Questionnaire for employee engagement survey: 75+ Expert-crafted questions to ask in 2025

Filling out a questionnaire is a lot like visiting a doctor for a health checkup. You answer a series of questions—not because the doctor doesn’t know what’s wrong, but because those details reveal what’s happening beneath the surface. Skipping questions or asking the wrong ones leaves blind spots, leading to half-baked conclusions.

The same holds true for employee engagement surveys. The questions you ask are the diagnostic tools, uncovering what drives motivation, where friction exists, and what employees truly need to thrive.

In 2025, getting these questions right isn’t just about gathering data—it’s about diagnosing culture and prescribing the right actions for growth.

What is an employee engagement survey?

An employee engagement survey is a structured way to understand how connected, motivated, and employee satisfaction feels among employees feel at work. Unlike a simple employee opinion survey that focuses on surface-level sentiments, this type of survey digs deeper into what truly drives commitment—things like trust in leadership, employee development growth opportunities, workplace culture, and day-to-day experiences.

At its core, an engagement survey helps management go beyond assumptions. Leaders often believe they know what employees want, but real insights come when you ask direct, carefully crafted questions. By running an engagement survey, you uncover valuable insights on what boosts morale and what might be quietly causing disengagement. It’s not just about spotting problems—it’s about identifying strengths you can build on.

Think of it as a feedback loop: employees share their perspectives so employers can collect feedback and gain clarity on where to act. When done consistently, an employee engagement questionnaire becomes the foundation for shaping meaningful change. Whether through a broad work engagement survey or a more focused employee perception survey, the goal is the same—creating a workplace where the employee experience ensures employees feel heard, valued, and motivated to give their best.

Next, you might wonder—if surveys are powerful, how do scales shape their accuracy?

The importance of your survey question scale

The scale you choose in a questionnaire for an employee engagement survey is a crucial tool to measure employee engagement, more than just numbers on a page—it’s the foundation of accurate insights that can drive key business outcomes.

Without the right scale, even the sharpest survey questions lose their impact. Think of it as the difference between using a blurry lens and a high-definition one to understand your employees.

1. Ensures consistency in responses

A well-structured scale gives employees clarity on how to respond, eliminating confusion between choices like “agree” versus “strongly agree.” This consistency allows HR teams to analyze responses across departments without data misalignment. Over time, it ensures trends related to employee retention are visible and easy to interpret.

2. Captures the intensity of opinions

Not all feedback is black or white. A carefully crafted scale captures the degree of employee sentiment—whether someone feels mildly satisfied or extremely disengaged. This depth of understanding helps leaders prioritize areas that need urgent attention to improve employee engagement outcomes versus those that require smaller adjustments.

3. Makes data actionable

A vague or poorly designed scale leaves leaders scratching their heads, unsure of what the results really mean. In contrast, precise scales in an annual employee engagement survey turn survey results into clear signals, showing which aspects of work engagement need improvement. This helps transform raw feedback into practical strategies.

Employee voice is strategy, not charity. Ignoring feedback isn’t neutral—it’s toxic.

Laszlo Bock

Former CHRO at Google

4. Reduces bias in interpretation

Balanced survey scales with equal positive and negative options reduce the risk of skewed results. For instance, if a scale leans too positively, it may create an illusion of higher engagement than reality. A fair scale ensures leaders act on authentic employee sentiment, making it the best employee engagement survey, not distorted data.

5. Enables benchmarking and tracking

Standardized scales allow companies to benchmark their results against industry standards or historical data. This continuity makes it easier to analyze employee survey questions and see whether employee engagement is improving, stagnating, or declining, providing a basis for continuous improvement. Leaders can then measure the real impact of changes implemented over time.

The top 75+ employee engagement survey questions

Employee engagement surveys help organizations understand how employees feel about their work, teams, and overall environment. The right questions uncover insights that drive engagement, retention, and productivity. Below are over 75 questions you can use, split into Likert scale and open-ended formats.

