Pulse surveys are a great way to check-in with employees on a more frequent basis as opposed to an annual employee engagement survey, but what questions should you ask?
Pulse surveys are meant to be a lower-cost and more efficient way to gain insight into the state of the team. Simply put, the structure of the questions is very different vs. questions you ask the team once per year. If you’re new to pulse surveys, check out our getting started guide.
P.S - check out our pulse survey template to learn how we can help you automate most of the process.
We’ve provided sample questions for an employee pulse survey below. We’ll start with popular questions, and then work our way into more granular, specific ones.
Similar to the net promoter score (NPS) when measuring customer sentiment, this dives deep. It’s a way to measure promoters (people who love the company), with passives (people who are unsure), and detractors. There are things you can learn from each segment.
This is explicitly looking for roadblocks that may keep people from recommending the organization as a place to work. Remember, if you use a numeric question, make sure to ask a follow-up question digging deeper.
This seeks to uncover gaps in an employee’s knowledge about the organization. This could be a process, business model, or culture questions. It’s a great question to ask when onboarding new employees. It’s also a great way to measure transparency for existing employees.
A bit open-ended, but a good question to ask. The purpose is to uncover roadblocks that prevent employees from doing their best work.
This measures how well people were able to accomplish tasks within a certain period of time. It’s a good question to ask if you’re trying to create and keep track of goals or OKRs.
This is explicitly aimed to find roadblocks that prevent employees from doing their best work. Similar to question #4, but a bit more blunt.
It’s possible that employees may not have the resources that they need to accomplish their tasks/goals. This question seeks to uncover those issues and help you develop and coach your team.
Very open-ended. We suggest asking employees if they can explain the mission and vision of the company.
What drives you to show up every day? Is it a job, or something more than that? This question tries to uncover the details. You can use a likert scale or a numerical one. Remember: if this is a numeric (1-10 question) remember to ask “why?”
While we like this question, we also will be the first to admit, that some people simply don’t like work. That’s okay, sometimes, a job is a job. We recommend making this a numeric choice.
Career misalignment tends to cause turnover. It may not be a few months, but instead, it could manifest itself over a span of years.
What drives you to show up every day? Is it a job, or something more than that? This question tries to uncover the details. Remember: if this is a numeric (1-10 question) remember to ask “why?”
There’s always business processes that need to be improved. This is a high impact one to uncover process optimizations.
Very open-ended. What defines success? Are these resources available? A decent question, but not our favorite.
I’d recommend asking this 1-2 months after onboarding. This a question regarding retention of company core values in the initial few months of working at a new company.
16. If you were in charge of the company, what’s the first thing you would work on?
17. Is there anything preventing you from doing your best work?
18. What was the best part of your week?
19. What was the worst part of your week?
20. If there was one thing you could improve about working at [company] what would it be?
21. What’s one employee perk you wish you had?
22. Do you recommend our product to friends and family (if applicable)? Why or why not?
23. What’s one small change you would make to how we work as a company?
24. What’s one big change you would make to how we work as a company?
25. What’s one thing we could do to improve communication as a team?
26. Is there anyone who deserves special recognition for going above and beyond the call of duty?
27. What’s one thing we can do to improve our company culture?
28. What’s one thing I can do to make your more productive?
29. What’s the biggest obstacle keeping you from doing your best work?
30. If you were able to wave a magic wand, what would you improve about [company]?
31. Do you think we are heading in the right direction as a company? Why? Why not?
32. If you could wave a magic wand and pick an internal project to work on, what would it be?
33. How excited are you about the current projects you’re working on?
With routines in Friday, you can build out your own pulse surveys, plus create regular work updates for daily standups, weekly CEO reports, and team check-ins. Start with one below.