Let’s explore the ins and outs of an employee engagement survey — what they are, why they’re important and the business benefits they offer
During times of change or disruption, prioritising employee engagement and actively listening to employeesbecomes all the more important. Taking the time to listen to your employees allows leaders to identify trends and concerns. It reassures employees that their opinions matter and shows them that you are stepping up to support employees when they need you most.
We’ve certainly seen a lot of societal change and disruption lately — all of it taking a toll on our people. Rising costs of living, job insecurity and evolving workplace technology are creating significant stress for employees in recent years. Meanwhile, burnout is on the rise, with 19% of employees feeling the pressure. Without addressing these concerns, organisations risk long-term declines in productivity, engagement and employees’ overall wellbeing.
Using employee engagement survey questions to consult people during stressful times can really help your organisation understand what matters and make meaningful organisational change. Importantly, the act of surveying — asking employees for their opinions and insights — also shows that you care. Conversely, leaders who choose not to listen to how employees feel risk losing valuable talent.
So, whether you’re new to employee surveys, reviewing your employee voice approach, or wondering how or why to conduct an employee engagement survey in this new world of work, our complete employee engagement survey guide will tell you everything you need.
Related: 25 Inspirational employee engagement quotes
In this guide:
While measuring employee engagement is, of course, a key goal, the act of conducting a survey is a meaningful activity in itself. It demonstrates to employees that their voices matter and serves as a visible commitment to taking their perspectives seriously.
For organisations new to engagement surveys, embedding engagement and cultural awareness into daily conversations and behaviours may take time. The survey acts as a catalyst for this change, encouraging colleagues, managers and leaders to adopt listening as a core practice.
Creating a cycle of gathering feedback, deciding on actions and implementing meaningful changes (with a post-survey action plan) helps employees see the tangible impact of their input. This visibility reinforces the idea that their opinions are taken seriously and motivates them to continue speaking up, both during surveys and in other forums.
To build a meaningful and impactful listening culture, complement your employee surveys with other feedback opportunities such as:
Brewin Dolphin have seen the impact of their engagement survey for their wider culture:
“The survey programme has a much more significant impact than just measuring engagement at a particular point in the year. Our people tell me that the reason they engage with the whole area of employee engagement is because they see their feedback actually makes a difference – the organisation acts on it and things change throughout the year as a result.”
Fiona Wallace Head of Organisational Effectiveness, Brewin Dolphin
Employee engagement surveys provide a structured way to understand how employees feel about their work, their managers and the organisation as a whole. These surveys play a key role in identifying areas of strength and pinpointing opportunities for improvement.
Here are some of the key reasons to conduct an employee engagement survey:
Surveys provide a wealth of data that can be used to make informed decisions. By asking the right questions, organisations can uncover patterns in employee sentiment and identify the underlying causes of challenges such as low morale, burnout or high turnover.
The act of surveying employees demonstrates that their input is valued. When employees see their feedback influencing real changes, it strengthens their trust in leadership and enhances their overall sense of belonging within the organisation.
Engaged employees are more likely to stay with an organisation. Gallup research highlights that businesses with high employee engagement experience up to 43% lower turnover compared to those with low engagement. Surveys can help identify factors contributing to dissatisfaction or disengagement, allowing organisations to address issues before they lead to attrition.
Staff wellbeing is increasingly recognised as the foundation of engagement. Employee engagement surveys can shed light on stress levels, workload concerns and the adequacy of workplace support systems. With this information, organisations can introduce initiatives to improve mental, physical and financial wellbeing.
Staff engagement surveys are a powerful way to measure how well the organisation’s values and mission resonate with employees. They also provide insight into whether employees feel aligned with the company’s goals and whether leadership effectively communicates its vision.
Engaged employees consistently outperform their disengaged peer. By using staff engagement surveys to address engagement barriers, organisations can unlock this potential for improved performance.
For all things employee engagement, check out our ultimate guide to employee engagement
Employee engagement surveys are not just tools for gauging workplace sentiment — they are powerful drivers of business success. By understanding employees’ experiences and acting on their feedback, organisations can realise a range of tangible benefits that go beyond improving morale.
Here are some of the key business benefits of conducting employee engagement surveys:
| Business performance | Productivity | Employee retention | Customer satisfaction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Highly engaged teams achieve a 20% increase in sales and show 21% greater profitability (Gallup) | Teams with higher engagement scores are 21% more productive (Gallup) | Engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave (Corporate Leadership Council) | Organisations with top engagement scores average 12% higher customer advocacy (Engage for Success) |
| Engaged employees generate 43% more revenue than disengaged ones (Hay Group) | A disengaged employee can cost you up to £4,467 per year in low productivity (Totaljobs) | Replacing a lost employee costs 150% of that person’s annual salary (Columbia University) | 79% of companies with engaged employees had a significantly better customer experience than companies who didn’t (Temkin Group) |
| A 5% increase in employee engagement = a 7% increase in operating margins (Gallup) | 91% of highly engaged employees always, or almost always, try their hardest at work, compared with 67% of disengaged employees (Temkin Group) | Highly engaged organisations see 40% reduction in absenteeism, saving up to £227.14 per employee each year (Gallup) | Customer retention rates are 18% higher when employees are highly engaged (Cvent) |
Employee engagement survey pricing will vary because every organisation is different. The cost of your survey depends on factors such as the number of employees, the complexity of the situation, and whether you will use a survey framework or a custom questionnaire.
