Understanding employee opinions is a major opportunity for organizations to support overall success. Beyond the questions and data, lies a deeper purpose.
Employee opinion surveys are more than just questionnaires.
These tools create insight used to build a more connected, fulfilling, and productive workplace. The insights and recommendations used from employee research help spark transformations, redefine priorities, and shape workplace culture.
But to be truly impactful, organizations must ask the best employee opinion survey questions to drive real organizational change.
Keep reading to learn what our employee engagement survey company recommends asking.
What Is An Employee Opinion Survey?
An employee opinion survey is a tool used to gather feedback from employees of an organization. Typically, these surveys can range from 10 to 50 questions depending on the goals and objectives of the organization.
Oftentimes, employee opinion surveys are conducted on a routine basis such as once every 1 to 2 years. But, it all depends on the needs of the organization.
For instance, if there is a change in leadership or ownership, this may require an impromptu employee opinion survey to gather feedback on a more relevant topic.
Our Best Employee Opinion Survey Questions To Ask
Below is an overview of questions to consider including in an employee opinion survey.
Remember, employee opinion surveys can be uniquely customized based on the goals/objectives of the organization. In this regard, it can be extremely beneficial to use a third party for employee surveys.
A market research company like Drive Research can help uncover the questions that will best fit your organization.
Without further ado, here are the best employee opinion survey questions to ask your team.
1. How likely are you to recommend [Example Company] as a place to work? Select a rating.
💡 Why this question is important: Employee net promoter score (eNPS) is a useful question to ask in an employee survey because it 1) provides insight into employee satisfaction and engagement and 2) the results can be compared to industry benchmarks.
Learn more about employee net promoter scores in the brief video below.
2. Please explain why you rated [Example Company] as a [insert response] out of 10. Enter your response below.
💡 Why this question is important: After creating an eNPS, the next question is to identify what drives that score. Asking a follow-up question to request the reasoning for the rating is a great way to understand drivers to eNPS. The results can help users understand what is working and what is a priority area for improvement.
3. How has your job satisfaction with [Example Company] changed over the past 12 months? Select one.
The answer selections should look something like...
Working at [Example Company] now is…
- Much better
- Somewhat better
- The same
- Somewhat worse
- Much worse
- Not applicable
💡 Why this question is important: Never asked an employee opinion survey before, or perhaps it has been a while since your last survey? This question provides insight into how employee satisfaction has changed over the past year which adds insight to the data.
4. How does [Example Company] compare to employment at other organizations? Select one.
The answer selections should look something like...
Working at [Example Company] is…
- Much better
- Somewhat better
- The same
- Somewhat worse
- Much worse
- No experience with other organizations
💡 Why this question is important: After understanding eNPS and how satisfaction has changed over the past year, consider how employees compare their satisfaction to other organizations they have worked for. Again, this will help identify potential attrition issues.
5. When you think about working at [Example Company], what word comes to mind? Enter your responses below.
💡 Why this question is important: Asking top-of-mind words or phrases can be insightful in understanding the perception of the organization among employees. Responses could range from work, stress, fun, family, and challenges.
6. If you could change one thing about [Example Company] to improve your satisfaction as an employee, what would it be? Enter your response below.
💡 Why this question is important: This is another powerful question to consider including in an employee opinion survey. It can uncover key improvements among employees and help organizations prioritize the next steps.
7. Do you have any final thoughts or comments? Enter your response below. Please note: You can skip this question.
💡 Why this question is important: Lastly, it’s important to include a space for employees to leave additional comments and feedback. Remember, the purpose of the survey is to learn what the organization could do to improve job satisfaction. So, providing a space for additional feedback is useful.
Why Are Employee Opinion Surveys Important?
Employee opinion surveys are a great way to measure satisfaction, measure engagement, identify successes, and identify improvements.
In addition to gathering these data points, the results can also be broken down by different employee segments.
For example, where sample sizes are large enough to protect anonymity, results can be broken down by department, supervisor, tenure, and more to identify similarities and differences.
How We Do Employee Opinion Surveys At Drive Research
Our approach to employee opinion surveys at Drive Research is to customize the survey and methodology to best fit the needs of your organization.
For example, this means customizing the survey questions as needed to best meet the objectives, how fieldwork is conducted (i.e., online, via kiosk, text, paper/form), and reporting deliverables.
While the Drive Research approach to employee opinion surveys is customized, our process for conducting research is consistent. It all starts with a kickoff meeting to align the teams before diving into survey drafting, fieldwork, analysis, and reporting.
Recommended Reading: Conducting a Workplace Survey in 8 Steps
Frequently Asked Questions About Employee Opinion Surveys
What are the benefits of employee opinion surveys?
While there are many benefits to employee opinion surveys, the top three include:
- It’s a cost-effective way to gather important employee feedback anonymously
- It gathers metrics for key performance indicators (KPIs) related to employee satisfaction so organizations can compare themselves to industry benchmarks and themselves over time
- It identifies priority areas for improvements to enhance employee satisfaction and reduce attrition.
Are employee opinion surveys anonymous?
Yes. Ensuring employee confidentiality is extremely important for employee opinion surveys. Safe to say, risking confidentiality puts the whole employee survey process into question. This would likely create bias when completing the survey and impact future response rates.
Contact Our Employee Opinion Survey Company
By listening to employees through opinion surveys, your organization will be able to continuously improve workplace culture, satisfaction, and retention. And we can help!
Drive Research is a national market research company specializing in Voice of Employee research. We have a combined 80+ years of experience creating and developing employee opinion surveys. We'll work with you each step of the way to ensure you receive quality, actionable data.
To learn more about our market research services, get in touch with us through any of the ways below.
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Emily Taylor
As a Research Manager, Emily is approaching a decade of experience in the market research industry and loves to challenge the status quo. She is a certified VoC professional with a passion for storytelling.
Learn more about Emily, here.
