How to Create an Employee Engagement Survey That Fits

To create an employee engagement survey that's perfect for your organisation, you need clear objectives, leadership buy-in, well-designed questions, and a plan to act on the results.

'The dynamic between employee and employer is changing, and now employees are starting to become more vocal about their needs.'

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An employee engagement survey is a fantastic way to gain true insight into engagement levels in your organisation. It lets management understand how employees view the company, while also making employees feel valued because they're asked for feedback. There's even value in the data from employees who don't complete the survey — Facebook found that people who skipped both annual surveys were 2.6 times more likely to leave within six months.

Surveys require precise planning and implementation; otherwise, you risk wasting time and resources and making employees feel disengaged. Here's your guide to how to create an employee engagement survey that's perfect for your organisation.

Why are employee engagement surveys important?

Employee engagement surveys measure how your people feel about many aspects of their employment. While you might sense engagement levels informally, it's easy to misjudge how good or bad things actually are.

Surveys give you a complete picture of how all employees feel, allowing for honest feedback, unexpected insights, and comparisons across teams, grades and demographics.

You don't need to wait for a crisis or low engagement to run a survey. They can identify issues before they escalate and signal to employees that their feedback is valued.

Do employee engagement surveys work?

Engagement surveys typically ask about management, pay and benefits, learning and development, communication, and leadership. They combine qualitative and quantitative feedback through a mix of question types.

How do you start planning an employee engagement survey?

Before drafting questions, secure commitment from senior leadership to measure engagement and act on the results. Without this buy-in, other managers won't follow through and action plans will stall.

Leaders should define the survey's objectives, agree on timelines for implementation and analysis, and decide how to support line managers in communicating the purpose and process to their teams.

How long should an employee engagement survey be?

There's no set length — it depends on your organisation's goals. A survey might focus narrowly on a recent event, like a merger, or aim to measure employee engagement across the company more broadly.

External survey providers often offer guidance and question banks, which can help you design a survey based on best practice.

If you've run a survey before, you might repeat the same questions to track progress over time, or switch to more frequent, shorter pulse surveys.

How can you encourage employees to complete surveys?

Participation rates vary, but these steps can help:

• Keep the survey simple and reasonably short so employees don't abandon it midway.
• Give employees adequate time to complete it.
• Send reminders, and make it accessible via app so employees can respond anywhere.
• Be clear about anonymity and how results will be used, both when announcing and launching the survey.
• Consider demographics — in smaller teams, questions about age or gender could make individuals identifiable.
• Account for cultural and language differences if running the same survey across countries.

What makes a good employee engagement survey?

A good survey includes a range of questions covering different aspects of the workplace, mixing open and closed formats. This allows you to collect data on specific business areas while giving employees room for honest, open feedback.

Questions should never be leading or discriminatory, and it should be clear that responses are confidential and seen only by HR or the survey provider.

The right questions produce credible, genuine insights that drive improvement. The wrong ones waste time and stall progress.

Examples of open employee engagement survey questions include:

• How do you feel about your job today?
• What do you enjoy about your work environment?
• What would you change about your job if you could?

Closed questions might include:

• Do you feel valued by your organisation?
• Do you think you receive enough feedback from your manager?
• Would you recommend your organisation to your friends?

How do you communicate a survey?

Communicate the survey's details and purpose as early as possible. Employees may be wary, especially if it's the company's first survey, so open communication about anonymity, purpose and next steps is essential.

To ensure a consistent message, this information should come from senior management, line managers, and HR together.

For more tips, see our blog on How to Communicate Your Employee Satisfaction Surveys More Effectively?

How to interpret employee engagement survey results

Well-planned surveys tend to have higher participation rates and generate plenty of data to analyse — a process that takes time and expertise.

Using survey software makes interpretation faster, helping you spot trends and patterns to build action plans around key issues.

Once results are in, compare them against your original objectives to see which concerns are as serious as expected — and which hidden issues need attention.

Senior management should commit time to reviewing results without trying to fix everything at once or taking negative feedback personally. Focus action plans on the most realistic, impactful issues and communicate them clearly to line managers.

Line managers should receive their team's results directly from senior management and discuss them in depth — accountability for action needs to start at the top.

Using employee engagement survey software

While you can design a survey in-house, outsourcing to a survey software provider is often more time- and cost-effective. Providers bring expertise in survey design and can offer ready-made questions or let you build your own.

They also support participation through reminders and mobile access, and keep results centralised so you can analyse the variables affecting engagement and performance.

It's not worth cutting corners when running an employee engagement survey. Getting the most out of it means taking time to define objectives, craft relevant questions, analyse the data thoroughly, and follow through with action. Doing nothing with the results risks disengaging the very people you're trying to engage.

Sorwe provides the tools you need to assess, evaluate, and improve employee engagement. Get in touch to learn how Sorwe can help you create an employee engagement survey that's perfect for your organisation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are employee engagement surveys important?

They reveal how employees truly feel about their work, uncover issues before they escalate, and show staff that their feedback is valued.

How long should an employee engagement survey be?

There's no fixed length. It depends on your goals, whether you're focusing on a specific event or measuring overall engagement, and whether you use pulse surveys or longer annual surveys.

How can you encourage employees to complete surveys?

Keep it short, give enough time to respond, send reminders, clarify confidentiality, and make it accessible via mobile or app for higher participation.

What makes a good employee engagement survey?

A good survey mixes open and closed questions, avoids leading or discriminatory wording, guarantees confidentiality, and aligns with clear business objectives.

How do you interpret employee engagement survey results?

Compare results against your original objectives, use survey software to spot trends, and ensure senior management commits to reviewing findings and creating action plans.