Likert scale questions (1–5: Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree)

1. I clearly understand my job responsibilities.
2. I know what is expected of me at work.
3. I feel confident in my ability to perform my job well.
4. I receive adequate feedback on my performance.
5. My manager communicates effectively.
6. I feel valued for the work I do.
7. I have the resources I need to perform my job effectively.
8. My work gives me a sense of accomplishment.
9. I have opportunities to develop new skills.
10. My team collaborates well to achieve goals.
11. I feel motivated to do my best work every day.
12. I understand how my work contributes to the organization’s goals.
13. Leadership inspires me to do my best work.
14. I am satisfied with my current role.
15. My workload is manageable.
16. I feel my ideas are considered by my manager.
17. I receive recognition when I do good work.
18. I trust the leadership team.
19. I feel included and respected at work.
20. The organization communicates important information clearly.
21. I have a healthy work-life balance.
22. I feel supported by my manager.
23. My organization fosters a culture of learning.
24. I have opportunities for career growth.
25. I understand the company’s mission and vision.
26. I feel engaged in my day-to-day work.
27. I feel my work is meaningful.
28. I have the autonomy to make decisions in my role.
29. My manager helps me overcome obstacles.
30. Team members hold each other accountable.
31. I feel comfortable sharing feedback with my manager.
32. I have the tools needed to do my job efficiently.
33. Management acts on employee feedback.
34. I feel a sense of belonging at work.
35. I am proud to work at this organization.
36. I am satisfied with communication between teams.
37. I feel my professional development is supported.
38. I have opportunities to work on challenging projects.
39. My opinions are valued by my team.
40. I understand performance expectations.
41. I feel recognized for my contributions.
42. My manager supports my career growth.
43. I have a good relationship with my coworkers.
44. I feel safe expressing ideas or concerns.
45. I am satisfied with the level of feedback I receive.
46. I feel motivated by the organization’s goals.
47. I have opportunities to improve my skills regularly.
48. Leadership communicates a clear vision for the future.
49. I feel empowered to make decisions in my role.
50. I would recommend this organization as a great place to work.

What gets measured gets improved—employee surveys are not a task, they’re a trust-building exercise.

Josh Bersin

Global HR Industry Analyst, Founder at The Josh Bersin Company

Open-ended questions

1. What motivates you to perform at your best?
2. What aspects of your role do you enjoy the most?
3. What challenges prevent you from doing your best work?
4. How can management better support you?
5. What changes would improve teamwork in your department?
6. How could communication be improved in the organization?
7. Describe a recent positive experience at work.
8. Describe a recent negative experience at work.
9. What opportunities for growth would you like to see?
10. How can leadership improve employee engagement?
11. What recognition or reward would be most meaningful to you?
12. How do you feel about your current workload?
13. What would make your day-to-day work more satisfying?
14. How can your manager better help you achieve your goals?
15. What skills or training would help you in your role?
16. How could the organization better support work-life balance?
17. What improvements would you suggest for company culture?
18. Describe an obstacle that affects your productivity.
19. How could collaboration between teams be improved?
20. What additional resources would help you perform better?
21. How can the company improve employee communication?
22. What motivates you to stay with the organization?
23. How can your team better support your success?
24. What feedback would you give to leadership?
25. Describe a situation where you felt proud to work here.
26. Describe a situation where you felt frustrated or overlooked.
27. How do you define career growth in your current role?
28. What would encourage you to be more engaged at work?
29. What makes you feel included and respected in the workplace?
30. Share any other suggestions for improving the employee experience.

Open-ended vs. Multiple-choice: What works best?

When designing a questionnaire for an employee engagement survey, one big debate always comes up—should you ask open-ended questions or stick to multiple-choice? Both approaches have unique strengths, and the best surveys often use a mix of input from senior leadership. Here’s how each option works and why balance is key.

