What are Employee Feedback Surveys? Significance and Example Questions

Employee satisfaction and trust are valuable assets in every organization.

However, winning over the employees is no easy feat. It is almost like trying to crack a tough, unyielding code. That's where employee feedback surveys come in.

Employee feedback surveys help you crack that code to enhance employee engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty.

We'll explore why employee feedback is important, how feedback surveys help gauge employee sentiment, and how to create a feedback survey step-by-step the right way.

An employee feedback survey is one of the simple and most convenient methods to gather employee feedback, and understand your employees' perceptions and sentiment towards your company.

It's basically a questionnaire that organizations can use to understand their current position and rectify mistakes using feedback from their employees. This sort of feedback can either be positive, negative, or constructive.

1. Retains Your Employees

82% of employees said they'd quit their jobs if there is lack of career progression opportunities, a CareerAddict study revealed.

Collecting employee feedback on various aspects of work can help organizations understand what their employees really want, in this case for example, opportunities to progress in their career.

This is one of the biggest reasons employees choose to leave their jobs. Collecting feedback regularly and acting on that feedback can retain employees and keep them satisfied at work.

2. Leads to More Engagement

A study by Gallup found that 80% of employees who received meaningful feedback in the past week alone are more engaged.

Therefore, meaningful feedback alone doesn't count, it has to be regular as well.

How regular? That depends on the kind of team or organization in question. Another study by Gallup says that employees are 3.6 times more likely to do outstanding work when their manager provides daily feedback ( in comparison to annual).

Frontline workers, in particular, benefit significantly from constant feedback as it provides them with real-time insights into their performance, safety practices, and customer interactions. When feedback is a daily practice, these employees feel more supported, valued, and equipped to handle challenges effectively. Additionally, this regular dialogue bridges the gap between frontline workers and management, ensuring that concerns and operational challenges are addressed promptly.

3. Improves Performance

According to Harvard Business Review, 72% of people feel their performance would improve if their managers provided regular and constructive feedback.

Employees eagerly crave this kind of feedback, as it not just serves as a recognition of their strengths but also highlights areas that need improvement.

Moreover, feedback from peers, managers, and customers alike, offer a clear direction for skill enhancement and career growth.

A study by Officevibe indicates that 2 out of 5 workers are disengaged when they receive no feedback. And 2 out of 10 employees are not satisfied with the frequency of the feedback they receive from their direct manager.

Therefore, feedback isn't merely beneficial; it's essential to keep employees engaged and productive. Feedback that is regular can provide employees with insights that help in recognizing their capabilities and development areas, enabling organizations to understand employee sentiment and drive change effectively.

4. Helps Improve Workplace Conditions and Policies

Employees should have a voice in shaping their workplace conditions. Through structured feedback channels, employees can express their concerns and suggestions on pay, work-life balance, necessary equipment, and tools they need to perform better. Organizations that actively listen to these concerns and implement necessary improvements can boost morale, increase job satisfaction, and reduce turnover.

For example, employees may highlight issues such as outdated technology, lack of ergonomic tools, or unrealistic workloads, which, when addressed, can significantly enhance productivity and well-being. Additionally, feedback on salary and benefits can guide HR and leadership in making more competitive compensation decisions, ensuring fairness and retention of top talent.

When companies actively use employee feedback to make tangible improvements in workplace conditions, it fosters trust and strengthens employee-employer relationships.

Employee feedback isn't just about managers evaluating performance—it should be a two-way conversation. In a well-functioning organization, feedback flows across all levels, helping employees feel valued, heard, and supported.

1️. Peers & Team Members – Employees should be encouraged to give constructive feedback to their colleagues. Peer feedback helps employees build trust, collaborate effectively, and refine their skills based on real interactions.

2️. Managers & Leaders – While managers play a key role in performance reviews, their feedback should go beyond just evaluation. Good leaders use feedback to guide, mentor, and remove roadblocks that hinder employee success.

3. Employees to Managers (Upward Feedback) – Employees need a voice in shaping leadership practices. Encouraging upward feedback helps organizations improve management effectiveness, build stronger leadership, and address concerns early.

4️. Cross-Departmental Feedback – Employees often interact with different teams. Enabling cross-functional feedback helps improve collaboration, align goals, and streamline workflows across departments.

When feedback comes from multiple sources, employees gain a clearer perspective on their strengths and areas for improvement, making it a tool for growth rather than just evaluation.

For feedback to be effective, it needs to be timely, specific, and actionable—but most importantly, it should support employee growth and success. Employees are more likely to engage with feedback when they see it leading to tangible improvements in their work experience, career growth, and overall job satisfaction.

