22 of the best pulse survey questions to measure employee engagement

We view employee engagement simply as how committed an employee is to their work, and how willing they are to invest their time and energy into the success of the organisation. This is different from employee happiness, which can often make it difficult to accurately measure employee engagement. Why? Someone might be happy at work, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are working productively on behalf of the organisation. If they were, they would be considered engaged. An engaged employee really cares about their work and their company and will go above and beyond to work to achieve the organisation’s goals. It's an important distinction to keep in mind when planning pulse surveys to measure employee engagement.

To help get you started, we have put together 22 of the best pulse survey questions that help measure employee engagement. We’ve covered all aspects of employee engagement, so you can be sure you’re measuring it accurately, giving you confidence to you can create real change from the results.

The importance of employee engagement in the workplace

Your company’s success depends on how engaged your employees are. When employees feel engaged, they are more creative, contribute positively to your organisation’s culture, work to improve customer satisfaction, and produce their best work.

Currently, only 20% of employees feel engaged at work. As well as not contributing towards your organisation’s goals, disengaged employees can feel fatigued, stressed, and lonely. Therefore, it is important that you regularly keep your finger on the pulse of your team’s engagement. Measuring how engaged your employees are will help you know if they need extra support in certain areas, and what that support should be.

Gathering feedback via pulse surveys, creating action based on that feedback, and communicating those actions with employees will help you create a strategy that improves your overall employee engagement over time. Let’s look at how you can do this.

Why is it important to use pulse surveys to measure employee engagement?

Pulse surveys create a place where your employees can share their thoughts, feedback, worries, and ideas with the safety of anonymity. They’re a great way for you, as a manager, to gather a clear picture of how engaged your employees feel so that you can provide support where needed and make changes that benefit everyone.

Building employee engagement is an ongoing piece of work, pulse surveys are a great way to measure employee engagement because they’re quick and simple to execute and can be repeated for consistent results over time. If you’re interested in learning more about how to get the most out of your pulse surveys download our ‘Ultimate Guide to Pulse Surveys’ here.

The power of pulse surveys comes from asking the right questions and being confident they will give you actionable insights. Below we’re giving you the best pulse survey questions to help you measure employee engagement.

22 employee engagement pulse survey question examples

Before we get started, it is important to remember a few simple rules when considering the questions you include in your employee engagement survey. These are:

• Ensure all questions are clear and simple to understand
• Questions should never lead employees towards an answer
• Use free text follow-up questions to give you detailed qualitative data
• Follow up your engagement surveys with action to create positive change and secure buy-in from your employees for future surveys.

There are several metrics you can use to measure your team’s engagement. Together, they will help you understand how your employees are thinking and feeling about your organisation. Below we’ve outlined some of the best questions to use in your next pulse survey that will help you measure employee engagement within your team.

Relationship with their manager

Employees want to feel supported, appreciated, and heard by their managers. Having a healthy employee-manager relationship is central to the success of your team.

• My manager gives me the support I need to complete my work
• My manager encourages and supports my development

Feedback

Consistent and good quality feedback is an important component of employee engagement. It helps them grow and is key to helping you build an engaged and productive team.

• I know what is expected of me at work
• The feedback I receive helps me to improve my performance

Personal Development

Understanding how employees feel about their own personal development will give you the information you need to build a workplace where great people thrive.

• I can access the right learning and development opportunities when I need to
• [Organisation] offers good opportunities for my career progression

Relationship with their team

Creating a collaborative workplace is essential to your success. Teamwork and strong employee relationships are central to this.

• I am satisfied with the relationship I have with my colleagues
• My team work together to find ways to improve the service we provide
• The people in my team genuinely care about my wellbeing

Employee Wellbeing

Using employee wellbeing questions will help you identify any issues earlier than if you were to rely on employees approaching you for support, they’re also a great way to evaluate the services you already offer.

• I know where to get support if my mental wellbeing is being impacted
• I feel [organisation] takes positive action on health and wellbeing

Recognition

Recognition plays a large role in employee engagement. Employees want to feel valued for the work they do and want to know that their managers appreciate the effort they put into their day-to-day.

• I feel valued for the work I do
• How often do you receive recognition?
• Do you feel you receive enough recognition?

Company mission and vision

Achieving employee alignment with your company’s mission and goals is key to employee engagement. Knowing how well your employees understand things like larger company goals will help you identify areas where employees may be unclear, before employee engagement slips.

• I have a clear understanding of [organisation] objectives
• [Organisation's] values are similar to my own values
• I understand how my work contributes to my organisation's objectives

Job satisfaction

If an employee is unhappy in their role, it is hard for them to achieve good employee engagement. Job satisfaction looks at factors like: Are employees in the right role? Are they using their skills? Do they feel they’re receiving fair pay?

• I have opportunities to use my knowledge and skills
• I am sufficiently challenged by the work I do
• Overall, I am satisfied with my pay and benefits package

Employee advocacy

An employee who is highly engaged will view their role as “I’m proud and excited to work for my employer” rather than just “I like my job”.

• [Organisation] motivates me to give me my best
• I would recommend [organisation] as a great place to work

How often should you run an employee engagement survey?

Every organisation will benefit from a different pulse survey schedule, there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach. We work with a tried and tested set of questions that help guide organisations to decide on the best schedule for their employees. For more guidance on how often you should run your employee engagement surveys you can read our detailed blog here.

What topics are the questions exploring in your employee engagement survey?

The theme of your questions (and any you wish to repeat) provide a great guide for how often you should send them. For example, questions focused on personal development may be more relevant to send quarterly, whereas you may find it helpful to ask questions exploring employees’ mental wellbeing monthly.

How quickly can you follow-up with employees once the survey has closed

We always recommend communicating with employees about your most recent survey before launching a new one. This will maintain employees’ buy-in in your surveys as they can see that you are committed to taking action based on their feedback.

Will you need to make organisational changes based on employees’ feedback? Will these changes need to be approved by senior management?

Make sure you consider whether you will need to make any changes when creating your engagement survey schedule. If you do, it is best to make sure you have an idea of the changes and/or timelines – and can communicate them with your employees – before your next pulse survey.

How many questions does your engagement survey include?

The more questions you include in your engagement survey, the less frequently you should send them. This helps balance the time commitment you are asking of employees, and ensures you maintain a good response rate. For surveys of around five questions, we recommend a monthly cadence.

How often does your business report on its KPIs to employees?

Aligning your engagement surveys with the reporting of your organisation's KPIs means you can include the results within management reports. This is an effective way to communicate with results to colleagues and shows them how seriously you're taking the results!

Finding the right employee engagement survey software for you

Pulse surveys are a quick and simple tool that will help you measure employee engagement consistently over time – something that is crucial to the long-term success of your employee engagement strategy. It is important that you choose the right software to help you run your pulse surveys and execute your strategy, otherwise you could end up creating more work for yourself!

Stribe’s employee pulse survey software helps teams to be heard. It gives you everything you need to turn your team’s voices into actionable insights. Our suite of clever features, such as sentiment analysis and key phrase extraction, gives you the confidence to make positive changes that creates a happier, more engaged workforce.

If you’d like a platform that takes all the legwork out of surveying your employees, we’re here to help. Get in touch with our people experts here to see how Stribe can benefit your organisation!