• Open-ended captures depth: Open-ended questions give employees freedom to express their true thoughts in their own words. This helps uncover emotions, unique concerns, and nuanced feedback that multiple-choice can easily miss. They’re perfect for spotting unexpected themes in an employee perception survey.
• Multiple-choice delivers structure: Multiple-choice questions create consistency and make responses easy to quantify. They help HR quickly identify patterns across departments, which is especially useful in large-scale work engagement surveys where comparing trends is essential.
• Open-ended builds trust: When employees see they have space to share freely, it signals that leadership values their opinions. This boosts authenticity in responses and often encourages higher participation, making surveys for employees feel less restrictive.
• Multiple-choice reduces fatigue: Too many open-ended questions can feel overwhelming. Multiple-choice items are quicker to answer, making staff more likely to complete long engagement staff surveys without dropping out halfway.
• Best results come from a blend: The smartest employee engagement questionnaires use both formats: multiple-choice for clarity and benchmarks, open-ended for context and depth. This combination ensures staff engagement survey questions don’t just measure numbers—they capture the story behind them.

Do's and don’ts while framing engagement questions

Framing the right questions in a questionnaire for an employee engagement survey is an art. Poorly written items can confuse employees or lead to vague responses, while well-crafted ones spark honesty and clarity. Here are some simple dos and don’ts to guide your next survey.

Do’s

• Keep questions clear and simple: Employees should understand the question instantly. A clear question avoids misinterpretation and ensures reliable results in both an employee opinion survey and a team member engagement survey.
• Focus on one idea at a time: Avoid bundling multiple concepts into a single question. For example, instead of asking about leadership and communication together, split them into two separate staff engagement survey questions.
• Use neutral language: Ensure your wording doesn’t push respondents toward a particular answer. Neutral phrasing creates more authentic feedback, which strengthens the credibility of engagement surveys for the workplace.
• Provide balanced response options: Scales should have equal positive and negative options. This balance makes work engagement surveys more accurate and prevents skewed interpretations of employee sentiment.
• Test questions before rollout: Pilot your survey with a small group first. Testing ensures your employee engagement questionnaire template works as intended and avoids confusion company-wide.

Don’ts

• Don’t ask leading questions: Questions like “Don’t you love your manager’s leadership style?” bias the results. They make an anonymous engagement survey less effective and erode trust.
• Don’t make surveys too long: Overloading employees with dozens of repetitive questions leads to fatigue. Shorter, sharper surveys for employees maintain engagement and survey completion rates.
• Don’t use jargon or technical terms: Language should be accessible to everyone, regardless of role. If staff need to decode terms, the employee perception survey loses accuracy.
• Don’t ignore cultural differences: What works in one region may not translate in another. Poorly localized engagement staff survey questions risk alienating employees instead of engaging them.
• Don’t overlook anonymity: Questions that feel traceable discourage honesty. A poorly designed format can undermine the purpose of an employee engagement questionnaire altogether.

Types of questions to avoid in your employee engagement survey

Not every question belongs in a questionnaire for an employee engagement survey. Some can confuse employees, create bias, or generate data that isn’t actionable. To make sure your staff engagement survey questions hit the mark, here are six types you should avoid.

1. Leading questions

These push employees toward a certain answer, such as “How great is your manager at motivating you?” Leading questions damage the credibility of an employee perception survey because they don’t reflect genuine opinions.

2. Double-barreled questions

Asking about two things at once—like “Do you feel your workload is fair and your manager is supportive?”—confuses respondents. In a work engagement survey, this makes it impossible to know which part of the question employees are answering.

3. Overly vague questions

Questions like “Do you like your work?” are too broad to act on. Instead of gathering clarity, such items dilute the value of engagement surveys for the workplace, leaving leaders with little direction.

4. Extremely personal questions

An employee opinion survey should never cross the line into sensitive personal territory, like finances or family issues. These can make staff uncomfortable and reduce trust in the overall process.

5. Overly complex or jargon-heavy questions

If employees have to read a question twice to understand it, it’s a problem. Using technical language in a team member engagement survey makes results inconsistent, as people interpret the wording differently.

