Free tools for HR leaders

Manager
effectiveness survey questions

15 questions across 6 themes, each with the scale to use. Filter, copy, print. Free, no sign-up.

Pick a theme, then a format. Every question carries the scale to use with it, because a good question on the wrong scale produces data you cannot act on. Copy what you need, then cut the survey down until people will actually finish it.

How these were written, and the five steps to a survey worth running ↓

Theme:

Format:

15 showing

Clarity and expectations

I know what my manager expects of me.

Five-point agreement scale, strongly disagree to strongly agree.Rating scale

My manager tells me when priorities change and why.

Five-point agreement scale, strongly disagree to strongly agree.Rating scale

What is one thing you wish your manager explained more clearly?

Open text. Keep it optional.Open text

Feedback

My manager gives me feedback close to the event rather than saving it up.

Five-point agreement scale, strongly disagree to strongly agree.Rating scale

My manager tells me when something is not good enough.

Five-point agreement scale, strongly disagree to strongly agree.Rating scale

When did your manager last give you useful feedback? What was it?

Open text. Keep it optional.Open text

Development

My manager takes an active interest in my development.

Five-point agreement scale, strongly disagree to strongly agree.Rating scale

What has your manager helped you learn this year?

Open text. Keep it optional.Open text

Trust and safety

I can disagree with my manager without it costing me.

Five-point agreement scale, strongly disagree to strongly agree.Rating scale

My manager admits when they have got something wrong.

Five-point agreement scale, strongly disagree to strongly agree.Rating scale

Is there anything you would not raise with your manager? You do not have to say what.

Open text. Keep it optional.Open text

Decision making

My manager makes decisions in a reasonable timeframe.

Five-point agreement scale, strongly disagree to strongly agree.Rating scale

My manager gets input from the team before deciding things that affect us.

Five-point agreement scale, strongly disagree to strongly agree.Rating scale

Recognition

My manager notices good work.

Five-point agreement scale, strongly disagree to strongly agree.Rating scale

What does your manager do well that they should keep doing?

Open text. Keep it optional.Open text

No questions match those two filters together. Clear one of them.

What questions measure manager effectiveness?

Observable behaviour: clarity of expectations, timeliness of feedback, whether disagreement is safe, whether decisions get made. Not likeability.

How these were written

Nothing here is calculated. Each question is written against two tests: can somebody answer it honestly, and can you act on the answer. Each one carries the scale it should be asked on, because the scale is part of the question and mixing scales inside a survey makes results much harder to compare. Filter by theme to cut whole sections rather than trimming words, and by format to balance rating questions against open text.

Assumptions

These are a starting point, not a survey. Cut hard. Response rate falls with every question you add.
Scales are part of the question. Five-point agreement for most, frequency for behaviour. Pick one convention and hold it.
Anonymity has to be explained, not asserted. People assume the worst when you are vague, and it shows up in the answers.
Written for Australian workplaces and Australian English. Compono product terms are reproduced exactly as they appear in the platform.
Do not ask more often than you can act. Asking without visible follow-through does more damage than not asking at all.

Sources

Compono, The culture, engagement and performance model

What to do about it

Most survey problems are not question problems. They are what-happens-next problems, and people can tell the difference by the second round.

1

Decide what you will do with the answers before you ask

If no decision is waiting on the result, do not run it. An unused survey teaches people not to answer the next one.

2

Cut it until it hurts

Remove whole themes rather than trimming words. Eight sharp questions beat forty thorough ones nobody finishes.

3

Say how anonymity actually works

Who sees what, at what group size, and what happens to free text. Vagueness reads as surveillance.

4

Report back before you fix anything

Tell people what you heard, including the uncomfortable parts, within two weeks. This is the single biggest driver of next year's response rate.

5

Where a tool helps

Pick one thing and visibly change it

One change people can see beats five they cannot. The point of a survey is the change, not the score.

Likeability is not
effectiveness.

Compono Engage separates how a team feels from how it works, which is what stops a well-liked manager with a struggling team scoring well.

Step 5 is where most survey programs stall: the score arrives and nobody agrees what it means. That is an interpretation problem, and interpretation is what the platform is for.

See how it works

Compono Engage

8%+

reduction in turnover

Common questions

Should manager feedback be anonymous?

Yes, and aggregate it so no individual response is identifiable. On small teams that means reporting only above a minimum number of responses.

How do you stop upward feedback becoming a popularity contest?

Ask about specific behaviours rather than general impressions. Whether a manager tells you when something is not good enough is checkable. Whether they are supportive is not.

What do you do with the results?

Give them to the manager first, with support, before they go anywhere else. Upward feedback used as a weapon gets answered dishonestly the following year.

These questions are a starting point, not a survey. Cut hard: response rates fall with every extra question, and a short survey people finish beats a thorough one they abandon. Say what you will do with the answers before you ask, and be honest about how anonymity actually works, because people assume the worst when you are vague. Last reviewed July 2026.

Next step

Employee engagement

What engagement actually measures, and how it differs from satisfaction.

Read the definition →Related tool

eNPS calculator (employee net promoter score)

Put a number on what the survey surfaces.

Run it next →Buying

Requirements builder

Score the platforms you are looking at against the two risks, must-haves first.

Build the scorecard →Talk to us

Bring us your results

A conversation about what your survey is telling you, not a demo script.