✔ Feedback as a Growth Tool, Not Just an Evaluation
Employees want feedback that helps them improve, not just be judged. When organizations create a culture of ongoing feedback, employees feel supported in their development rather than fearing criticism. Employers should ensure that feedback is used to enhance skills, address workplace challenges, and provide career development opportunities.

✔ Frequent Check-ins Over Annual Reviews
Instead of waiting for yearly performance reviews, frequent feedback loops (e.g., weekly or monthly check-ins) allow employees to adjust, grow, and improve continuously. This ensures that employees receive timely recognition for their efforts and can course-correct without waiting months for structured reviews.

✔ Two-Way Communication
Organizations that only push top-down feedback miss out on valuable employee insights. Encouraging employees to share their challenges, ideas, and concerns fosters a workplace where feedback feels meaningful and fair. Employees should feel comfortable voicing concerns about workplace policies, leadership effectiveness, and job expectations without fear of retaliation.

✔ Recognizing Employee Efforts
Not all feedback needs to be corrective. Recognition-based feedback plays a huge role in motivation. Employees who feel appreciated for their contributions are more engaged, productive, and loyal to the company. Recognition should not only focus on task completion but also acknowledge creativity, problem-solving, and contributions toward a positive workplace culture.

When feedback is embedded into daily interactions and tailored to employee needs, it drives performance, satisfaction, and long-term success.

Feedback in the workplace can come in many shapes and sizes, each serving a unique purpose. Let's break down the main types:

1. Constructive Feedback

This type aims to improve performance or behavior by identifying issues and offering solutions. It's not about pointing fingers but helping someone grow by suggesting ways to overcome challenges.

Constructive feedback is used during performance reviews or coaching sessions to help an employee identify areas for improvement and develop actionable steps to enhance their performance or behavior.

2. Positive Feedback

This is the good stuff – praise for a job well done. It recognizes specific achievements or behaviors, boosting morale and motivating continued excellence.

Positive feedback is given after a task or project is completed successfully, during team meetings, or in one-on-one discussions to recognize and motivate employees for their hard work and achievements.

3. Negative Feedback

Sometimes, things don't go as planned, and negative feedback is necessary. It highlights areas where performance has fallen short. The key is delivering it in a way that's focused on improvement, not criticism.

Negative feedback is used when addressing specific issues where an employee's performance has not met expectations. It's typically shared in private, one-on-one meetings, focusing on ways to improve and avoid future mistakes.

4. 360-Degree Feedback

A holistic approach where employees receive feedback from all directions: managers, peers, subordinates, and sometimes even clients. It provides a well-rounded view of performance and areas for development.

360-degree feedback is often part of an annual or semi-annual review process, allowing an employee to understand how their work is perceived from multiple perspectives within the organization.

5. Peer Feedback

This comes from colleagues working at the same level. It's invaluable because peers often have insights into aspects of work that managers might not see.

Peer feedback is exchanged among team members after completing collaborative projects or during peer review sessions, offering insights on teamwork, collaboration, and individual contributions.

6. Self-Evaluation

Reflecting on your own performance can be enlightening. It encourages self-awareness and personal growth, helping you identify strengths and areas for improvement from your own perspective.

Self-evaluation is encouraged before performance reviews or personal goal-setting sessions, enabling individuals to reflect on their own achievements and identify personal development areas.

Remember that each type of feedback has its place in fostering a culture of continuous learning and development. The goal is always the same: to help individuals and teams achieve their best.

While there's no magic potion that'll whip up a cool employee feedback survey for you, there are essential steps that you can follow to create a near perfect one.

1. Identify the Purpose of the Survey and Communicate It

The objective helps in defining the goal and guides the decision-making process. A clear purpose is established and helps the person who attends the survey to be more specific.

2. Decide Your Survey Respondents

Identifying the respondents of the survey is a critical component of designing a feedback survey that yields meaningful results. Tailor the survey to each specific department and ensure they are created and distributed accordingly. This kind of survey will work if you want to understand employee sentiment department wise.

For broader insights, you can also run general surveys across all departments, ensuring the questions are applicable to everyone.

With ThriveSparrow, regardless of the type of survey, you can visualize employee sentiment across departments and teams, identify engagement trends, and pinpoint issues that need immediate attention.

You can then implement actionable plans to resolve these issues and close the feedback loop effectively.

Try ThriveSparrow for free and empower your HR and leadership teams to boost engagement, foster a positive work culture, and drive measurable improvements across the organization.

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3. Design a Short and Crisp Survey

Any survey should be crisp and short. The timing plays a vital role in the efficiency of the response. Research says, "If the survey is short, people tend to answer it quickly and genuinely."

Here are a few ways to encourage more survey participation from respondents.

4. Use a Tool to Ease the Process

There are a lot of new-age technology applications available to create gadget-friendly surveys. The creator cannot assume that responders will attempt the feedback survey using a laptop or mobile. Hence making it gadget-friendly is one of the primary criteria to get a proper feedback from the employees.

