Your Complete Guide to Employee Engagement Surveys

Are you looking to create an employee engagement survey but you’re not sure where to start? If that sounds like you, then you’re in the right place. In this comprehensive guide to employee engagement surveys, we’ll be covering all aspects of this important topic, from the value they’ll bring to your employees to actionable insights on improving employee engagement to survey results.

We’ve also included 20 key employee engagement questions for you to use in your own survey and provided a step-by-step guide on how to run it. By the end, you’ll be well-placed to create and manage a highly effective survey, analyze your results, and make positive changes based on employee feedback to boost employee engagement, morale, and productivity.

Ready to learn all about employee engagement surveys? Then let’s dive in!

What is an employee engagement survey?

An employee engagement survey is a tool used by organizations to gather insights and data on their employees’ level of satisfaction in the workplace. Typically such a survey consists of a range of questions covering topics such as work-life balance, team dynamics, workload distribution and organization, management practices, and company culture. Employee engagement surveys are typically presented to members of staff via email, a dedicated website, an employee intranet, or an app.

Question formats on an employee engagement form can vary, depending on the data the organization is seeking to collect. Multiple choice and closed questions are ideal for gathering measurable and comparable data points, while open questions are used for collecting anecdotal evidence that gives employees the chance to speak more freely about their own experiences.

Why are employee engagement surveys important

Employee engagement surveys are extremely important. They enable an organization to gain valuable insights into the feelings and perspectives of their employees and better understand the collective mindset of the workforce. This data helps team leads identify problem areas and opportunities for improvement.

With the collected data and insights from a survey, management teams can make positive changes to workplace practices which boost staff morale and increase employee engagement. In doing so, organizations can improve the employee experience and drive workforce success.

Benefits of employee engagement survey

Employee engagement surveys are an invaluable tool for organizations seeking to boost productivity, support employees, and create a positive working environment. Let’s look at the host of benefits you can expect to experience when you conduct this type of survey with your valued members of staff.

Gauge the mood and sentiments of the workforce

A major benefit of conducting an annual employee engagement survey is that it helps company and team leaders better understand levels of employee satisfaction and gain true insights into the experiences of the people working for the organization.

Uncover workplace challenges

Surveys are an opportunity for employees to open up anonymously about work-related issues. When employers are asked the right questions, team leads learn of concerns that they may otherwise be unaware of, including those regarding management practices, work-life balance, and even team dynamics.

Enhance internal communication

When employees are given an appropriate platform to air their views and concerns, a culture of open communication is fostered within the workplace as a whole. This promotes an environment of increased trust and transparency, improving collaboration and bolstering employee morale.

Boost morale and motivation

Companies can significantly boost the morale and motivation of their employees by conducting employee engagement surveys. Firstly, this effectively demonstrates their interest in hearing their employees’ views which helps employees feel seen and heard. Secondly, when employee feedback leads to tangible improvements in the workplace, employees feel taken seriously and that they have agency in creating positive change for themselves and their coworkers.

Reduce staff turnover

By letting your employees know that you care about what’s important to them and addressing issues they raise, they feel valued and heard by the organization. This can significantly reduce turnover rates as well as attract talent looking for a company where they feel seen and heard.

Boost productivity and drive engagement

By identifying factors that enhance or hinder employee engagement, team leaders can put in place effective and highly targeted strategies to increase engagement across the company. When employees are more engaged and motivated, productivity, creative thinking, and collaboration naturally soar.

Inform training and development

Surveys are a useful tool in highlighting skill shortage areas in the workforce that need to be addressed with specific support or training. Insights from a survey ensure team leads are addressing the most pressing skills gaps first and prioritizing individuals with the greatest need with relevant training.

Measure progress

When employees are asked closed and multiple choice questions on annual employee engagement surveys, management teams have fixed data points that enable them to easily measure progress over time and compare the effectiveness of any improvements that are implemented.

Become more inclusive

An employee engagement survey is an opportunity for employers to identify groups within their organization who feel less engaged or valued, giving these individuals the chance to have their voices heard. The resulting survey data enables management to implement relevant diversity and inclusivity initiatives to ensure all groups are acknowledged within the company and all needs are met.

Learn more about Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace!

Inform decision making

Survey data, whether quantitative or qualitative, enables an organization to make data-backed decisions regarding policies, procedures, and strategic initiatives. It can also support internal bids for change as the extensive data a survey provides is a persuasive tool in bringing all stakeholders on board.

Boost productivity

A major advantage to conducting a survey on employee engagement is the boost it brings to employee productivity. Not only do engaged employees perform better, but seeking their feedback boosts morale and well-being which enhances overall productivity too.

How to create an employee engagement survey

Let’s dive into the steps you need to take to create an employee engagement survey that will produce the insights and data you need to boost employee engagement and drive productivity.

