If satisfied employees are the glue that binds the company, employee surveys are an essential ingredient for that bond.

For employees to be engaged, they need to feel like they’re part of a team. In a big organization, where the leaders may rarely ever get to meet those lower on the hierarchy, this is tough.

However, many types of employee surveys exist to help you create a better employee experience, and a more effective company culture. No matter the size of your organization, you can gather insights from your employees, take better business decisions and course-correct if needed with an employee questionnaire.

Five Employee Surveys You Should Be Conducting Regularly

1. Employee onboarding survey
2. Exit interview survey
3. Employee engagement survey
4. Employee satisfaction survey
5. Internal communications survey

1. Employee onboarding Survey

First impressions last. This is an interview tip given often to job applicants. It is, however, equally relevant to the employee onboarding process. Any company that takes onboarding seriously must ask onboarding survey questions to a new hire. 

Importance of the Onboarding Process 

According to a study by Harvard Business Review, 33% of employees look for a new job within six months of starting. Not a very encouraging statistic! To put it another way, onboarding has an undeniable impact on an employee’s mindset towards a company. Sometimes it even determines if they stay or leave. 

🚫 Hammers don’t build houses 🔨
✅ People do 🙋🏻‍♀️

Wise words from our Lead People Scientist, @DrKenMatos. Do you agree?#EmployeeSurveys #PeopleAnalytics pic.twitter.com/31FTwI0l0x

— Culture Amp (@CultureAmp) May 21, 2019

With their additional responsibilities, it’s a challenge for managers to measure and improve the onboarding experience – especially at fairly large organizations. Often, they don’t have the resources they need to make the company a welcoming space for new employees. This is where onboarding surveys can provide a cost-effective workaround. 

Why You Need An Employee Onboarding Survey

• From the recruitment, orientation and training to the final transition, an onboarding survey gives you insights from the people who matter. Do they feel welcomed? Did the orientation process help them with everything they need? 
• Getting new employees up to speed takes a major time investment. So, any unaddressed issues during onboarding can snowball into employee churn later. A new hire survey helps you find out what’s working, and what isn’t. 
• The survey also helps you find out your employees’ first impressions of the company. For one thing, a pair of fresh eyes can spot things that other, more seasoned employees have learned to ignore. 
• An employee onboarding survey also shows recruits that you care about their experience at your firm. It lets them know that their opinions have as much weight as that of seasoned employees at your firm. 

Onboarding Survey: Questions to Ask

1. How well do you understand your role and the responsibilities that come with it?
2. How accurately was the role described to you in the recruiting process?
3. Do you know who to reach out to in case you face any problems?
4. How happy or unhappy are you with this company as a place to work?
5. How useful have role-based conversations with your manager been?

2. Exit Interview Survey

We all know that employee onboarding is vital. But do employee exits really matter? They do actually –  an employee’s last days are just as vital as their first. Because that is also the stage when they are most likely to give 100% honest feedback. 

Exit Interview Questions template by SurveySparrow. 

Getting your offboarding right is crucial to employee experience management, and here’s why. 

Why You Need An Employee Exit Survey

• When an employee leaves a company, it is hopefully on good terms. If it is, you should know what you’re doing right. If not, you should definitely know what you’re doing wrong. A big part of employee experience is to measure sentiments upon exit. Exit survey questions help you with that. 
• Also, we know by now that retaining employees gives your company a competitive advantage. Companies that have a high exit rate also have a low performance overall. No surprises there. But it is tricky to figure out what satisfies the employees who stay. Each time someone leaves, it is a precious opportunity to find that out. 
• When an employee is offboarding, they can still be really helpful for your organization. An Employee Turnover Questionnaire will reveal what parts of the work culture are great. If there are any problematic elements, employees can warn you about those too.
• If a manager, in particular, is creating bad employee experiences, you should be in the know. An exit survey is an opportunity to find all that out. 
• Beyond that, exit surveys also help you prepare better for the exit interview. To elaborate, you already have an idea regarding the worker’s opinions about the company. Then, you can use the exit interview to dig deeper.
• Did something in the survey result surprise you? Ask the employee about it during the exit interview. It’s a practice that will help your company self-correct and stay on track. 

Exit Interview Survey: Questions to Ask

1. What are your main reasons for quitting this job?
2. Did you have a good relationship with your manager?
3. What aspect of your job did you like the most?
4. What aspect of your job did you dislike the most?
5. Is there any issue in particular that you’d like to tell us about?