The key difference is whether you want access to a survey platform, so you can build and run unlimited pulse surveys, or whether you want a fully managed programme with more hands-on support, for instance if you are grappling with multiple issues like engagement, culture, and diversity and inclusion.
To get the best, and best priced, employee engagement survey start by asking potential survey partners about the right listening activity for your organisation. For example, you might think your issue requires something complicated, when a fast, ready to go, simply priced survey is just what you need.
Also speak to potential vendors about the features and services they can offer to enhance your survey experience. For instance, you might have an Internal Comms team who can manage your survey communications plan. Or, you might need your survey partner to support with this. Most providers can offer help with survey invites, manager briefings, or post-survey comms in addition to running your survey.
The most important thing about employee survey pricing is to consider which features will be used most by your users and managers, and will add the most value when it comes to analysing your survey results and creating an effective action plan.
Related: How Fish & Richardson built an employee engagement programme
An employee survey is one of the best ways to measure employee engagement — but you need to be asking the right questions. And you need to have sound reasoning and science behind these questions if you want to spark some real, meaningful change. Your survey and its questions should be based on a robust, scientific model such as the Pearl™ employee engagement model.
The Pearl™ model is the result of an extensive study by psychologists and data scientists who reviewed the latest literature, carried out client research and studied over 20 million data points.
Pearl™ is based on the five universal drivers of employee engagement. These are the parts of the employee experience with the strongest influence on how engaged people feel.
By working on these, you have a good chance of improving your overall engagement level. Keep reading to learn more about the five drivers of employee engagement.
Read more: 50 Employee engagement statistics for 2025
Within the Pearl™ model, these break down to two more specific sub-drivers. Employee engagement surveys typically include 2-4 questions that dig into each of these to give a clear picture of engagement.
Importantly, all Pearl™ survey questions are highly actionable and can be benchmarked against our comprehensive database.
Find out more about how to write survey questions that drive action.
In addition to the core question-set, you can conduct an employee engagement survey with questions that dig into specific areas such as Diversity and Inclusion or employee wellbeing.
People Insight’s core employee survey question-set contains 35 questions across the 5 Pearl™ themes.
These apply across organisation sizes, types and sectors; our database is full of benchmarking data that compares your employee experience to your competitors. Employee survey questions can also be tailored to suit your organisation or dig into a burning topic. An employee survey consultant can help tailor your questionnaire.
Below is a sample of the survey questions we recommend using.
Results of an engagement survey provide both a quantitative engagement score and rich qualitative feedback full of suggestions.
Open-ended survey questions ask respondents for broader input. For example,
13. What is the best thing about working here?
14. If you could change one thing about working here, what would that be?
When deciding to capture feedback from your employees, you might have some questions around which type of employee engagement survey is right for you.
It’s worth noting that introducing a new type of survey doesn’t mean ditching your annual one. Instead, different surveys work hand in hand to help you understand how people feel about different aspects of your organisation.
How often do you run it? Typically once a year.
What does it measure? Overall employee experience and what are the drivers of employee engagement.
Benefits: Gives a deep-dive analysis of how people feel and why – identifies clear areas to change/improve. On top of a core question-set (benchmarked by industry and company size) you can add indices to explore specific areas like wellbeing, diversity and inclusion or hybrid working
How often do you run it? 1-2x a year. There’s no hard and fast rule but you should only survey as fast as you can act.
What does it measure? Pulse surveys are useful for measuring results from a pilot programme, such as a new hybrid working approach, and checking in on progress between annual surveys. They can also be used to measure employee perception of rapid change like a merger or acquisition or change in leadership. During lockdown, for example, organisations ran pulses to measure how effective the transition to remote working had been.
Benefits: Asking for regular feedback is a sign of a transparent and empathetic workplace culture. Since pulse surveys are shorter than annual surveys they reduce the time taken for employees to give their feedback and are a great tool to dig into a specific area.
How often do you run it? Live throughout the year
What does it measure? Provides a channel for people to share ad-hoc suggestions and feedback.
Benefits: Always on surveys can help you spot and respond to trending issues or concerns within your organisation. However, it is important to remember the golden rule of employee surveys – only gather feedback at a pace you can act on. Otherwise, you risk employees becoming resentful and losing trust in the survey process.
An example of an organisation’s employee listening cycle.
Following the 2020 pandemic, organisations are rethinking where, when and how employees work. Employees are keen for flexible working to continue. A recent poll by the World Economic Forum revealed that 75% of workers want to retain flexibility over their working schedule.
There are plenty of benefits to a hybrid workforce. Since many employees are juggling work with parental or caring responsibilities, the option to work at home offers greater flexibility. Many employees also feel like they can focus better on tasks while working from home.
However, as organisations adopt a hybrid work model, it’s crucial to find out how employees feel about the changes and what their new employee experience looks like.
To do so, you can add questions about hybrid working as an index in your employee survey or run a pulse survey with specific questions about hybrid working arrangements.
If you’re looking for solutions from an employee engagement survey vendor, People Insight’s research has identified the themes which most strongly influence engagement in a hybrid workplace. By asking questions about these in your employee engagement survey, you can understand how to improve your hybrid work environment.
When it comes to measuring and improving employee engagement, the survey itself is only a small part of the process. You also need to consider:
An example of an organisation’s employee listening cycle.
If you’re looking to get an employee engagement survey started today, you will want a partner that will be with you from start to finish, guiding the survey from implementation through to organisational change and action plans. As the most actionable employee experience platform, we can help you. Get in touch today to book a demo.
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