Mastering Employee Feedback Surveys: A Complete Guide

Employee feedback surveys are like the secret sauce for a thriving workplace, said Amy Spurling, founder and CEO at Compt. That’s because they give you a direct line to what’s really going on with your employee dynamics, productivity, and engagement. 

Creating this open line of communication also shows employees that they’re being listened to — something that’s often lacking in the workplace. The Heard and the Heard-Nots report from The Workforce Institute at UKG found that 63% of surveyed employees feel their voice has been ignored by their manager or employer. One of the best ways to combat this is to embrace all feedback — the good, the bad, and the ugly — and use it to create positive change. Here’s how employee feedback surveys can be used to master that process and create a workplace culture where employees feel as though their voice truly matters. 

What is an employee feedback survey?

Employee feedback surveys are a type of questionnaire used to gather valuable feedback from workers. The insights these surveys offer can then be used to uncover trends, drive change, and create the kind of company culture that doesn’t just encourage performance, but lets employees know you care, too. 

Feedback surveys are just one type of survey — and should be conducted in conjunction with others that gather separate data. Other survey types include: 

• Employee engagement surveys
• Employee satisfaction surveys
• Employee experience surveys
• Pulse surveys

Feedback surveys focus on a range of workplace elements including company culture, management efficiency, and personal growth. In contrast, engagement, satisfaction, and experience surveys tend to focus on a specific aspect of the work environment. Pulse surveys are shorter, containing one-to-five questions, and are designed to quickly uncover real-time insights between longer surveys. To gain the detailed insights needed for continuous improvement, it’s important to use a blend of these surveys, across various themes.

Making feedback surveys part of your regular survey cadence can also help create the kind of work culture that prioritizes continuous feedback — and recognizes the advantages it brings. The benefits of continuous feedback include boosting employee engagement levels, driving employee growth, and creating stronger workplace relationships. 

6 Steps to Mastering Employee Feedback Surveys

Knowing the benefits is one thing, but knowing how to create, analyze, and respond to feedback surveys is another. Here’s our six-step process to getting it right. 

Step 1: Prepare for your employee feedback survey.

As the saying goes: If you fail to plan, plan to fail. The importance of this first, preparatory step of creating a plan before finalizing your survey questions is an “absolute must-have,” said Kayla Lopez, VP of strategic planning at American Financial Resources. 

“In my career, I have seen leaders scramble to respond to unexpected outcomes or employee feedback left unaddressed, resulting in them feeling more disengaged than before the survey,” she added. 

To avoid that kind of scenario, here’s a checklist of pre-survey preparation to get you started:

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Step 2: Design effective survey questions.

To be truly effective, your feedback surveys need to include the right questions. Spurling recommended keeping these simple and clear: “Nobody wants to spend an hour deciphering a survey.” She recommended focusing on short, straightforward questions. 

For a general survey, you might choose to include questions on a range of topics like personal growth, management efficiency, and the work environment. More specific surveys may focus on just one of these aspects to uncover detailed perspectives.

In addition to using straightforward questions, Spurling recommended including open-ended questions or a comment box, giving people “the option to provide context on their ratings.” 

To get you started, here are some sample employee feedback survey questions for a range of categories. These are designed to be used with the Likert rating scale, with five potential responses: strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, and strongly agree. 

Personal Growth 

• I feel encouraged to pursue training or education opportunities.
• I have a clear plan for career advancement at [company name].
• I am satisfied with the opportunities for career growth and professional development at [company name].
• I feel like my talents and skills are valued and appreciated. 
• My manager supports and encourages my career goals. 
• I feel recognized for my contributions to my team.
• In the past six months, I have had meaningful conversations with my manager about my career development. 

Company Culture 

• I feel respected at work.
• [Company name] promotes diversity and inclusion. 
• The senior leadership team at [company name] models the behaviors and values they expect from their employees. 
• The mission and values of [company name] are communicated clearly.
• [Company name] supports a healthy work-life balance.
• I feel supported during times of change or uncertainty.
• I feel that [company name]’s policies are fairly and consistently applied to all employees. 