6. Questions that compromise anonymity

Asking directly identifiable details—like “Which manager do you disagree with most?”—undermines the idea of an anonymous engagement survey. Once trust is broken, participation in future employee engagement questionnaires will drop.

Should engagement questions be anonymous? Here’s why it matters

Anonymity can make or break the success of a questionnaire for an employee engagement survey. When employees believe their answers are traceable, they often hold back honest feedback or default to “safe” responses. This creates a false sense of satisfaction in the survey process and prevents leaders from uncovering the real challenges inside the workplace.

An anonymous engagement survey, on the other hand, builds trust. It assures employees that they can share openly, contributing to meaningful feedback without fear of judgment or retaliation. Whether you’re running a work engagement survey or an employee perception survey, the focus is on creating engaged employees.

Anonymity increases participation rates and makes the data more reliable. Employees are more likely to point out gaps in leadership, communication, or culture when they know their identity isn’t tied to their comments.

For management, the value lies in clarity. Honest feedback—especially in surveys for employees or staff engagement survey questions—provides the insights needed to make meaningful improvements. When employees feel safe to speak their minds, leaders gain a true reflection of engagement levels and can design targeted actions that actually move the needle. In short, anonymity turns surveys into a genuine conversation rather than a cautious checkbox exercise.

How does AI help in identifying engagement drivers from your questionnaire?

AI is transforming how companies analyze a questionnaire for an employee engagement survey. Instead of manually combing through endless responses, AI pinpoints the real drivers of engagement with speed and accuracy, delivering critical insights. Here’s how it helps HR leaders uncover what truly matters to employees.

• Detects hidden patterns in responses: AI can analyze thousands of survey answers at once, spotting themes that humans might miss. For example, if subtle dissatisfaction shows up across a work engagement survey, AI highlights it as an early warning signal.
• Clusters open-ended feedback: Sorting through free-text answers in an employee perception survey can be time-consuming. AI groups similar responses together, turning scattered comments into clear themes that leadership can act upon quickly.
• Prioritizes top engagement drivers: AI doesn’t just show what employees feel—it reveals which issues most affect overall engagement. Whether it’s recognition, workload, or leadership, AI helps transform surveys for employees into actionable priorities.
• Tracks sentiment over time: Natural Language Processing (NLP) allows AI to detect tone and sentiment shifts in responses. This is useful in recurring engagement staff surveys, helping leaders understand whether interventions are improving morale.
• Supports predictive insights: AI goes beyond reporting to predict future outcomes. By analyzing trends from employee engagement questionnaires or team member engagement surveys, it can forecast turnover risks or disengagement hotspots before they escalate.

How to test your questionnaire before launching it company-wide?

Before rolling out a questionnaire for an employee engagement survey to your entire workforce, it’s critical to test it. A pilot run helps you catch confusing wording, technical glitches, or questions that don’t deliver useful insights, enabling continuous feedback for improvement. Here’s how to test effectively before going company-wide.

• Run a pilot with a small group: Start with a sample of employees from different teams and levels. This allows you to see how the survey performs in real conditions, ensuring the employee engagement questionnaire works smoothly across roles.
• Gather feedback on clarity: Ask pilot participants if any items felt unclear, repetitive, or too long. Their input will highlight whether your staff engagement survey questions are easy to understand or need rephrasing.
• Check response patterns: Analyze pilot results to spot red flags like everyone choosing the same option. This shows whether your employee perception survey questions are too vague or biased, making adjustments easier before full rollout.
• Test technology and accessibility: Ensure the platform works on mobile, desktop, and across languages. A glitchy system can discourage employees from completing surveys for employees, no matter how good the questions are.
• Refine based on insights: Use pilot feedback to edit, remove, or replace weak items. This step ensures your work engagement survey captures meaningful data and boosts participation when launched company-wide.

How to localize your engagement survey for global teams?

