Employee Survey Questions: Engagement, Satisfaction and Psychosocial Safety

What is an employee survey?

An employee survey is a structured questionnaire measuring how people experience their work, their team and the organisation, so leaders can act on evidence rather than assumption. Most organisations run one to understand why people are leaving, test whether a change has landed, or identify workplace risks. Your questions should follow directly from which of those applies.

Employee engagement survey questions

Engagement questions measure pride, commitment, motivation and intention to stay. Rate each on a five point agreement scale.

• I am proud to tell people where I work.
• I would recommend this organisation as a good place to work.
• I rarely think about looking for a job elsewhere.
• I expect to still be working here in two years.
• This organisation motivates me to do more than my role strictly requires.
• I understand how my work contributes to our goals.
• I believe in what this organisation is trying to achieve.
• I can see a realistic path to grow my career here.
• My work gives me a sense of personal accomplishment.
• I feel energised by my work most days.
• This organisation acts on the feedback it receives from staff.
• How likely are you to recommend us as an employer, from 0 to 10?

Employee satisfaction survey questions

Satisfaction questions measure how content people are with pay, conditions, tools and workload. These tend to be the fastest findings to act on.

• I am satisfied with my day to day responsibilities.
• I am paid fairly for the work I do.
• I am satisfied with the benefits available to me.
• My tools and systems help me do my job rather than slow me down.
• I can find the information I need without chasing it.
• My skills are being used well in my current role.
• I have the training I need to do my job properly.
• Work is distributed fairly across my team.
• I am satisfied with my working hours and flexibility.
• My physical work environment suits the work I do.
• I would describe this as a good place to work overall.

Manager and leadership survey questions

These questions separate the direct manager relationship from senior leadership, because scores on the two often diverge sharply.

• My manager gives me the support I need to do my job well.
• My manager gives me useful feedback on my work.
• My manager takes an interest in my development.
• I can raise a concern with my manager without worrying about the consequences.
• My manager notices when workloads become unmanageable.
• Senior leaders communicate openly and honestly.
• Senior leaders act in ways consistent with our stated values.
• I have confidence in the direction senior leadership has set.
• Decisions about people here are made fairly and consistently.

Psychosocial hazard survey questions

These questions identify exposure to the hazards named in Australian WHS regulations, which employers have a legal duty to identify and control. Each maps to one hazard so a low score points to a specific control. Ask about a defined recent period, usually the last six months. Foremind's full guide to psychosocial hazards explains each category.

High job demands

• I can complete my work within my normal hours.
• The pace of my work is sustainable over a normal month.

Low job control

• I have a say in how and when I do my work.
• I can influence decisions that affect how my work is done.

Poor support

• I can get practical help from my supervisor when I need it.
• I have the equipment and resources my role requires.

Lack of role clarity

• I know what is expected of me and who I report to.
• I rarely receive conflicting instructions from different people.

Poor organisational change management

• I am consulted about changes that affect my work before they happen.
• Changes here are explained clearly and in good time.

Inadequate recognition and organisational justice

• The effort I put in is fairly recognised.
• Decisions affecting my team are made fairly and explained.

Conflict, bullying, harassment and discrimination

• Disagreements in my team are resolved respectfully.
• In the last six months I have experienced behaviour I would describe as bullying.
• In the last six months I have experienced harassment, including sexual harassment.
• In the last six months I have experienced discrimination at work.

Violence, trauma and isolated work

• I feel safe from aggression from customers, clients or the public.
• I am properly supported after distressing incidents at work.
• When I work alone or off site, I can reach someone quickly if I need help.

Physical environment and reporting

• My physical work environment lets me work comfortably and safely.
• I know how to report a psychosocial hazard and trust it will be acted on.

Turn low scoring items into controls through a formal psychosocial risk assessment rather than treating them as engagement feedback. Requirements differ by jurisdiction, so check the psychosocial hazards legislation by state that applies to you.