Use ThriveSparrow to run surveys optimized for desktops and all kinds of mobile devices.

5. Choose the Right Questions With Proper Measurement Criteria

Questions should connect with employees. The right questions can fetch the right results. The results of the questions should be in a proper measurable quantity. The most popular measuring criterion is a 5 Point Scale. Two points of this measuring scale will be for positive, two points for negative, and one for neutral answers.

E.g. ‘Strongly Agree’, ‘Agree’, ‘Neutral’, ‘Disagree’, ‘Strongly Disagree'

6. Pre-test the Survey

Before rolling out the survey to all employees, conduct a pre-test with a small group to identify any confusing questions, technical issues, or areas of improvement. This step ensures the survey is comprehensible and accessible to all intended participants.

7. Choosing the Right Timing and Frequency

Determining the optimal timing and frequency for deploying the survey can significantly affect participation rates and the quality of feedback received. Consider factors like current workloads, company events, or significant changes that might influence when employees are most likely to engage with the survey.

8. Communicating the Follow-Up Process

Let respondents know how their feedback will be used and what steps will be taken after the survey. This transparency encourages participation and demonstrates that their input is valued and will lead to actionable changes.

9. Ensuring Ease of Access and Compatibility

While you mention making the survey gadget-friendly, explicitly ensuring that the survey is accessible on all devices and through different browsers can enhance response rates. This also includes making sure it's accessible to employees with disabilities.

Tip #1: Ask Neutral questions

Questions should be in a clear and consistent format with brief instructions in clear language. The questions should be unbiased. The questionnaire should be neutral and genuine for the employees to respond honestly.

Also read: 19 employee engagement questions every leader should be asking.

Tip #2: Give Them Some Space

While measurable questions are essential in a survey, it's also crucial to provide space for respondents to share open feedback.

Some organizations opt for anonymous survey methods to encourage candid feedback, which can benefit both the creator and the responder. By allowing respondents to provide suggestions for the company's growth or highlight any problems they see, organizations can gain valuable insights into areas that need improvement or identify opportunities for growth. 

Tip #3: Categorize your questions

Do not address two or more subjects in the same query. We can ask for even ten different categories of questions using unique queries. Doing it all in one will puzzle the employees, and they may give unreliable answers. 

Tip #4: Break the ice

Ask open-ended questions like "Is the organization supporting their career growth?", "Do they feel meaningful at their work?" It can help employees ease into the process of answering the survey honestly. 

Tip #5: Ask Questions on Company Culture

Ask common questions to know about the company culture. Try to understand if every coworker treats fellow coworkers with respect.

Tip #6: Ensure Anonymity and Maintain Confidentiality

The biggest mantra in creating an effective survey is to maintain confidentiality. Responders may provide any feedback. But it is the duty of the survey creator and the owner to protect the identity with the utmost confidentiality.

Ensuring anonymity will also encourage honest and candid feedback from respondents.

Here are some of the common mistakes in creating an employee feedback survey.

Having an Unclear Objective

The creators might set the survey without a clear objective. It can confuse the readers and mislead them from selecting the appropriate response.

Asking Irrelevant questions

When the objective is unclear, creators may inadvertently produce irrelevant questions. Moreover, if the target audience is misidentified, it can lead to numerous off-target questions that miss the mark.

Adding a Long List of Questions

Overwhelming readers with an excessive number of questions can leave them gasping for breath, leading to doubtful and potentially inaccurate answers. Research has shown that bombarding respondents with too many questions can create confusion and increase the likelihood of incorrect responses.

Using Questions Used by Other Companies

Sometimes creators use the same questions that different organizations use. It may save time taken to create a new survey, but the results may not be as effective.

Questions Copied from Other Sources

Creators often copy the questions from various sources and add them to the survey. It is the most common mistake done by companies while creating a feedback survey. The creator should frame the questions from scratch to match the objective.

Questions Without Any Quantitative Measures

The primary goal of any survey is to gather valuable insights from respondents and leverage them to drive improvement. However, a survey that lacks quantitative measures may fall short of delivering the precise results needed to inform decision-making.

Without quantifiable data, it can be challenging to accurately measure the impact of changes or interventions based on survey feedback.

See how they look on ThriveSparrow's Survey builder.

You can also customize the type of rating scale, modify existing ones, or introduce new options. As previously mentioned, questions with quantitative measures provide quick answers and enable your employees to complete their surveys swiftly and effortlessly. Moreover, they help with quick analysis and interpretation.

Experience the bliss of smooth survey creation and automatic report generation. Try ThriveSparrow for free and equip your managers with reports that help them dive deep and understand their team's engagement better.