3. Employee Engagement Survey

We’ve covered the onboarding and exit employee surveys. It’s equally important, if not more, to find out how employees are doing in the middle of these two.

While working at your company, are they interested in the tasks at hand? Are they driven by a shared goal? An employee engagement survey will help you answer those questions. We usually recommend anonymous responses because that will help you get more honest feedback.

Why You Need An Employee Engagement Survey

• According to OfficeVibe, better employee engagement leads to a 10% increase in customer ratings and a 20% increase in sales! 
• A workplace where employees are invested in the company will have great customer service. As an employer, this is a part of your work culture you do not want to ignore.
• Employee engagement quizzes and surveys help you look beyond first impressions and find out how invested your employees are. This is not something you can spot just by walking around the office. As any employee will tell you, it’s easy enough to fake work and make-work. 
• A shocking 80% of employees said in a study that they would work longer hours for a more empathetic employer. Regular engagement surveys enable managers to form a stronger emotional connection with their employees. 
• You can also benchmark the data for comparison purposes. For example, benchmarking can help you identify whether some issues are specific to your firm or industry-wide.

Employee Engagement Survey: Questions to Ask

1. I see myself working here in five years.
2. I always want to give my best when I’m at work.
3. My manager recognizes my full potential and makes me feel appreciated.
4. How strongly do I believe in the company’s mission?
5. I can see how my work affects the company’s success.

4. Employee Satisfaction Survey

While employee engagement and satisfaction sound like the same thing, they are not. This excellent blog by Toolbox highlights the difference. Moreover, it says that:

Job satisfaction and employee engagement are both equally important. While satisfaction may be enough to sustain an employee in a job for seven years, it is engagement in the job that will help employees reach their full potential and subsequently enable the growth of the organization.

The evidence is clear: only when your workforce is engaged and satisfied, you can sustain business performance. 

Why You Need An Employee Satisfaction Survey

• Employee satisfaction surveys can help you measure and quantify satisfaction levels.
• It also helps you home in on the reason for overall and individual satisfaction levels. There could be many: inadequate pay, poor culture or role fit, boredom, working conditions, etc.
• Employee satisfaction lessens long-term hiring costs. That’s because more satisfied employees lead to more referrals through word-of-mouth. 
• Employee satisfaction also leads to better sales and a better customer experience. 
• Ever felt like a lot of your employees seem to be going on leave? Low employee satisfaction is one of the top causes of absenteeism. An employee satisfaction survey can help you pinpoint the trouble spots and fix them. 
• This, in turn, will lead to better retention rates and a healthier, more productive workplace. 

Employee Satisfaction Survey: Questions To Ask

1. Do you feel connected to your colleagues?
2. Do you feel valued for your contributions to the company?
3. Does our company offer adequate opportunities for promotion?
4. Do you think work is distributed evenly across the team?
5. Do you find your work meaningful?

5.  Internal Communications Survey

As employee surveys go, there are few more important than this one. Since companies are, by definition, places where people collaborate. Employees must talk to each other, and managers must keep them in the loop. 

Why You Need An Internal Communications Survey

• An internal communications questionnaire is vital to your communication strategy.
• First off, they help you identify gaps. For this, you can choose to spend large sums on hiring consultants. Or you can do the simpler, more cost-effective thing and ask your employees. 
• Secondly, internal communications surveys give your employees a much-needed voice.
• Ineffective communications can make them feel like they don’t have a say in the company’s decisions. This is how employee engagement falls.
• A Salesforce study recently found that employees who feel heard at work are 4.6 times more likely to give their best performance. 
• Lastly, you will find out out how much your employee knows about your company, as well as the communication habits among team members and managers.

Internal Communications Survey: Questions to Ask

1. How do you currently get information about the company?
2. How much effort does your direct manager make to keep you informed?
3. Does your team assist you in completing your work?
4. Do you feel like the company listens to your concerns?
5. How would you rate your knowledge of the company’s goals?

Related: 7 Important Internal Communication Survey Questions

Wrapping Up

As organizations grow, it becomes tough to get a sense of how your employees are doing. This leads to top talent resigning, and unhealthy workplace patterns staying in place. Employee surveys are simply a way to find out what’s going on and use the insights to course-correct. 

You can run your own employee surveys on SurveySparrow and gather the insights to make effective decisions about your work culture. Simply create a free account to get started.

Kate Williams

Content Marketer at SurveySparrow