HR surveys are ways for companies to find out how their employees feel about things like job satisfaction, engagement, and the culture of the company.
HR teams are in charge of important business tasks like hiring and firing, onboarding and employee training, and engaging and keeping employees. As more and more companies see the link between how employees feel and how well the business does, the importance of good HR departments becomes clearer.
HR teams need to know what employees think and feel to do their jobs well and make the workplace a good place to work.
Surveys are one of the best HR tools because they give employees a chance to say what they think. In this blog, we’ll talk about the benefits of it, give you some examples of key HR survey questions, and show you how to set up HR surveys with QuestionPro.
LEARN ABOUT: Workplace Employee Experience Examples
Human Resource Surveys or HR Surveys
A human resource survey is a questionnaire sent out to employees to obtain their continuous feedback and reviews to gauge employee morale, staff engagement, etc.
Generally, human resource surveys or HR surveys are used by HR Managers and the Management team and are kept anonymous for genuine and candid staff event feedback. This motivates the employees to be forthcoming, especially if they know their comments will be acted upon. Employee surveys are integral to employee feedback and a great way to communicate with employees.
It is not always feasible to meet each and every employee in an organization, especially with big enterprises. Online surveys act as an efficient proxy in such scenarios. Many organizations conduct such surveys annually or semi-annually.
However, it is a good practice to do it frequently or quarterly, depending on your study focus. Many organizations go after long surveys when they do it once or twice a year, but those surveys get lesser responses. You need to keep them short for a better completion rate.
LEARN ABOUT: Employee Experience Strategy
A recent study suggests that surveys with less than 12 questions record an average response rate of 83%!
Importance of HR surveys
HR surveys are an important way for companies to find out what their employees think, and there are several reasons why they are important:
- It can help companies figure out what their employees want and how they feel.
- They can give you useful information that can help you make decisions about HR policies and practices.
- It can help companies figure out what needs to be changed to improve employee engagement, happiness, and retention.
- They can help talent management processes determine what works and doesn’t.
- This can help make sure that employment practices follow the law.
- They can help find places where discrimination or harassment might happen.
- It can help companies determine how to improve their company culture by making changes based on their learning.
- They make it possible to measure progress over time and keep track of how well HR initiatives work.
- It can help make communication with employees more open and honest.
- They can help build a culture where employees’ feedback and ideas are valued.
Types of HR survey questions
There are many different kinds of such employee survey questions that can be used to get employee feedback. These 4 are the most important and basic types:
1. Recruitment questions
Recruitment is an important part of human resources that helps ensure the right people are on the team. Surveys can help with employee recruitment by showing what people like about an organization and what might be putting them off.
Here are some questions to think about for a survey on hiring:
- Why are you interested in working for this company?
- How would you rate the recruitment process on a scale from 1 to 10?
- Is there a reason you wouldn’t want to play this part?
- Would you tell a friend who is looking for a job to work for this company?
- Do you have any thoughts about how to apply?
2. Employee engagement and employee satisfaction questions
Organizations need to know how their employees feel at all times. People may start looking for other jobs if they don’t like certain parts of their current jobs.
Unfortunately, most surveys only look at satisfaction, so we never get a true picture of the workplace. It is easy for managers or supervisors to change results to make themselves feel better.
Here are a few questions that will help you learn more about employee engagement and happiness:
- Do you have a good balance between work and life at this company?
- Do you get along with the other people on your team?
- What’s the worst thing about going to work every day?
- Do you know what your job means for the company as a whole?
- What gets are you going each day at work?
3. Employee performance questions
Self-evaluations are an important part of the performance review process because they show how employees feel about their own work and how that compares to what their manager thinks.
It’s a good idea to do surveys often or every three months, depending on what you want to learn. Also, don’t use long surveys. Instead, keep them short and to the point so that more people will fill them out.
Take a look at these questions from an HR survey for self-evaluations:
- Do you have the tools you need to do all the tasks that come with your job?
- What about your work this quarter are you most proud of?
- What hard things did you have to deal with this year? How did you make it through?
- In three years, where do you see yourself?
- How can we help you achieve your career goals over the next year?
LEARN ABOUT: HR Analytics
4. Work culture questions
Describing an organization’s culture can be hard, but employees usually have clear ideas about it. It’s important for HR to know how employees feel about the company culture since that’s a big part of whether or not people stay or leave.
