Survey Questions for Employee Engagement

Survey questions for employee engagement are the key to unlocking understanding of your people and what’s standing between you and a thriving organisation. The right employee feedback questions lead to actionable insights; the wrong ones leave you drowning in data with no clear way forward.

At Farleigh, we see surveys not as stand-alone exercises but as springboards to provoke reflection and action for deeper change. In this article, we’ll unpack how to ask questions that actually matter, share examples you can use, and explore how to turn survey results into meaningful action for your people and your business.From surveys to culture shifts, we’ll help you make it stick. Speak to one of our experts and start making a real difference in your organisation.

Table of Contents

• 12 Survey Questions That Drive Action, Not Just Data
• Building Better Surveys: Lessons from Farleigh’s Work
• What Makes a Good Employee Engagement Survey?
• Turning Engagement Survey Results Into Real Change
• Leadership’s Role in Effective Engagement Surveys
• From Survey Data to Culture That Actually Moves
• Better Questions Lead to Better Organisations

12 Survey Questions That Drive Action, Not Just Data

The quality of your engagement survey questions determines the quality of your insights. Here are some examples of employee feedback questions, grouped around key themes, to help you build surveys for employees that drive change:

Leadership and Manager Support

• “Do you feel your manager provides enough support for your development?”
  
• “How confident are you in leadership’s ability to act on survey feedback?”
  
• “Does senior leadership demonstrate our company values?”

Career Growth and Employee Development

• “Do you see a clear path for career advancement within the organisation?”
  
• “Are there opportunities to develop new skills in your role?”
  
• “Does your manager encourage continuous learning and improvement?”

Workplace Culture and Team Alignment

• “Do you feel included and valued in your team?”
  
• “Does our company culture make collaboration easy and effective?”
  
• “Are different departments aligned around shared goals?”

Job Satisfaction and Work Environment

• “Are you satisfied with your current role and responsibilities?”
  
• “Does your work environment support your productivity?”
  
• “Do you feel empowered to suggest improvements in how we work?”

These employee feedback questions are designed to surface insights about everything from leadership effectiveness to team dynamics and employee satisfaction.

Building Better Surveys: Lessons from Farleigh’s Work

What separates a good employee survey from a great one?

Clarity and Relevance

Don’t overwhelm your workforce with too many questions. Surveys for employees should focus on areas like leadership and employee development to uncover insights you can act on.

Trust and Transparency

Explain why the survey matters and how results will be used. Share findings openly and involve employees in shaping the response plan.

Actionable Follow-Up

Surveys are the start, not the finish. Use results to fuel workshops and leadership development to create real shifts in your company culture. 

At Farleigh, our Culture Consultancy helps organisations interpret their surveys and design interventions that stick, through improving team alignment and rethinking leadership behaviours.

What Makes a Good Employee Engagement Survey?

Not all surveys are created equal. A good employee engagement survey is about asking the right questions at the right time.

That means:

• Balancing an annual employee survey with shorter pulse surveys to keep a regular pulse on your workplace.
• Avoiding survey fatigue by focusing on what really matters instead of overwhelming employees with too many questions.
• Using a variety of different types of survey questions (e.g., scaled questions, open-ended questions) to uncover both quantitative data and deeper insights about employee perceptions.

The key is balance. Too many engagement survey questions cause survey fatigue, too few give shallow insights. To avoid this, design with intention. Include scaled questions for measurable trends and open-ended questions for richer stories.

Designing effective survey questions for employee engagement also means thinking beyond metrics. Yes, satisfaction scores and retention rates matter. But so do the stories behind them; why are teams disengaged? What’s quietly shaping their day-to-day experience?

When surveys are well-designed, they provide leaders with actionable insights that can improve workplace culture and support employee morale, strengthening alignment between teams.

Turning Engagement Survey Results Into Real Change

What you do after the survey matters more than the survey itself. Collecting employee feedback without action can cause surveys to backfire, eroding trust and lowering survey participation in the future.

At Aston Manor Cider, Farleigh helped leaders go beyond analysing numbers to understanding the underlying dynamics at play. Teams had been working in silos, and morale was low. Using insights from the responses to employee engagement survey questions, we co-designed interventions to encourage open conversations and shared ownership. Through these focused interventions, we supported leaders in fostering open communication and shared accountability.

The impact:

• Reduced turnover
  
• Better workplace productivity
  
• Teams with renewed purpose and alignment
  

This is why effective employee engagement surveys are more than data collection; they’re a catalyst for organisational change.Turning employee survey questions into action takes more than good intentions. If you’re still figuring out how to track progress, our guide on how employee engagement is measured will give you clarity.

Leadership’s Role in Effective Engagement Surveys

Leaders are key drivers of what happens next. When leaders are equipped to interpret employee survey results and communicate transparently about them, they set the tone for trust and follow-through.

At the Dyson Institute, leadership development was pivotal in embedding employee engagement practices into daily routines. Rather than waiting for the next annual employee engagement survey, leaders were trained to weave feedback analysis and conversations about engagement into regular team check-ins.

This approach created a culture of continuous listening and action, where employees felt heard and supported. It also allowed leaders to spot trends in employee satisfaction, address challenges early, and reinforce positive behaviours across the workforce.

From Survey Data to Culture That Actually Moves

Too often, engagement surveys are treated as stand-alone events. Once the results are in, they’re filed away until the next survey cycle. But the real power of survey questions for employee engagement lies in how their insights are embedded into strategy, systems, and behaviours.

Farleigh works with organisations to connect engagement insights with broader cultural shifts:

• Culture Consultancy to redesign how people experience work day-to-day
  
• Leadership Development to ensure managers have the confidence to act on feedback
  
• Team Development to align groups around shared goals and foster collaboration
  

When engagement becomes part of your culture, you stop asking, “what’s our engagement score?” and start asking, “how are we helping people thrive here?”

Better Questions Lead to Better Organisations

You don’t need another generic list of survey questions for employee engagement. You need the ones that uncover what’s really going on in your organisation, and the confidence to act on them.

At Farleigh, we help leaders and teams turn engagement insights into momentum. Whether it’s through leadership development, team alignment, or reshaping workplace culture, we co-create solutions that stick.

If you’re ready to move beyond data to real change, let’s talk.