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Here are 25 employee feedback questions to help you get started. You can choose to include a few aspects mentioned below or all of them, depending on what you'd like to measure in your organization.

Either way, ensure you set a goal for each feedback survey you conduct. That way, you'll be able to identify the key aspects that you want to cover and gain insights on.

Survey Questions on Employee Engagement

This section evaluates the level of commitment, motivation, and emotional investment employees have in their work and the organization.

1. I feel motivated and enthusiastic about my job.
2. I am committed to contributing to the success of the organization.
3. I believe that my work is meaningful and makes a difference.
4. What specific aspects of your work contribute to your level of engagement?
5. Are there aspects of your work that you find demotivating or challenging?

Questions on Communication

This section assesses how effectively information is shared and received within the organization, focusing on the clarity, transparency, and accessibility of communication channels for improved understanding and collaboration.

6. Communication within my team is clear and effective.
7. I receive timely and relevant information from my superiors.
8. I feel comfortable expressing my opinions and ideas to my colleagues.
9. There are open channels of communication throughout the organization.
10. Could you share an example where communication within the organization was particularly effective and helpful?

Questions on Recognition and Feedback

This section measures the organization's processes for acknowledging and providing constructive feedback to employees.

11. I receive regular feedback on my performance.
12. I feel valued and appreciated for my contributions.
13. The recognition I receive is meaningful and encourages me to perform better.
14. I am given opportunities for growth and development.
15. Can you provide an example of a time when you received meaningful recognition for your work? (Open-ended question)
16. Are there areas where you think the organization could improve in providing recognition or constructive feedback? (Open-ended question)

Questions on Work-Life Balance

This section evaluates the balance between professional responsibilities and personal life.

17. I am able to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
18. The organization supports flexible work arrangements when needed.
19. I am encouraged to take time off and utilize available leave options.
20. I can effectively manage my workload without feeling overwhelmed.
21. Can you share an instance where the company's practices or policies that have positively contributed to your work-life balance? (Open-ended question)
22. What specific measures can the organization implement to improve work-life balance for employees? (Open-ended question)

Questions on Career-Progression

This section examines the opportunities, support, and clarity provided to employees for their career growth within the organization.

23. I see opportunities for growth and advancement within the organization.
24. The organization provides the necessary resources for my professional development.
25. I receive guidance and support to achieve my career goals.
26. I am satisfied with the career progression opportunities available to me.
27. How would you like to see the organization invest in your career development? (Open-ended question)

Preview this template on ThriveSparrow, an employee success platform that can help you create, customize, and schedule surveys in minutes.

Get started with ThriveSparrow and also explore the reports section making interpretation and analysis of your surveys much easier.

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Visit more employee feedback survey templates both for gauging engagement and measuring performance here.

HR leaders can leverage different types of employee feedback surveys to gather insights and make data-driven improvements. Here are some key types:

1. Engagement Surveys

Engagement surveys are designed to measure employee satisfaction, motivation, and overall commitment to the company.

• Example Questions:
  • How engaged do you feel in your current role?
  • Do you find your work meaningful?

2. Pulse Surveys

Short and frequent surveys that capture employee sentiment on specific topics, helping leaders track engagement trends over time.

• Example Questions:
  • How satisfied are you with your current workload?
  • Do you feel supported by your manager?

3. 360-Degree Feedback Surveys

A 360-degree survey gathers insights from multiple sources—managers, peers, and subordinates—to provide a holistic view of an employee’s performance.

• Example Questions:
  • How effectively does this employee collaborate with others?
  • What strengths and areas of improvement do you see?

4. Performance Feedback Surveys

Helps assess individual and team performance, identifying areas for growth and improvement.

• Example Questions:
  • Do you receive adequate feedback on your work?
  • What support do you need to improve your performance?

Explore more: Annual Performance Review Template, Manager Effectiveness Survey Template

5. Exit Surveys

Conducted when employees leave the company to understand reasons for attrition and improve retention strategies.

• Example Questions:
  • What influenced your decision to leave?
  • How could we have improved your experience?

Using these surveys strategically can help HR and leadership teams gain valuable insights, enhance employee experience, and drive continuous improvements in workplace culture.

Make Feedback better with ThriveSparrow

Are you looking to create a jaw-dropping employee feedback survey? Look no further than ThriveSparrow! Our team of experts understands your needs better than anyone and can provide you with hundreds of pre-designed, proven questionnaires to make the process a piece of cake.

Our surveys are designed to be user-friendly and gadget-ready, meaning you can easily collect feedback from your employees on any device. Plus, with our vast selection of questions, you'll be able to gather valuable insights into every aspect of your organization.

So why waste time trying to come up with your own survey when you can have ThriveSparrow create one for you in minutes? Book your free demo and get started on your path to a happier, more engaged workforce!