Employee survey questions: 40 questions that work, with the research behind them

A working reference for anyone who has to write an employee survey: 40 questions in eight groups, a scale for each, a cadence table, and the research that says why each theme matters. Figures come from Gallup, Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, Pew Research and MIT Sloan Management Review, each linked to the page where it appears. Last checked: September 2026.

Why survey at all, and why most surveys fail

Twenty percent of employees worldwide were engaged in 2025, 64 percent were not engaged and 16 percent were actively disengaged (Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026). Measuring it pays: across 183,806 business units and 3.35 million employees in 90 countries, top-quartile engagement units showed 23 percent higher profitability, 78 percent lower absenteeism and 21 to 51 percent lower turnover than bottom-quartile units (Gallup, Q12 Meta-Analysis, 11th edition, 2024).

The failure point is not the questionnaire. Only 8 percent of employees strongly agree that their organisation takes action on surveys, and progress on the resulting action plans is a top predictor of future engagement (Gallup, So You Administered an Employee Engagement Survey. Now What?, 2023). If you cannot commit to publishing results and changing one thing, run fewer surveys, not more.

How long, how often, and which scale

SurveyMonkey analysed roughly 100,000 of its own surveys of 1 to 30 questions. A 10-question survey takes about five minutes: 75 seconds for the first question, about 30 seconds each for questions 3 to 10, and about 21 seconds each for questions 16 to 25, because people speed up and pay less attention as the survey drags on. Past 7 to 8 minutes, completion rates fall by 5 to 20 percent (SurveyMonkey, How much time are respondents willing to spend on your survey?). So a pulse fits in 10 questions and an annual survey in 25 to 30.

Use a 5-point agreement scale for statements: it is what the benchmark studies use and it lets you report the "strongly agree" share, the figure Gallup uses throughout. Use the 0 to 10 eNPS scale only for the recommendation question. Put one or two open-ended questions at the end, never in the middle: they cost the most time and hold the specific, fixable complaints.

Source: length limits derived from SurveyMonkey, survey completion times study (about 30 seconds per question, abandonment rising after 7 to 8 minutes). Cadence and ownership are the page author's recommendation, not a research finding.

The 40 questions, by theme

Statements use the 5-point agreement scale unless marked. The wording is original, not the Gallup Q12, and should not be benchmarked against Q12 data.

1. Engagement and purpose. Employees with a strong sense of purpose are engaged at 50 percent, against 9 percent for those with low purpose, yet only 18 percent describe their job as one with a purpose they believe in (Gallup, Purposeful Work Boosts Engagement, but Few Experience It, 2025, web survey of 4,475 U.S. employees).

• I understand how my work contributes to what the company is trying to achieve.
• I know exactly what is expected of me this quarter.
• Most days I have the tools and information I need to do my job well.
• I would still choose this job if I were deciding today.
• How likely are you to recommend working here to a friend? (0 to 10, eNPS)

2. Manager relationship. Gallup attributes up to 70 percent of the variance in team engagement to the manager (Gallup, Leadership and Management indicator). In Pew's 2023 survey of 5,188 U.S. workers, 62 percent were extremely or very satisfied with their relationship with their manager, but only 49 percent with the feedback they got from that manager (Pew Research Center, How Americans View Their Jobs, 2023).

• My manager and I have talked about my priorities in the last two weeks.
• My manager gives me feedback I can act on, not just a rating.
• When I raise a problem, my manager does something about it.
• My manager treats people on the team fairly.
• I would be comfortable telling my manager I am overloaded.

3. Feedback and recognition. Well-recognised employees were 45 percent less likely to have left two years later, and those who strongly agree they get valuable feedback are five times as likely to be engaged (Gallup and Workhuman, recognition research, 2024). Only 23 percent of U.S. employees strongly agree they know what exceptional performance looks like in their role (Gallup indicator, above).

• In the last week someone recognised me for good work.
• I know what "excellent" looks like in my role.
• Recognition here goes to the people who earn it.
• I get useful feedback from colleagues, not only from my manager.
• The last performance conversation I had changed something about how I work.

4. Growth and development. Only 44 percent of U.S. workers are highly satisfied with their training opportunities and 33 percent with their promotion opportunities (Pew, 2023, above). Employees who strongly agree their organisation encourages them to learn new skills are 47 percent less likely to be looking for another job (Gallup and Workhuman, 2024, above).

• I have learned something in the last three months that makes me better at my job.
• I can see a realistic next step for me in this company.
• Someone here is actively helping me develop.
• I get to use my strongest skills most days.
• Which skill would you most like to build in the next year? (open)

5. Wellbeing and workload. Forty percent of employees globally felt a lot of stress the previous day, 22 percent a lot of loneliness, and only 34 percent are thriving (Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2026, 2025 data). These are self-reported, one-day recall measures, which is what a pulse question captures.

