How Open-Ended Questions Enhance Employee Surveys

Open-ended questions can enhance your employee surveys by capturing detailed, honest, and emotionally rich feedback that closed questions simply can't provide.

Do you know the difference between open-ended and closed questions, and why you should ensure you use open-ended questions to measure engagement in employee surveys?

Open-ended and closed questions complement each other when measuring employee engagement. Before adding them to surveys, it's essential to understand their benefits and know when to use each type.

What are open-ended questions?

Open-ended questions allow you to collect detailed, qualitative data to dig deep into a topic or feedback. Closed questions, by contrast, require responses from a set list of answers, making them useful for multiple choice or yes/no/maybe formats.

Different situations call for different question types. During a job interview, open-ended questions encourage in-depth answers, giving candidates room to expand their responses.

In employee engagement surveys, however, closed questions are often used to produce quick, straightforward data that's easy to analyse and draw conclusions from.

Examples of open-ended questions in employee surveys

There are many examples of open-ended questions, each depending on the topic you want to explore. For an employee engagement survey, you might ask questions across different categories, such as:

• What do you like about working at this organisation?
• How could we improve our employee benefits scheme?
• How would you recommend the organisation to others?
• What is the best thing about working with your current manager?
• How would you describe the company culture?

Benefits of open-ended questions

Detailed responses: Closed questions can be quick to complete but offer limited detail. Open-ended questions let you dig deeper into a topic and gain further insights from an employee's perspective.

If respondents are anonymous, they may give even more honest and detailed answers to open-ended questions.

For example, to learn more about professional development, you could ask a closed question such as, 'Do you think you spend adequate time on your professional development?' This provides yes/no/don't know data, but not much context.

An open-ended follow-up such as, 'Please explain your answer,' adds valuable detail and colour.

Provide potential solutions: While a closed question delivers data, an open-ended question can reveal the why, what, and how. Respondents may explain why they aren't focusing on professional development enough, and what they intend to do about it.

No right or wrong answer: Poorly worded closed questions can make employees feel restricted or unsure which option is "correct." Open-ended questions remove this pressure and encourage employees to share insights a closed format wouldn't capture.

Avoiding forced answers: Closed questions risk not containing the response an employee actually wants to give. For instance, a statement like 'I ask for feedback from my manager,' might offer only "every week," "every month," or "never" as options.

While this generates interesting statistics, it's limiting. What if the respondent wanted to say "every quarter" or explain why they can't ask for feedback?

One study found that when parents were given limited options for a closed question about their children, 60% chose the most popular option—yet only 5% mentioned it spontaneously when asked the same question in open-ended form.

Pick up on emotions: Open-ended responses often reveal an employee's opinion or emotion toward a topic. Certain words or tones can highlight employee mood and engagement far better than a selected closed-question response.

Restrictions of open-ended questions

While open-ended questions benefit employee engagement surveys, it's worth considering how many to include. They generate more information, which takes time to read through and summarise. Closed-question data is easier to use for spotting trends, whereas open-ended answers may sometimes be irrelevant or unhelpful.

You may also see lower response rates, since writing detailed answers takes more time and effort than selecting a preset option.

One solution is to limit the number of open-ended questions per survey or make them optional rather than compulsory, which can help improve response rates. Your employee survey software can help you manage this balance.

Employee engagement surveys always require careful thought and planning before compiling questions. Whether you choose a mix of open-ended and closed formats, consider your survey objectives, the time needed to analyse responses, and how you'll act on the feedback you receive.

Sorwe brings together your internal communication, feedback, learning, and performance processes in a single mobile platform. Contact us to discover Sorwe solutions and understand how our employee survey software can help you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the main difference between open-ended and closed questions?

Open-ended questions let employees answer in their own words for detailed, qualitative insights, while closed questions restrict responses to set options like yes, no, or multiple choice.

How can open-ended questions enhance your employee surveys?

They provide richer context, uncover honest emotions, reveal solutions employees suggest themselves, and avoid forcing people into limited, predefined answers.

Are there downsides to using open-ended questions in surveys?

Yes, they take longer to complete and analyse, can lower response rates, and may produce irrelevant or unhelpful answers if overused.

How many open-ended questions should an employee survey include?

Keep them limited and optional rather than compulsory, balancing them with closed questions to maintain response rates while still gathering deeper insights.

Can anonymous surveys improve the quality of open-ended responses?

Yes, anonymity often encourages employees to give more honest and detailed answers to open-ended questions.