Human resource surveys and sample HR questions

Human resources professionals want to recruit and retain the best talent possible. Depending on your HR discipline, workplace surveys can help you understand the impact of current programs and policies while allowing you to identify areas for improvement. 

The attitudes and opinions of your employees are strongly tied to human resources areas such as employee benefits, global HR and staffing. Overall, HR surveys can help you connect your employees’ roles, work, and performance to business goals. 

Survey results will shed light upon the metrics you want to track, and you’ll have the deliverables you need to present your progress.

You can have the best product or service in demand, but if your internal workflow isn’t healthy, operations can implode. The good news is that it’s preventable. Having a perpetual understanding of internal operations is a smart practice. Submitting HR surveys for your employees to complete will provide key insights into how efficiently your company is performing and where areas of improvement are needed. 

Ensuring employees are happy will be directly correlated to management and team performance. Collecting valuable insight on such information is attainable through HR surveys. By asking the right questions, you will be able to achieve: 

Improved employee satisfaction

An employee who feels like they’re being heard will feel valued, and a valued employee will put forth the effort to do a good job serving as an example for others. This positive chain of events will increase productivity.

Higher employee retention

Keeping employee retention high significantly reduces the turnover rate. High turnover rates result in broken processes, failed communications, and poor work morale. 

Less absenteeism

Poor work morale will inevitably result in an increase in absenteeism. If you notice employees are calling in sick more than usual, it might be time to conduct an HR survey.

Improved productivity

Employee satisfaction plays a huge part in productivity. If productivity is down and you know it’s not because of the product or service you’re offering, chances are it’s an internal problem. That problem will most likely be related to how happy your employees are. An employee satisfaction survey will help collect this information.

Improved customer service

A customer can quickly tell you how good or bad your internal operations is performing. The goal is to avoid negative customer feedback. The next best option is from the employees themselves. Conducting a team performance survey will provide you with honest feedback from your employees about the colleagues they collaborate with every day.

While many organizations conduct employee surveys on an annual basis, it’s becoming clear that's not enough. Sudden events can happen within an organization the company might not be fully prepared for. Gaining insight on internal workflow can better prepare a business for changes. Through no fault of your own, a valued employee retires, gets promoted, or goes on medical leave. Such an event can shift the internal workflow for better or worse, whether iron-clad processes are put in place or not. 

HR professionals need to foster a positive work environment to accommodate conflicting personalities. Conducting frequent human resource surveys provides you with a pulse on the internal health of your organization. Recurring surveys also show employees that the company cares about the employee work environment.

Employee surveys offer the versatility to be submitted before or after a project, event, or company changes. They can also be sent on a weekly, monthly, or annual basis.

Here are some tips for creating HR and employee-related surveys:

Learn how Momentive uses SurveyMonkey to survey its own employees.

The following are common areas of focus for many business owners, HR directors, managers, training & development professionals, and human capital specialists:

The secret to a happier, more productive workforce. Use online surveys to identify which levers make employees happy and unhappy, and act on feedback to boost levels of satisfaction. Stressed out employees can lead to an unhealthy work environment—which can cost the company a loss of productivity.

HR survey questions about employee satisfaction:

You can evaluate employees based on feedback from supervisors, peers, and subordinates. This type of feedback is focused on employee assessment from multiple perspectives. See sample questions for employee evaluations. 

HR survey questions about 360-degree feedback and employee evaluation:

Building a workplace culture that prioritizes belonging and inclusion is the best way to attract diverse and talented people, create a sustainable workforce, and—most importantly—make employees feel supported. Our inclusion and belonging survey template can help you understand what you’re doing well and where there’s room for growth. 

HR survey questions about inclusion and belonging:

What courses, continuing education, or otherwise, do your employees need to meet their objectives? What do employees think of your company’s job training and development program? Do employees feel like this is a workplace that nurtures their career goals and ambitions? Try this survey template for getting career development feedback.

HR survey questions about career training and development:

While these questions may seem the same, the way they are asked can provoke different responses from the same employee. 

Do employees feel that they are adequately compensated? Does the benefits package match the needs of the staff? Are there perks and benefits they would like to see? Do employees feel that their efforts are being recognized and appreciated? 

This employee compensation template can help you ask these questions:

How would employees rate their job performance and satisfaction? Have they met the goals set at the beginning of the quarter or year? Were the goals set for them reasonable and attainable? Start your own self-assessment survey for scratch when you sign up for an account. 

HR survey questions for self-assessment:

Communicate with employees on a regular basis. What do they find lacking in an ideal working environment? Would they like to be able work remotely? Get opinions on office politics and gauge the morale of the entire organization. Sometimes, asking an open-ended question is valuable in order to get the most feedback. 

HR survey questions for employee surveys:

Do employees find their jobs and responsibilities to be rewarding? Do they feel challenged and do they still enjoy coming into the office every day? Is there another role that might allow for more fulfillment or better learning potential?

HR survey questions about job satisfaction:

How would employees rate your company and the work environment? Do employees feel stressed out by deadlines? Are employees happy with the direction of the company? Do employees feel engaged with their job and the company? Is there an adequate work-life balance?

HR survey questions about employee satisfaction with the company:

What do employees think of various human resource issues? Do employees feel good about workplace safety and company ethics? Are employees satisfied with their coworkers? How do they react to the new policies HR just published? The best way to head off a PR or social media problem is to understand how employees feel before they go public about their grievances.

HR survey questions for employee meeting surveys:

Across departments, what are the employees’ opinions on management? Do supervisors and managers communicate expectations with their direct reports? Are the goals and vision of the company clear to all employees, across teams, departments, and geographies?

HR survey questions about management's effectiveness:

Exit interview

Are there any insights from departing workers that might help improve the onboarding experience and overall employee satisfaction for future efforts? This exit interview survey template will give you an idea of what to look for.

HR survey questions for exit interviews:

What do your employees think of the quarterly all-hands meeting? Or Happy Hour Thursdays? Do people want to attend more events? What about an offsite to Las Vegas or Honolulu? Send out a survey and make the next event or meeting even better.

Create fun trivia quizzes for your employees to keep them engaged. You can also send an online poll to have them vote for their favorite swag designs. 

Employee surveys is one of our most popular types of surveys, which is why we have dozens of survey templates, written by experts, to help you reach out to your employees to get meaningful results.

Here are some general human resource survey questions to use:

The following examples show the true potential of human resources surveys:

A consumer packaged goods company might collect employee survey samples to examine the performance of the Human Resource department across issues such as processing information and responsiveness. The survey results are used as a benchmark for performance ratings and identify areas of improvement.

With our skip logic feature, a manufacturer’s HR group can create and send out one employee survey yet receive responses in any of the languages in which it operates. They can use SurveyMonkey to gather employee opinions on the HR department and its services.

Make the most of your time by leveraging SurveyMonkey’s methodologist-certified human resources survey and employee survey templates. You’ll be able to create your online survey in a matter of minutes on a wide variety of topics such as employee satisfaction, 360 assessment, recruitment and more. 

SurveyMonkey also gives you access to the survey tools you need to easily deploy and analyze your HR survey—empowering you to make smarter decisions. And we take survey security seriously, so rest assured knowing your data and insights are safe with us.