1. Define the survey objectives

Your first step in this process is to clearly outline the goals of the survey. These objectives will ensure the survey questions you produce lead to the outcomes you require, enable you to track your progress, and provide you with benchmarks by which you can measure the survey’s success. Some examples of the goals you might like to define at this stage could include:

Improving employee engagement
Streamlining internal communication
Boosting employee morale
Increasing organizational efficiency
Identifying key areas of improvement
Gauging the sentiment of the workforce

2. Craft your survey questions

With your goals defined, you’re ready to start drafting your survey questions. When writing your questions, your objectives should be your foundation. For example, if your goal is to boost employee morale, you will need to ask questions related to what currently causes satisfaction and dissatisfaction for employees in the workplace and ask for their feedback regarding possible improvements. Try to ensure your questions are as specific, relevant, and, crucially, measurable as possible. To do this, a combination of open, closed, and multiple-choice questions should be adopted. Multiple choice and closed questions will enable you to gather quantitative data that is measurable and comparable, while open-ended questions are an opportunity to gather qualitative, anecdotal evidence that provides you with context and insights.

3. Distribute the survey among employees

There are numerous options open to employers when it comes to distributing employee engagement surveys among their employees. While email newsletters are a popular choice thanks to the ease with which you can track responses and implement personalization, employers might also choose to use employee apps to support users who prefer to use a handheld device. Intranet services also work well as a distribution platform, as they bring together surveys, news, and updates in a centralized, interactive workplace forum. Other options used by organizations include QR codes, text messages, internal social media, and even physical copies, where necessary.

4. Analyze the results

Once your surveys have been distributed and completed, you’ll need to collect the data and analyze it. This step is crucial as it enables you to turn raw data into actionable insights and improvements, bringing about positive change in the workplace.

When you start the analyzing process, it can be helpful to organize the data into different categories, for example, by question or theme. This will make it easier to closely study and identify trends, patterns, and standout areas of improvement. To analyze the quantitative data, i.e., data that has come from multiple-choice or closed questions, you may want to conduct quantitative analysis techniques such as descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, or correlation analysis to help you interpret the responses as accurately as possible. To analyze the qualitative data, i.e., anecdotal insights that answer open questions, you could conduct qualitative analysis techniques such as thematic analysis, content analysis, or narrative analysis to help you fully understand the data.

5. Share your findings and take action

Your final step in creating an effective and compelling employee engagement survey is to communicate your findings to team leads, stakeholders, and the workforce as a whole. Using your analysis of the data and the insights you’ve uncovered, it’s important that you additionally share a plan of action outlining how you will implement positive changes and address any challenges that have been brought to your attention. The Staffbase Employee App enables employees to digest survey findings and solution proposals at their own leisure on a handheld device, while the Staffbase Intranet is an interactive hub for news and updates that’s ideal for communicating survey results to all staff members at once. Finally, Email Newsletters ensure you can reach each member of staff in their own inbox as well as track open rates, clicks, and engagement in the survey results being communicated.

Best practices for employee engagement survey

In order to drive valuable insights and promote positive change in the workplace, you’ll want to stick to the following best practices when conducting your employee engagement survey.

Ensure your questions align with your objectives

To gather the data you need to meet your survey’s goals, you’ll need to craft thoughtful and relevant questions that fully align with your initial objectives. Try not to stray into areas that are too general, or to use questions you’ve copied from other surveys. Instead, write questions that seek to fully understand your workforce and address pressing issues that help you fill knowledge gaps.

Encourage honest feedback by offering fully anonymity

If you’d like to really know what your employees think and feel about the experience of working for your organization, it’s important that you clearly communicate the confidential nature of your survey. By installing and communicating strong privacy measures, you’re likely to receive more candid — and, therefore, useful — feedback than if participants are not given anonymity.

Clearly communicate how you will use the data

If you want your employees to fully engage with the survey, you’ll need to let them know how you will use the feedback you collect. By informing your team of how you plan to act on the survey results, they are more likely to feel they have a voice in how the workplace and its culture are managed and that they are being actively listened to. The Staffbase Employee App is the perfect tool for communicating to employees your intentions with the employee engagement survey and clarifying exactly how their data will be used.

Share key findings and act on the feedback

It’s important that you act quickly on the results of your employee engagement survey. You want the workforce to know that you have taken their feedback on board and are using it as the foundation for positive change. If feedback is not acted upon, employees will be discouraged from participating in future surveys, and their trust in the management may diminish.

Additionally, members of staff will be curious to learn of the key findings of the survey and how their coworkers feel about ongoing issues in the workplace. Sharing the key findings of the survey is a good way to promote transparency, build trust, and encourage future participation. We’d recommend utilizing the Staffbase Intranet for sharing key findings from the survey and outlining how you plan to act on the feedback you’ve collected. Consider uploading graphs and infographics on the platform that communicate trends, patterns, and valuable insights.

Other best practices you may wish to incorporate include:

Pilot testing your survey with a small representative group of employees to iron out any errors or inconsistencies
Using a multi-channel distribution approach to ensure all employees have access, irrespective of their location
Being thoughtful about the timing of your survey, i.e., avoiding busy times for the company and allowing participants 2-3 weeks to complete it.

Employee engagement survey questions

Take a look at the following employee engagement survey questions for an idea of what you should include in your survey and why.