Management Efficiency 

• My manager communicates clear goals and expectations.
• I trust the decisions of the senior leaders at [company name]. 
• My manager regularly gives me actionable feedback. 
• My manager listens to my questions and concerns. 
• My manager regularly provides me with actionable feedback.
• I am happy with the level of trust and autonomy my manager gives me.
• My manager supports a positive and inclusive team environment. 

Work Environment 

• I am comfortable asking other members of my team for help.
• I am comfortable asking my manager for help.
• I have all the resources, tools, and equipment I need to complete my job to the best of my ability.
• I have the freedom to decide the best way to perform my job. 
• I feel sufficiently challenged in my role, but not under excessive pressure.
• I have access to the kind of working environment I need to thrive (e.g., a distraction-free environment, or opportunities to interact with team members in person).
• [Company name] has a supportive approach to remote and hybrid work arrangements.

For more inspiration, use Lattice’s range of survey tools, which make it easier to collect comprehensive feedback. Choose from a wide range of questions across categories like personal growth, job satisfaction, and company culture, or create custom survey questions for added specificity. 

Step 3: Conduct the survey with these best practices.

We’ve collected some expert-approved best practices for feedback surveys. 

Test your survey with focus groups.

Early in the preparation process, Spurling recommended “piloting your survey with a small group to catch any confusing bits before rolling it out company-wide.”

When deciding on which elements to focus on during surveys, Evans noted that these focus groups can also help offer insights into what employees are experiencing. These details can then be used to inform your survey questions. 

Communicate the purpose of each survey.

Before running any survey, be sure to communicate the reason behind it. This information should be offered across multiple formats — for example, through meetings, emails, internal communication channels like Slack, and at the start of the survey itself. Lopez recommended using consistent language that is “inclusive and easy to understand.” 

Consider survey cadence and timing.

Once you’ve decided on your feedback survey cadence, share this with employees so they know what to expect and when. You might decide to conduct a detailed annual survey, covering all aspects of the workplace, combined with shorter pulse surveys covering specific topics. 

Timing also matters. Lopez noted that it’s important to allow employees ample time to complete each survey but it’s also crucial to take busy periods into account. “Your operations team might be slammed during month end, and your finance team slammed during the first week of the month to run financials,” she said. In that case, Lopez suggested running your survey in the middle of the month so people have enough time to complete it with a clear head. 

Share the impact of past surveys.

Let employees know how feedback has been put to use in the past. Spurling mentioned that this step shows employees that their feedback leads to real changes. “It also helps in building trust and encourages continuous participation in future surveys,” she said. 

Gamify the survey process.

To further encourage employees to respond to surveys, consider capturing employee attention by making the process more fun. That might look like an accompanying meme competition, a leaderboard, incentives, or adding visual elements. 

Combining all these best practices into your survey might feel like a lot — but the right HR tech makes this process as easy as possible. Lattice is designed to help with every stage of the process, from scheduling and managing surveys to ensuring anonymity, analyzing survey data, and communicating the results to your people. 

Step 4: Analyze and interpret the survey results.

Once survey results are in, it’s time to analyze your data, identify patterns, and interpret the results. Here’s what that can look like.

Break down responses.

Company-wide results can be useful for spotting overall trends, but breaking down responses into departments and demographics adds another level of detail. 

For quantitative feedback, Lopez recommended aggregating scores and analyzing them to see if certain segments of your population are outliers. Those segments might include department, gender, job category, or salary band, among others.

Read the comments.

Quantitative data is incredibly valuable — but so are the comments left by your respondents. If you included an optional comment box in your survey, your employees’ opinions, tone, and word choice can paint a detailed picture. 

“For qualitative feedback, pull out major themes across departments,” recommended Lopez. “You can also pull major themes by department if the departments are large enough to maintain anonymity where it applies.” 

Word cloud tools can help make sense of recurring themes, while HR tech like Lattice AI can create comment summaries for specific themes, which is particularly useful if you’re trying to analyze large amounts of data. 

Compare your results with historical data.

