Do you send regular engagement surveys but the results don’t seem to reveal how employees truly feel about working for your organization? You might be asking the wrong questions. This guide can help. Keep reading to learn more about employee engagement, why measuring it through surveys is important, and how to conduct an engagement survey with 24 questions that are guaranteed to solicit employee responses you can act on.
What is employee engagement?
We define employee engagement as the extent to which employees are emotionally, cognitively and behaviorally invested in their work. In simple terms, when employees are engaged, they feel valued, motivated and inspired to perform their best.
Both employees and organizations contribute to employee engagement. Employees influence engagement by bringing a certain level of personal energy to work and striving to be better at what they do. Organizations have a responsibility to develop and nurture engagement through workplace policies, organizational structure, technology and other aspects of the employee experience.
The current state of employee engagement.
Over the past few years, employee engagement has declined, particularly in the post-pandemic landscape. In fact, a study conducted by WebMD Health Services Center for Research finds that the share of respondents that are “highly engaged” dropped by seven points between 2024 and 2025, signaling a shift away from peak involvement.
The integration (or anticipated integration) of new technologies into the workplace, shifts in workforce dynamics and growing economic uncertainty, have and will continue to impact employee engagement.
As a result, it has become increasingly challenging for both employees and employers to cultivate a workplace where employees bring positive energy and remain deeply invested in their work.
Why measuring employee engagement is important.
Employee engagement is strongly tied to both individual and organizational outcomes. Which is why it’s so critical to measure it. As the saying goes, “What you can’t measure, you can’t manage.” To take it a step further, “What you can’t define, you can’t measure, and therefore, you can’t manage.”
Here are four areas to ensure you’re keeping an eye on when measuring employee engagement:
- Well-being: Employee engagement is closely linked to well-being, especially work-related well-being. Since well-being is holistic and the dimensions of well-being are interconnected, engagement often influences and is influenced by various aspects of well-being.
- Performance. Engagement is associated with factors that enhance productivity and performance, often referred to as in-role performance (i.e., performance related to role/job/tasks). Engagement fosters creativity, efficiency and flexibility, to name a few.
- Retention. Engaged employees are more likely to stay with their organization, reducing turnover, and often go beyond their formal roles by contributing through behaviors like mentorship, support and other “organizational citizenship” behavior.
- Business outcomes: Lastly, a substantial body of research across various work settings, industries and sectors highlights the far-reaching impact of employee engagement. When engagement is high, it doesn’t just benefit employees and organizations—it positively influences external stakeholders as well. Studies show that customers, clients, patients and students report higher levels of satisfaction when employees are engaged.
Why it’s important to use employee engagement surveys.
Engagement surveys can offer deep insights into what drives engagement in your organization—and what might be hindering it. They also give your employees a voice and the opportunity to share their concerns and suggestions and allow managers to monitor engagement levels and take action where necessary.
In the next section, we break down how to conduct a successful employee engagement survey.
How to conduct an employee engagement survey.
1. Consider how your organization defines employee engagement.
To set the stage for a truly meaningful engagement survey, start by clearly defining what “employee engagement” means in your organization. In the TINYpulse solution, we break engagement into three dimensions: emotional, cognitive and behavioral. You should tailor these dimensions to align with your own goals, strategy and culture as needed. Communicate this working definition to leaders and staff alike so everyone interprets survey items consistently. Finally, by using a research-backed framework, customizing your dimensions to reflect your business objectives and rigorously validating your measures, you will generate reliable insights and turn them into confident actionable steps.
2. Define a measurement strategy.
Does your measurement strategy accurately reflect how you’ve defined it? It’s important to continuously reevaluate the strategy to keep pace with changing organizational and business conditions. You’ll also want to be sure to secure approval and resources for ongoing measurement efforts, versus a one-off approach.
3. Get leadership buy-in and approval.
Get leadership on board with the value and importance of monitoring and measuring employee engagement. Be sure leaders understand how engagement surveys can be a tool to increase employee engagement.