Global teams bring diversity in culture, language, and work practices—so a one-size-fits-all questionnaire for employee engagement survey won’t cut it. To make surveys effective across regions, localization is key. Here’s how to adapt your approach for truly global participation.

1. Translate with cultural sensitivity

Direct translation often misses the mark because words carry different nuances across languages. Instead of translating word for word, adapt the language so the sentiment and intent remain intact. This way, employees don’t just understand the employee engagement questionnaire—they connect with it in a meaningful way.

2. Adapt response scales

A “5” on a scale might mean “excellent” in one culture but “barely acceptable” in another. Standardizing scales without context can distort results related to job satisfaction. By tailoring rating scales to align with regional expectations, your work engagement surveys capture more accurate feedback.

3. Respect regional workplace norms

What counts as flexibility, recognition, or even “good management” varies across geographies. For instance, questions about remote work may be irrelevant in countries where on-site work is the default. Localizing your staff engagement survey questions ensures employees feel the survey is relevant to their reality.

4. Use inclusive examples

Cultural references like baseball metaphors or holiday traditions may confuse employees outside those contexts. Instead, frame examples in a neutral, universally understood way. This keeps your employee perception survey accessible to everyone and reflects the company culture—no matter where they’re located.

5. Ensure anonymity standards are clear

In some regions, hierarchy and fear of repercussions may discourage employees from giving candid answers. Reinforcing confidentiality and explaining how responses are anonymized builds trust. Highlighting anonymity in your anonymous engagement survey helps employees speak freely across borders.

6. Test localization before rollout

Even the most carefully designed survey can miss subtle cultural cues. Running pilots with small, region-specific groups helps you spot issues early—whether it’s confusing wording, irrelevant questions, or mistranslations, affecting how employees perceive the survey. Refining your employee engagement questionnaire template before full launch saves you from skewed results later.

How to choose an employee engagement survey tool?

With dozens of survey tools in the market, picking the right one can feel like hunting for a needle in a haystack. The right tool should do more than just collect responses—it should give you insights you can act on. Here are seven steps to help you choose wisely.

• Define your goals clearly: Start by asking yourself what you want to measure—engagement levels, leadership effectiveness, or cultural alignment. Knowing your purpose helps you narrow down tools that are tailored for those outcomes.
• Check ease of use: A complicated platform can discourage both employees and HR teams from using it. Look for an intuitive interface where employees can respond effortlessly and managers can navigate without endless training.
• Prioritize customization: Every company has its quirks, so a rigid template won’t cut it. A good tool should allow you to add, remove, or tweak questions so the survey reflects your unique workplace needs.
• Look for anonymity features: Employees won’t be honest if they think their answers can be traced back to them. Ensure the tool guarantees confidentiality and communicates that trust clearly.
• Evaluate analytics and reporting: Raw data is useless without insights. Choose a platform that offers dashboards, heatmaps, and trend analysis so you can quickly spot engagement drivers and areas needing attention.
• Test integration with existing systems: Your survey tool should play well with HRIS, Slack, Teams, or performance platforms. Smooth integration means less manual work and richer data connections for better decision-making.
• Consider scalability and support: As your workforce grows, your tool should grow with you. Check for flexible pricing, multi-language support, and responsive customer service to avoid headaches down the line.

CultureMonkey’s pre-built templates for fast and effective employee engagement surveys

Sometimes, building a questionnaire for an employee engagement survey from scratch can feel overwhelming. That’s where CultureMonkey’s pre-built templates come in—ready-to-use, research-backed, and designed to capture exactly what matters. Here’s why they’re worth considering for the sake of future success.