It’s hard to see where you’re going without considering where you’ve been. Tracking employee feedback over time helps identify if things are improving, and whether the organizational changes that have been made since your last survey are making a difference. 

Benchmark your results.

Benchmarking is valuable because it helps add context. It achieves this by “providing a competitive framework to see where your organization stands relative to others,” explained Stephanie Alston, founder and CEO at BGG Enterprises.

Lopez added that benchmarking can be incredibly helpful for comparing employee feedback on things like benefits and compensation, but can be a bit trickier for culture-based data. “Every workplace culture is so unique and nuanced due to cultural norms, company history, and cultural goals the company has established,” she added.

Lattice dynamic dashboards and connected analytics help analyze data, identify patterns, and give access to a range of benchmarks for companies in the same industry. For even more detail, these benchmarks can be broken down by location and company size, too. When benchmarking data, remember to consider your response rate and sample size, which will affect your results.

Step 5: Act on feedback.

Sharing survey results is also important for employee morale. “It demonstrates transparency and shows employees that their feedback is valued,” said Alston.

Once you’ve analyzed your data, it’s time to decide what you’re going to do with that information. “Make sure when interpreting results you have several different perspectives in the room,” said Lopez. “You may be creating a story in your head based on your own biases, so hearing other diverse perspectives can aid in generating inclusive solutions.”

In addition to sharing results, it’s important to share any changes that will be implemented as a result of each survey. Common initiatives include improving recognition programs, adjusting salaries to remove pay gaps, and taking steps to allow for remote or hybrid work. 

“Develop specific, measurable actions to address these areas,” instructed Alston. “Assign responsibilities and set deadlines for implementing changes. Communicate the action plan to employees and keep them updated on progress,” she added. 

Step 6: Prioritize continuous improvement and follow-up.

Feedback surveys aren’t a one-and-done exercise. For real changes, creating a continuous feedback cycle is key. Treating these surveys as an ongoing conversation with your employees rather than a one-time event helps “foster a culture of continuous learning and adaptation,” said Alston.

“Conduct follow-up surveys to assess whether the changes have addressed the issues, and monitor key performance indicators related to employee engagement and satisfaction,” she added. Combining short pulse surveys with deep-dive feedback surveys is a great way to uncover real-time insights and identify possible areas for improvement. 

Evans also recommended monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) such as “employee retention rates, productivity metrics, and the overall business performance of the organization.”

Why Employee Feedback Surveys Matter

Employee feedback surveys give your employees a voice. And the actions leaders take after those surveys are completed show them you’re listening. “When employees know their voices matter, they’re more engaged, motivated, and productive,” said Spurling. 

This, in turn, impacts company culture and organizational performance. The link between employee engagement and performance is widely documented, but the impact of actively listening to your employees is just as critical. The Heard and the Heard-Nots report found that, when employees feel their voice is heard at work, 74% feel more engaged and 74% feel they’re more effective in their role.

When building this kind of high-performance culture, tools like Lattice’s public Praise Wall, pulse surveys, and feedback surveys can help organizations gain a deeper understanding of employee sentiment and also show employees that their voices are heard. 

At healthcare software company Weave, the people team used Lattice surveys to diagnose and resolve a range of workplace issues, from career development to employee-manager relationships and communications. Their proactive approach has led to higher employee Net Promoter Scores (eNPS) and lower rates of attrition. 

At Compt, Spurling said feedback surveys have helped uncover hidden issues, boost morale, and foster a culture where everyone feels heard. “Surveys give you insights that might never come up in everyday conversations. It's like having a superpower for workplace improvement.”

Tap into the power of feedback surveys.

If you’re ready to harness those superpowers for your organization, the first step is to let employees know that their voices are heard. And the best way to achieve this is to start using regular feedback surveys to gather their opinions and thoughts.

The next step is to let them know what actions will be taken as a result of their feedback and share any changes or improvements with them. Over time, this approach can help build the kind of positive workplace culture where every employee knows they have a voice — and every leader shows they’re listening. 

Request a demo and start planning your employee feedback survey today.