• My workload is sustainable for the next three months.
• I can disconnect from work outside working hours.
• I felt a lot of stress at work yesterday. (reverse scored)
• I can take time off when I need it without it counting against me.
• What is the one thing that adds the most unnecessary stress to your week? (open)

6. Belonging and trust. Twenty percent of U.S. employees strongly agree they trust their organisation's leadership (Gallup indicator, above). Using attrition data for April to September 2021 and more than 1.4 million Glassdoor reviews of Culture 500 companies, a toxic culture (failure to promote diversity, equity and inclusion, disrespect, unethical behaviour) was ten times more important than compensation in predicting turnover (Sull, Sull and Zweig, MIT Sloan Management Review, 2022).

• I can be myself at work without it costing me anything.
• People here are treated with respect regardless of role or background.
• Leadership tells us the truth, including bad news.
• If I reported something unethical, I trust it would be handled.
• I feel like I belong on this team.

7. Onboarding: the first 90 days. Only 12 percent of employees strongly agree that their organisation does a great job onboarding new employees (Gallup, Why the Onboarding Experience Is Key for Retention, 2018), and only 44 percent of new employees intend to stay more than three years (Qualtrics, Employee Experience Trends 2026, employees in 24 countries). Ask these at day 30 and again at day 90; the change between readings is the signal. The cost of early exits is covered in why onboarding matters.

• The job matches what I was told during the hiring process.
• I had the access, equipment and introductions I needed in my first week.
• I know who to ask when I am stuck.
• I have already done work that mattered to the team.
• I am confident I made the right decision joining. (day 90 only)

8. Exit and stay questions. Forty-two percent of employees who left voluntarily say their manager or organisation could have done something to prevent it, and 45 percent say nobody discussed their satisfaction, performance or future with them in the three months before they left (Gallup, 42% of Employee Turnover Is Preventable but Often Ignored, 2024, survey of 717 U.S. leavers). The same questions asked of people who are still here are the stay interview. Running the leaver conversation is covered in the exit interviews guide.

• What was the single event or moment that made you start looking? (open)
• Did anyone here know you were considering leaving before you resigned?
• Which of these would have changed your decision: pay, manager, workload, career path, none? (multiple choice)
• Would you come back if the thing you named were fixed?
• Would you recommend a friend apply here? (0 to 10)

Which question group predicts what

Source: Gallup, Q12 Meta-Analysis 11th edition (2024); Gallup-Workhuman recognition research (2024); MIT SMR, Toxic Culture Is Driving the Great Resignation (2022); Gallup, preventable turnover (2024). The links are associations in the source studies, not proof that changing a survey score changes the outcome.

What the data means for small HR teams

Pick ten questions and keep them. A quarterly pulse of 8 to 12 items, unchanged for at least four rounds, gives you a trend line, and the trend is the only thing small samples measure reliably.

Publish results within two weeks and name one change. The 8 percent action figure is the whole problem. Share the three lowest scores, say what you will do about one, and report back in the next pulse.

Put the onboarding pulse in the hiring workflow. The day-30 and day-90 questions should fire when a hire is marked started. An applicant tracking system with onboarding checklists, such as 100Hires, can hold both checkpoints next to the interview scorecards.

Do not show individual answers for teams under eight. Anonymity fails at small numbers and people know it. Aggregate to department level or make it a conversation. For the underlying measure, see the guide to employee engagement.

Notes on the data

Gallup's global figures are from its World Poll (2025 data, published April 2026); U.S. indicator figures are Gallup Panel "strongly agree" shares. The SurveyMonkey study covers surveys built on that platform, mostly customer research, though it notes higher tolerance for work and school surveys. The MIT SMR analysis covers Culture 500 companies in 2021, a period of unusually high job switching. The Gallup onboarding figure is from 2018 with no direct update; treat it as indicative. No response-rate benchmark is given because the usual academic source (Baruch and Holtom, 2008) could not be opened for verification.

FAQ

How many questions should an employee survey have? Ten for a pulse, up to 30 for an annual survey. Abandonment rises after 7 to 8 minutes, so 30 is the practical ceiling.

Should surveys be anonymous? Pulse and annual surveys, yes, with results shown only for groups of eight or more. Onboarding and exit surveys are usually attributed because the answers need a follow-up conversation.

How often is too often? When you have not acted on the last one. Frequency is limited by your capacity to respond, not by respondent fatigue.