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Employee survey questions

Question banks for six survey types, each with the scale to use. Written to be answerable honestly and actionable afterwards. Free, no sign-up.

What questions should I ask in an employee survey?

It depends what decision is waiting on the answer. If none is, do not run the survey. Otherwise pick the bank that matches the survey type and cut it down hard.

How these were written

Nothing here is calculated. Every question across every bank is built against two tests: can somebody answer it honestly, and can you act on the answer. Questions that fail the first produce polite data. Questions that fail the second produce interesting data nobody uses. Each carries the scale it should be asked on, because the scale is part of the question and mixing conventions inside one survey makes the results much harder to read than most people expect. The culture bank is different from the rest by design: it asks where the organisation sits today and where it needs to sit, because a single culture score is close to unreadable on its own.

Assumptions
  • These are a starting point, not a survey. Cut hard before you send anything.
  • Scales are part of the question. Five-point agreement for most, frequency for behaviour. One convention per survey.
  • Anonymity has to be explained, not asserted.
  • Written for Australian workplaces and Australian English. Compono product terms appear exactly as they do in the platform.
  • Do not ask more often than you can act. Asking without visible follow-through does more damage than not asking.
Sources

What to do about it

Most survey problems are not question problems. They are what-happens-next problems, and people work out which kind you are running 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.

4

Report back before you fix anything

Within two weeks, including the uncomfortable parts. 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 score is the easy part.
Reading it is not.

Compono Engage reads culture, climate and work personality together, which is what turns a set of scores into a recommendation somebody can defend rather than a number everybody interprets differently.

Step 5 is where most survey programs stall: the results land and nobody agrees what they mean or who owns the response. 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

How long should an employee survey be?

Shorter than you want. Response rate falls with every question, and a short survey people finish beats a thorough one they abandon.

Are these questions free to use?

Yes, and there is no sign-up. Copy what you need or print what is showing.

Should employee surveys be anonymous?

Usually yes, and you have to explain how anonymity actually works: who sees what, at what group size, and what happens to free text. Vagueness reads as surveillance.

What is the difference between a culture survey and an engagement survey?

Engagement is how people feel about working here. Culture is how work actually gets done. You can have high engagement inside a culture that will not deliver the strategy, which is exactly the situation the two measured together are designed to catch.

How often should we survey people?

No more often than you can act. A yearly survey you respond to properly beats a quarterly one that disappears.

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.

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