Culture-related questions also show how people see a company’s values and where management can make changes.
Here are some questions for a survey about the culture of the company:
- Do you know what success means to this group?
- Are you able to be yourself at work?
- Do you know who you can talk to at work if you’re in a tough spot?
- Do you feel like your boss and coworkers value you?
- How can the company change the way people work?
10 amazing HR surveys questions
There are a whole lot of questions that you can ask when you conduct an employee survey. Knowing what to ask and designing the right flow of questions is crucial to succeeding in getting employee responses.
We have highlighted some important questions that you should ask in your workplace surveys divided by various HR aspects. Let’s look at these hr survey questions below.
1. Company communications evaluation surveys questions
Transparent and frequent communication plays a significant role in the smooth functioning of an organization, be it external or internal communication. Both are equally important; external could be with your customers, vendors, etc., whereas internal would be with peers, supervisors, management, etc.
When preparing and conducting such a survey, you need to keep in mind all of the above elements. Below are some important questions you should include in your Company communications evaluation survey.
- When it comes to communications in your company, how satisfied would you say you are with it?
- How would you describe your impression of communications within your company?
- How do you feel about the information you receive?
- Compared to last year, how would you rate your knowledge of the company, its strategies, and its ongoing accomplishments?
2. Employee engagement HR survey questions
These kinds of surveys are conducted to measure how valued your employees feel in the organization. Tracking is essential to determine whether your employees are happy or not and how long they intend to stay with the organization.
The questions in a staff engagement survey are designed to understand the levels of engagement in the organization. Engaged employees play a key role in keeping your employees happy and acquiring new ones.
LEARN MORE: Employee Engagement Survey Examples
Below are some of the most important questions that you should include in your employee engagement survey.
- Do you feel the staff evaluation process is fair?
- Do you feel your team members are receptive to your suggestions?
- Are you able to strike a work-life balance with the organization?
- Do you feel your colleagues and seniors communicate information with the utmost clarity?
3. Employee experience surveys questions
Employee experience is the sum of experience that an employee goes through in an organization from the time of hiring to their exit. Employee experience surveys are important to understand what areas of your people processes need looking into.
A typical employee experience survey should contain the below questions.
- Were you satisfied with the information provided to you during your recruitment questions?
- How satisfied were you with the onboarding process?
- Do you believe employees have equal growth opportunities in this organization?
- Do you get along well with your teammates and colleagues?
4. Employee exit surveys questions
Conducting staff exit surveys are a good way to dig deeper into why your employees are leaving the organization. What is most crucial here is that you need to ask the right questions to get the right data. Without the right questions, your survey will get you nowhere.
Let’s look at some of the essential exit interview survey questions.
- My manager held regular team and one-on-one employee meetings to catch-up
- My organization provided me with ample employee benefits
- I got to voice my opinions and concerns in the organization
- I was frequently offered new learning opportunities
5. Work Culture HR surveys questions
Work culture is the set of words, actions, values, and beliefs that make an organization what it is. It influences employee experience and their journey from being hired to when they retire or exit the organization.
A workplace culture survey is conducted to gather insights from the staff on how the organization’s culture is and how it can be made better. It evaluates how well-aligned an organization’s culture is with the values it propagates.
A workplace culture survey should contain the below questions.
- Do you feel respected by your colleagues, managers, and management in the organization?
- Does your supervisor provide you with timely feedback about your assignments?
- How does this organization define “success,” according to you?
- How dedicated is your organization to diversity and inclusivity (D&I)?
6. Employee motivation HR surveys questions
There are numerous ways to improve staff motivation and engagement, and conducting employee motivation surveys is a good way to do that. You can track and measure staff motivation through online employee surveys and get pointers to improve it further.
An employee motivation survey should consist of the below important questions to get a good amount of responses.
- My team and others recognize and value what I contribute
- When I’m at work, I often don’t realize how quickly the day went by
- I am always excited on Mondays to go to work
- I feel confident I contribute to organizational goals
7. Employee performance review HR surveys questions
An employee, over their tenure, works with numerous employees and colleagues. It is only fair their feedback is considered in the performance evaluation process. It is a holistic approach to evaluating an employee, and more and more organizations are embracing 360 degree feedback evaluations.