4. Set your objectives.
Document your objectives by considering what you wish to accomplish by conducting the employee engagement survey.
Potential initial objectives include:
- Establish a baseline engagement score
- Achieve a target survey response rate (e.g., 70%)
- Identify the key drivers of employee engagement
Once you have a baseline survey you may want to expand your objectives by using the SMART objective-setting approach (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) to define one or two goals for your survey, such as:
- Raise employee engagement levels by X% in 6 months
- Increase employee retention by X% year over year
- Improve two-way communication between employees and their managers
- Enhance company culture
- Increase your employee net promoter score (eNPS) by X% year over year. This is a metric used to gauge employee loyalty and satisfaction by measuring how likely employees are to recommend their workplace to others.
5. Create a list of questions.
Keeping your objectives in mind, create a list of both closed- and open-ended questions to ask employees at regular intervals. See the end of this guide for a list of possible questions.
6. Conduct the survey.
Engagement surveys are often conducted annually, allowing you the ability to compare results year-to-year. But many companies opt for shorter surveys implemented on a more frequent schedule, taking the “pulse” of employee sentiment. These “pulse surveys” usually consist of a limited set of questions, sometimes a single item, that allows organizations to get feedback on a particular issue in real time.
For example, perhaps you want to understand the extent to which managers support employees. You could ask: “Do you feel supported by your manager this week?” or “Do you have the resources you need to effectively do your job today?”
7. Share the results.
This is a critical part of the engagement survey process. Recent research conducted by WebMD Health Services’ Center for Research finds that one of the keys to feeling cared for by an organization is the degree to which management takes meaningful action on employee feedback. Communicate to employees what you found, celebrate successes together and, most importantly, what you’ll do to take action.
Essential questions to include in your employee engagement survey.
Depending on your goals, here are 24 essential employee engagement survey questions you should be asking.
Employee satisfaction survey questions.
1. How happy are you at work?
This is undoubtedly the most direct question to ask employees. You can start with this question and ask it consistently. That way you’ll be able to track how they feel over time.
2. How likely are you to recommend working at this organization to a friend or colleague?
This question is an industry standard and measures the employee net promoter score (eNPS), or the likelihood of an employee referring someone to work at your organization. It’s a direct reflection of how satisfied an employee is at their job, since someone who is unhappy will not likely have good things to say to their contacts.
3. Do you have a clear understanding of your career or promotion path?
TINYpulse found that employees who feel in control of their careers are 20% more likely to stay in their roles. It’s important to understand the degree to which employees feel supported on their career journey and identify ways you can impact it.
4. How would you rate your work-life balance?
Work-life balance is essential to remaining productive and engaged. If employees are struggling to manage work and life demands, your organization runs the risk of burnout.
5. Hypothetically, if you were to quit tomorrow, what would your reason be?
Poor communication, lack of transparency, feeling unappreciated—these engagement detractors can all be uncovered by asking this question. Responses will illuminate any underlying issues that may cause employees to seek opportunities elsewhere.
6. Are you satisfied with the benefits and perks we offer?
Employee perks play an important role in determining overall job satisfaction. They also help attract new hires to the company. Make sure you’re keeping up with your competitors by asking your employees if they’re satisfied with the benefits they’re receiving. That said, benefits can be a hot button, so only ask this question if you’re prepared to follow through on any insights gathered.
Employee recognition survey questions.
7. Do you feel valued at work?
A recent study found more than half of employees report feeling only somewhat valued (46.4%) or not valued at all (10.7%) by their organization. Use this question to gauge how valued workers in your organization are feeling.
8. How frequently do you receive recognition from your manager?
According to TINYpulse data, 21.5% of employees who don’t feel recognized when they do great work have interviewed for a job in the last three months—compared to just 12.4% who do feel recognized. It’s critical to find out how managers are doing when it comes to recognizing their employees.
