaining recognition?
2. Do you get appreciated enough for the work you do?
3. Are you getting fair compensation for the efforts you put in?
4. Do you feel valued?
5. What type of recognition/employee appreciation do you value the most?

Diversity and inclusion

A diverse and inclusive workplace, the one that makes everyone become a part of the company regardless of their background. This makes the employees feel equal and encouraged.

Read: Significance of diversity in workplace

Questions to ask regarding diversity and inclusion

1. Do you feel included in the company?
2. Do you feel someone/some people in the company is/are discriminating
3. Do you know anyone in this organisation who is being discriminated against?
4. My opinion is heard and counted in my team/company
5. Are the employee benefits provided inclusive?
6. What can we do to improve diversity and inclusion?
7. I have equal opportunity as my colleagues

Work Life balance

Balancing office work load and having life outside the office is a key factor for employee’s productivity, performance and engagement. Good work-life balance ensures employee motivation, less absenteeism and reduced employee stress.

Questions to ask regarding work life balance

1. Is your work overwhelming?
2. Are you able to give enough time to your family and friends?
3. Are you satisfied with the working hours?
4. Do you work overtime due to employer pressure?
5. How do you assess your work life and social life?

Communication

Exchange of information and ideas in the workplace is an important factor for employee engagement. Communication helps to bridge the gap and eliminate misunderstandings between employees. This helps in better understanding and effective work performance.

Questions to ask on communication

1. Is the organisation communicating effectively when there is a change in policy?
2. Is the organisation communicating effectively when there is a decision made that will affect the employees?
3. Is your company/team considering your views before making a decision that will impact you/the team?
4. Would you say you have complete access to the information needed to perform your everyday activities?

There are also some open-ended questions which can be asked/surveyed  regarding engagement

1. What do you like the most about this company and you working here?
2. Why is this company better?
3. What changes would you like to see regarding employee engagement?
4. What do you like least about working here?

How to run an employee engagement survey?

The best way to go about an employee engagement survey is by using a platform like Survey Monkey or Typeform that does an end-to-end survey.

But why?

1. Free templates - These platforms have templates for employee engagement and employee satisfaction. All you have to do is pick out the question you want to keep, remove the one you don’t need and also add the questions as per your requirements.
2. Choose the format for optimum results - There are a variety of formats to do a survey and each format serves a different purpose. Even if you draft the questions by yourself, you need to also figure out the appropriate answer options to avoid bias. The options should also be inclusive keeping in mind the different audiences participating. Survey management platforms help you by suggesting the right way for framing the question and answer options.
3. Interpretation of data - Survey management platforms make it easy for you to interpret the data. These platforms analyse the data and build charts for easy understanding of feedback which is a tedious process to do manually.

What to do after the employee engagement survey?

Collecting feedback is only the first step. The real impact of an employee engagement survey comes from how you act on the insights. This is where most organisations fall short.

Here’s a structured approach to turn feedback into meaningful employee engagement strategies:

Step 1: Share results transparently

Communicate key findings with employees to build trust. Focus on major insights rather than overwhelming teams with raw data. Transparency reinforces the true employee engagement making employees feel heard and valued.

Step 2: Identify 2–3 priority areas

Avoid trying to fix everything at once. Identify a few high-impact areas such as communication, recognition, or workload that need immediate attention. Focused efforts lead to more effective employee engagement activities.

Step 3: Create action plans

Develop clear action plans for each priority area. Assign ownership to HR teams and managers to ensure accountability. Well-defined actions are the foundation of strong employee engagement strategies.

Step 4: Close the loop

Communicate back to employees using a simple framework:
This step is critical in building trust and improving long-term employee engagement.

Step 5: Track progress

Use follow-up pulse surveys and regular check-ins to measure progress. Continuous tracking ensures your employee engagement strategies are actually working and evolving with employee needs.

Read: How to measure employee engagement at workplace?