• Saves time without sacrificing quality: Instead of spending weeks drafting and editing, HR teams can pick from CultureMonkey’s expertly crafted templates. This ensures quick rollouts of surveys for employees without compromising on depth or accuracy.
• Covers diverse engagement themes: From leadership trust to career growth, templates include a wide range of staff engagement survey questions. This variety ensures you capture insights across all dimensions of engagement.
• Backed by research and benchmarks: The questions aren’t random—they’re based on proven engagement models and industry standards. This makes your employee opinion survey results more actionable and easier to benchmark against peers.
• Customizable to your culture: While the templates give a strong starting point, you can still tweak them. This flexibility allows you to tailor each team member engagement survey to reflect your organization’s values.
• Built for anonymity and trust: CultureMonkey templates are structured to ensure a secure and anonymous engagement survey experience, encouraging honest feedback from employees without fear of exposure.
• Globally adaptable: With built-in localization options, these templates make it easy to run an employee engagement questionnaire across global teams while respecting cultural nuances.
• Insight-driven dashboards: Post-survey, the templates feed into CultureMonkey’s analytics engine, turning responses into meaningful insights. This makes acting on your employee perception survey data faster and smarter.

Conclusion

Wrapping up, designing the right questionnaire for an employee engagement survey isn’t just about asking questions—it’s about asking the right ones, in the right way, and at the right time. From choosing effective scales to ensuring anonymity and leveraging AI, every detail contributes to capturing authentic employee voices.

A well-framed employee engagement questionnaire helps you understand what your people need to thrive, build trust, and take action that actually moves the needle. If you want to skip the trial-and-error and get started with research-backed, customizable, and globally adaptable templates, CultureMonkey has you covered.

Their pre-built surveys make it easier than ever to gather insights and boost engagement across your teams with confidence.

Summary

A well-structured questionnaire for an employee engagement survey helps uncover what drives satisfaction, motivation, and retention.

Using the right question scale, balancing open-ended with multiple-choice, and avoiding biased wording ensures accurate insights.

An anonymous engagement survey builds trust and honesty, while AI and testing methods improve reliability before launch.

Localization and the right survey tool make engagement surveys for the workplace inclusive, scalable, and easy to act upon.

Pre-built templates like those from CultureMonkey simplify the process, offering expert-crafted employee engagement questionnaire options tailored to diverse needs.

FAQs

1. What are good questions for an employee engagement survey?

Good questions should uncover how employees feel about leadership, career growth, recognition, and workplace culture. For example: “Do you feel valued at work?” or “Do you see long-term growth here?” Strong employee engagement questionnaire items are clear, unbiased, and aligned with your company goals, helping you gather actionable insights that drive meaningful changes to improve employee satisfaction.

2. Can I reuse the same questionnaire every year?

Yes, but with caution. Reusing the same questionnaire for an employee engagement survey allows year-over-year comparisons, but you risk survey fatigue if nothing changes. Refreshing some questions or adding new ones based on evolving business priorities keeps responses relevant. Balance consistency with adaptability to ensure your surveys remain engaging while still delivering comparable insights over time.

3. Are there ready-made templates I can use for employee engagement surveys?

Absolutely. Many platforms provide employee engagement questionnaire template options that save time and ensure research-backed quality. These templates cover a variety of themes like leadership, growth, or teamwork. Tools like CultureMonkey offer customizable templates, letting you tweak questions to match your culture while still benefiting from a professional starting point that’s ready for deployment, ultimately enhancing your company reputation.

4. How do I know if my questions are actually helping measure engagement?

The simplest way is to track outcomes after survey actions. If insights from your employee perception survey lead to noticeable improvements in morale, retention, or productivity, and employees feel they are fairly rewarded, your questions are effective. Poorly structured surveys, however, generate vague results. Pilot testing, data analysis, and correlating responses with real workplace outcomes help validate whether your questions measure engagement meaningfully.

5. Should engagement questions be different for different departments?

Yes. While some questions apply company-wide, tailoring parts of your engagement staff survey to specific functions increases relevance. For example, IT teams may care about workload balance, while sales teams may focus on incentives. Department-specific questions ensure you capture targeted insights about the workplace environment while still maintaining a core set of questions for overall engagement benchmarking across the organization.