Here we will look at some important questions that should be asked in a performance review survey.
- Does the employee always finish their work on time?
- Is the employee a team player?
- The employee keeps the customer updated about all developments
- I would be glad to have the employee as my team member
8. Employee 360-degree review HR surveys questions
A 360-degree employee performance review survey questionnaire consists of questions that aid in gathering data from several stakeholders within an organization. This type of survey will help you collect data from peers, colleagues, superiors, etc., to build a wholesome picture of an employee’s performance.
This survey must have the below questions.
- The employee has the requisite skills to work in their function
- Does the employee own their mistakes?
- The employee always communicates respectfully and professionally with everybody
- The employee always consults with their team members before arriving at a decision
9. Employee satisfaction HR surveys questions
A staff satisfaction survey is a powerful 360 feedback tool that HR managers use to understand employees’ satisfaction with HR analytics. This survey helps management know the reasons for satisfaction dissatisfaction and probable measures that can be taken to improve workforce satisfaction.
Remember to include the below questions in your employee satisfaction survey.
- Do you have a clear understanding of the organization’s strategic objectives?
- Does your team inspire you to do your best?
- Do you think you are valued by your team and your manager?
- Do you see yourself working with the same organization after 2 years?
10. Management Evaluation HR Surveys Questions
Management evaluation surveys are conducted to understand the employees’ perception of the executive or management team. The management team decides the organization’s direction, workforce strategies, policies, etc., and hence plays a key role in employee experience, productivity, morale, and their intent to stay.
Make sure to include these questions in your management evaluation survey.
- How satisfied are you with your immediate supervisor and their work?
- How satisfied are you with the strategic direction of the organization?
- How willing is the senior management team to invest in employee learning and development programs?
- How willing is the senior management team to accept their mistakes?
Why conduct HR surveys?
A human resource survey or HR survey’s purpose must be well-defined to ensure maximum responses or success. That is why we saw above the various types of questions and surveys that go into these templates. Let us now understand why we should conduct HR surveys.
- Collect data: Collect staff responses through targeted employee experience and workplace culture surveys.
- Analyze: Recognize the most and least striking behaviors in your organizational culture.
- Take action: Recognize and work towards your top preferences for the coming operating cycle.
- Define frequency: Define milestones and conduct staff surveys. Use your custom-branded portal to make your stakeholders are handling sure priorities.
Benefits of conducting HR surveys
- It allows organizations to focus on important employee aspects such as work culture, talent acquisition, employee retention strategies, employee experience, staff satisfaction, productivity, etc.
- Identify and address employee concerns as and when they arise.
- Streamline communication with employees; effective organizational communication must be two-way.
- Employee performance review and feedback collection get way via HR surveys.
- Get feedback on what can be done differently to improve business processes and improve the employee experience.
LEARN ABOUT: Performance Appraisal Survey
How can QuestionPro workforce help in HR surveys?
QuestionPro workforce is a powerful survey tool that can be used to create, distribute, and analyze surveys for many different purposes, including HR surveys. You can use employee opinion survey questions. Those questions provide valuable insights into employee morale, enabling organizations to make informed improvements and foster an engaged workforce.
Here are some ways QuestionPro workforce can help:
- Creating custom surveys: With QuestionPro workforce, you can make custom surveys to fit the needs of your HR survey. You can choose from a variety of question types, like multiple-choice, rating scale, and open-ended questions.
- Distributing surveys: Once you’ve done your survey, you can send it to your employees via email, social media, or your company’s intranet. You can also set up reminders to encourage employees to finish the survey.
- Collecting and analyzing data: QuestionPro workforce offers a variety of tools to help you collect and analyze survey data. You can see results in real-time and create reports to help you make decisions based on data. You can also use the software to find trends and repeating patterns in your data.
- Benchmarking: QuestionPro workforce lets you compare the results of your HR surveys to industry benchmarks, which can help you figure out where you need to make improvements.
- Ensuring anonymity: HR surveys often need anonymity to encourage honest feedback. QuestionPro lets you set up anonymous surveys so that employees feel comfortable sharing their thoughts.
QuestionPro workforce can help HR professionals get important information about engagement, satisfaction, and other important HR metrics. Using this powerful survey tool, the HR department can make decisions based on data that improve the employee experience and help the business succeed.
