Employee feedback questions ask the people you work with how work is going: how satisfied and engaged they are, what slows them down, and how this week went. Under each question below is the follow-up Spoke asks when the answer is “it's fine.”
People like the work and each other; priorities that shift mid-week are what to change first.
An example of the line the Agent Results Brief leads with.Under every question is the follow-up Spoke asks when the first answer is vague. That second question is where the real answer usually is.
How do you feel about coming to work most days?
Think of a recent day that felt different from that. What was different about it?
What part of your job do you enjoy most?
When did you last get to spend a full day on it?
What part of your job would you change first?
What does that cost you in a typical week?
How do you feel about your pay compared with the work you do?
Which part of how pay works here shapes that feeling most?
How well does work fit with the rest of your life right now?
What would make the biggest difference to that fit?
How recognized do you feel for the work you do?
What's the last piece of your work someone noticed?
What would make this a better place to work?
If only one thing changed this quarter, which should it be?
What gives you energy at work right now?
What was the last task that did that?
What drains your energy at work?
What were you working on the last time that happened?
How clear is it to you how your work connects to the company's goals?
How would you explain that connection for the project you're on now?
When do you do your best work here?
What's different about those days from the rest?
How much say do you have in how you do your work?
Who decided how you'd approach the project you're on now?
How do you feel about still working here a year from now?
What would change that answer?
What would you tell a friend about working here?
What's the part you'd mention only if they asked?
What's something you're proud of from the last few months?
What made it possible?
What would make your work easier?
Think of yesterday. Where would that have saved you time?
What slows you down most in a typical week?
What were you waiting on the last time it happened?
Where does work get stuck between people or groups?
What happened the last time something got stuck there?
Which tool or system gets in your way most often?
What do you do to work around it?
What do you do by hand that feels like it should be automatic?
How much of your week does that take?
Which approval step would you change first?
What would go wrong if it disappeared tomorrow?
Which recurring meeting is least useful to you?
What would you need to get from it for it to be worth the time?
What's working well in how we get things done?
What should we protect as the company changes?
How was your week at work?
What made it that kind of week?
What went well this week?
What's one moment from this week you'd want to repeat?
What, if anything, got in your way this week?
What would have cleared it?
How manageable is your workload right now?
What would you take off your plate first?
What's one thing your manager could do next week to help?
What would that change for you?
What's on your mind that we haven't asked about?
What's one small thing that's been bugging you, even if it seems minor?
How sustainable does your pace feel right now?
What's setting that pace at the moment?
Think of the last time you felt worn out after work. What led up to it?
What would have helped that day?
How easy is it to switch off after work?
What does switching off look like for you on a good evening?
What helps you most when work gets stressful?
When did you last get to use it?
What does your manager do that helps you most?
When did that last make a difference to your week?
What would you like more of from your manager?
What would that look like in your next one-on-one?
How useful are your one-on-ones?
What did you get from your last one?
How comfortable are you raising a problem with your manager?
What happened the last time a problem came up that you wanted to raise?
How useful is the feedback you get on your work?
What's the most useful thing someone told you about your work recently?
Who do you go to when you're stuck?
What happens when that person isn't available?
How clear are you on what's expected of you right now?
How would you describe what doing well means in your role this quarter?
What skills do you want to build in the next year?
Where in your current work could you practice that?
How clear is the path to your next role here?
What do you know about what it takes to get there?
What's the most useful thing you've learned here in the last six months?
Where did you pick that up?
What work would you like to be doing that you aren't?
What's in the way of doing some of it now?
What would help you grow faster here?
What's one step that could happen this quarter?
How would you describe the culture here in a few words?
What happened recently that shows it?
How did you find out about the last change that affected your work?
How would you have wanted to hear about it?
How safe does it feel to disagree with a decision here?
What happened the last time someone disagreed?
How comfortable do you feel being yourself at work?
When did you last hold back an opinion at work?
Every person gets interviewed, not surveyed. Spoke asks, listens, and follows up on what that person actually said. Here's an example.
Read the answer, not the transcripts: themes ranked by how many people raised them, the quotes behind each, and the places where two groups disagree.