Psychological safety survey questions

Psychological safety measures whether people can speak up, admit mistakes and disagree without penalty. Report these at team level, because it is a team level construct.

• Mistakes in my team are treated as learning rather than blame.
• I can raise a difficult issue in my team without it being held against me.
• People in my team can disagree openly and still work well together.
• It is easy to ask for help in my team.
• Nobody in my team would deliberately undermine my work.
• My team values the different skills and perspectives people bring.

Foremind's psychosocial safety survey template combines these items with hazard exposure questions and the K10 distress measure.

Wellbeing and workload survey questions

These questions cover fatigue, recovery and access to support. They complement hazard questions rather than replacing them.

• I can switch off from work outside my normal hours.
• I take my breaks and leave without difficulty.
• I feel able to raise it early when work becomes too much.
• I know how to access our employee assistance programme.
• I would feel comfortable using our support services if I needed them.
• This organisation genuinely cares about staff wellbeing.
• I finish most weeks with enough energy left for my personal life.

Where scores are low, the practical response is usually work redesign rather than a wellbeing programme. Foremind's guide to how to manage psychosocial hazards at work sets out the control hierarchy.

Open-ended employee survey questions

Include two or three open questions and no more, since free text is valuable but slow to analyse.

• What is the one thing that would most improve your working week?
• What should we stop doing?
• What do we do well that we should protect?
• What gets in the way of you doing your best work?
• What would you change first if you ran this organisation?
• What is the most meaningful part of your job?
• What support would help you most over the next six months?
• Is there anything this survey should have asked but did not?

Frequently asked questions

How many questions should an employee survey have?

Most surveys work best between 25 and 45 questions, which takes 10 to 15 minutes to complete. Response rates drop noticeably beyond that.

Pick a core set you will repeat every round so you can track trends, then rotate a smaller group of topical questions. Keep the wording of core items identical between rounds, because changing an item breaks the comparison. Two or three open-ended questions is the practical limit for most teams to analyse well.

What scale should you use for employee survey questions?

A five point Likert scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree suits most rated questions. Use a zero to ten scale only for the single recommendation question if you want a comparable eNPS figure.

Labelled agreement scales beat bare numbers, because people interpret a 1 to 5 numeric scale inconsistently. Phrase every statement toward the ideal state so a high score always means a good result. Mixing positive and negative phrasing makes reporting harder and confuses respondents.

What is the difference between engagement questions and psychosocial hazard questions?

Engagement questions measure how committed and motivated people feel. Psychosocial hazard questions measure exposure to work conditions that can cause psychological harm.

A team can report strong engagement while carrying serious hazard exposure, which is common in mission driven workplaces where people tolerate unsustainable demands. Engagement data supports retention and performance decisions, while hazard data supports risk control and WHS compliance. Most Australian organisations now need both.

Can you include the K10 in a workplace survey?

Yes, the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale can be used in an anonymous workplace survey to give an aggregate view of distress, and Foremind uses it as one foundation of its psychological safety survey. It should never be used to assess an individual.

The K10 is a screening measure, not a diagnostic tool. Report results only in aggregate, display support contacts on the survey itself, and design its use with input from a qualified practitioner. Organisations that previously relied on the People at Work tool will need an alternative, as covered in Foremind's note on the People at Work survey decommissioning.

How do you keep employee survey responses anonymous?

Collect no identifying data and set a minimum group size, usually five responses, below which results are not reported. Without that second control a survey can be anonymous in theory and identifiable in practice.

Free text is where anonymity most often fails, because people name colleagues or describe identifiable incidents. Decide before launch whether comments will be published verbatim, summarised, or reviewed only by an external provider, and tell staff which it will be. Being explicit about this upfront lifts both response rates and candour.

Foremind helps Australian organisations run workforce surveys that measure engagement and meet psychosocial safety obligations in a single cycle. Explore the platform to see how it fits your next survey round.

Related

• What is a psychosocial risk assessment?
• EAP vs wellbeing programs
• Employee mental health check-in questions
• Best employee benefits in Australia

‍