9. The last time you finished a big project, did you receive any recognition?
This is another way to uncover whether leaders (or peers) are properly recognizing employees’ contributions. Our TINYpulse Cheers for Peers tool allows employees to publicly recognize and thank their colleagues for outstanding contributions by sending them a virtual pat on the back.
Employee retention survey questions.
10. Do you believe you’ll be able to reach your full potential here?
Employees want to work for an organization that will nurture their potential. TINYpulse findings reveal that employees who feel they’re progressing in their careers are 20% more likely to still be working at their companies in one year.
11. If you had the chance, would you reapply to your current job?
The happier an employee is at their current job, the more likely they would be to reapply to that very same position. Therefore, if an employee answers on the lower end of the spectrum, they may not be sticking around for long.
12. Do you see yourself working here one year from now?
A question like this is pretty self-explanatory. However, it can say a lot about your retention rate. If the majority of employees don’t see themselves at your organization in one year, it may be time to make some changes.
13. Do you believe leadership takes your feedback seriously?
Leadership taking meaningful action on employee feedback is one of six key factors WebMD Health Services identified that make employees feel cared for at work. When leaders pay lip service to feedback it shows they’re not really committed to making improvements and impacts engagement.
Corporate culture survey questions.
14. Do you feel like the leadership team is transparent?
Transparency and open communication in the workplace contribute significantly to higher trust and a more positive work culture. Deloitte noted in 2024 that a focus on trust and transparency has enormous potential to impact the organization’s success. So, it’s important to ascertain the level of leadership transparency employees perceive.
15. What three words would you use to describe our culture?
Fun, stressful, supportive? Find out what your employees really think about your culture. Use the results to identify ways to strengthen and improve it.
16. How comfortable do you feel giving upward feedback to your supervisor?
Employees should feel comfortable providing feedback to their supervisors and offering suggestions for improvements. This is a hallmark of “psychological safety,” and is a significant contributor to employees’ perception their organization cares about them, according to our 2025 Workplace and Employee Survey.
17. Do you feel coworkers respect one another?
This question allows you to determine whether there is a culture of mutual respect in the organization. If not, it may be time to boost team-building activities or find ways for co-workers to recognize one another, such as with our TINYpulse Cheers for Peers tool.
18. Do you believe we authentically live by our organizational values?
An organization’s values are guidelines for how to behave—as well as how to make business decisions. If your employees feel like organizational values are just meaningless words on the wall, or that leaders don’t truly live into them, it’s important to take action.
19. Does our leadership team foster a positive work culture?
Are the top leaders in your organization fostering a positive work environment or a negative one? This survey question enables you to go behind the scenes and find out how well leaders are enhancing or detracting from the organization’s culture.
20. Do you have fun at work?
We spend up to a third of our lives at work. Find out if employees think your organization’s culture is worth waking up for every day.
Personal growth employee survey questions.
21. Which new responsibilities, if any, would you like to take on?
According to Gartner, only 46% of employees feel supported trying to grow their careers at their organization. Asking employees whether they’d like to take on new responsibilities is a way of showing employees their career growth and development is important.
22. What type of new projects would you like to be involved in?
Boredom in the workplace can erode employee engagement, lead to a decrease in productivity and increase turnover. Ask about potential new projects employees would like to pursue as a hedge against boredom.
23. What new skills would you like to develop?
Employees need to refresh their skills periodically to stay current and boost enthusiasm for their work. Keep tabs on the skills that are important to employees and make sure the organization allocates the resources to provide them.
24. Do you receive ample learning opportunities at your current job?
Finally, make sure your employees receive enough opportunities to grow professionally and achieve their personal career goals.
Got a favorite question?
The beauty of employee feedback surveys is that there are many ways to ask each question. TINYpulse offers an easy way to solicit employee feedback regularly. You can use the responses to identify key culture drivers in your organization and make informed decisions to improve the employee experience. Book a demo to see how easy it is to collect and act on feedback in TINYpulse.
