Free tools for HR leaders

Onboarding survey questions

12 questions across 4 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:

12 showing

Before day one

I had everything I needed before my first day.

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

What would have made the period between accepting and starting easier?

Open text. Keep it optional.Open text

First week

I knew what was expected of me in my first week.

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

I was introduced to the people I needed to know.

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

What was confusing in your first week?

Open text. Keep it optional.Open text

First 30 days

The role so far matches what I was told during hiring.

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

I know who to ask when I am stuck.

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

What has surprised you, good or bad?

Open text. Keep it optional.Open text

First 90 days

I am able to do my job without regular help.

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

I understand how my work contributes to the wider goal.

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

I can see myself here in two years.

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

If you were designing onboarding for the next person, what would you change?

Open text. Keep it optional.Open text

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

What should an onboarding survey ask?

Whether expectations were clear, whether the role matches what hiring described, and whether they know who to ask. The mismatch question is the one that predicts early attrition.

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.

Ask at 90 days
and you asked late.

Compono Hire measures fit before the offer, which is what prevents the most common onboarding finding: the role not matching what the person was told during hiring.

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 Hire

400+

stores on one standard process

Common questions

When should you send an onboarding survey?

Before day one, end of week one, 30 days and 90 days. Asking only at 90 days catches the problems after they have already cost you.

What is a good onboarding survey response rate?

High, if you ask early. New starters answer readily; the problem is usually that nobody asks until they have stopped being new.

Should onboarding surveys be anonymous?

Not necessarily, and there is a case against it. The value here is acting on this person's experience while they are still new.

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

Cost of onboarding calculator

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.