People like the work and the colleagues around them, and that is the strongest thing here. What wears them down is priorities that change during the week and small changes waiting on approval. Change first: set priorities once a week and say what gets dropped, then shorten sign-off for small changes.
An example Agent Results Brief. The counts, themes and quotes are illustrative, not from a real survey.
The three overlap, and most of the questions above work in any of them. The difference is what you want to learn and how often you ask. Writing the results up afterwards is covered in how to write a survey report.
| Satisfaction survey | Engagement survey | Pulse survey | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it asks | How people feel about the job itself: pay, workload, recognition, how work fits their life | How invested people are: energy, purpose, whether they plan to stay | How this week or month is going, in a few short questions |
| What it's good for | Finding what makes the job harder or better, and what to fix | Telling apart people who are content from people who care | Catching a change early, between longer surveys |
| Length | About ten to fifteen questions | About ten to fifteen questions | Three to six questions |
| How often | Once or twice a year | Once or twice a year | Every one to four weeks |
| Run it when | You want to know what to change | You want to know whether people are checked out | You know the big picture and want to see it move |
Someone can be satisfied and not engaged: comfortable with the job, not invested in it. That's why a good survey asks a few of each. With follow-ups, each question does more, so the survey can stay short.
Ask people what slows them down and the first answer is usually general: “handoffs could be better.” One specific follow-up turns it into something you can fix. Examples, not real respondents.
A gap everyone patches by hand, so nobody reports it as a problem.
A handoff everyone assumes is automatic, and isn't.
A habit worth keeping, and the change that would quietly end it.
You don't need a survey program to hear how your team is doing. You need one good question, a way to ask it that isn't a meeting, and a promise to say what you heard.
People answer differently depending on who they think will read it. Here is how anonymity works in ScatterSpoke, and what to tell people before they start.
On paid plans, you choose anonymous response collection for each survey. You read what people said, not who said it.
On the Free plan, people verify their email before answering a classic survey, so answers are tied to them. Say so up front. Don't call a survey anonymous just because nobody has to sign in.
Even with names hidden, people in a small team can often tell who wrote what. Be honest about that, and leave out questions like role or start date that narrow it down.
Before anyone starts, say who will see the answers and what you'll share back. That sentence does more for honest answers than any setting.
Add topics to the survey's off-limits list, such as health or a named colleague, and Spoke steers away from them. Anything serious, like harassment, should go to a person.
Four ways employee surveys end up telling you nothing.
A yes tells you nothing about what to keep, and a no tells you nothing about what to fix.
Ask about workload and pay together and you can't tell which the answer is about.
A question that assumes the answer gets a polite version of it.
If nothing visible follows a survey, don't expect better answers to the next one. Share what you heard, including what's working.
What do you want to learn, and who's answering?
Drafted it. Do you want answers anonymous? It's a setting on each survey.
Open, neutral questions about one thing at a time: “What would make your work easier?”, “What does your manager do that helps you most?”, “What makes you want to stay here?” The best ones point at something you can change, and each works better with a follow-up, listed under every question on this page.
About ten to fifteen for a satisfaction or engagement survey, and three to six for a pulse check. With Spoke, fewer questions go further, because each vague answer gets a follow-up and you cap the interview at 5, 10 or 15 minutes.
For questions about managers, pay or culture, usually yes, and either way, tell people exactly who reads the answers. In ScatterSpoke, anonymous responses are a setting you choose per survey on paid plans; if it's off, don't promise anonymity.
A satisfaction survey asks how people feel about the job itself: pay, workload, recognition. An engagement survey asks how invested they are: energy, purpose, whether they plan to stay. Someone can be satisfied without being engaged, so it's worth asking a few of each.
Ask where time goes, not whether processes are good: “What would make your work easier?”, “What slows you down most in a typical week?”, “Where does work get stuck between people or groups?”, “Which approval step would you change first?” Then ask what's working, so you know what not to break when you change things.
Within a week or two, share the top themes, what's working, and the one thing you'll change first. Then ask again later so people can see whether it changed.
Free to start. No card. Your first ten agent surveys are on us.
