50 Culture Survey Questions to Measure Employee Engagement and Workplace Happiness
Are you looking to improve your organizational culture? Well, then, you need to assess the various aspects of your company’s employee experience, from employee engagement to workplace happiness. And you need to run a company culture survey for that purpose.
Organizational culture is critical to employee retention and productivity. And according to Gallup, employee engagement alone decreases employee turnover by up to 51%, but it also increases customer loyalty by 10%, sales by 18%, and profitability by 23%. So, measuring employee engagement and other variables of employee experience must be strategic to your company.
Luckily, measuring those variables is possible, and a company culture survey is the instrument to use. Its results will offer you insights into how satisfied and robust your workforce is, whether they’re thriving and fulfilling their aspirations, and how on track you are to driving business results through an involved and excited team.
This article lists 50 organizational culture survey questions. Use it as a starting point to build your own customized list or as an off-the-shelf resource to pick the ones that best suit your context. But first, let us shed some light on a few best practices for conducting culture surveys.
Best Practices for Conducting Employee Culture Surveys
We recommend running culture assessments regularly to measure progress and adjust improvement initiatives as the needs of your organization evolve. Conducting a culture survey annually or biannually will do.
On top of designing a culture survey and setting its goals, you must analyze the results from running the study. And the first piece of advice we’d like to give you is to prepare ahead of time for the analysis. This means putting the mechanisms to quantify and segment the data in place.
Using Numeric Scales, Scores, and Percentages
Whether you rely on numeric scales or convert answers to numeric values every time you can, you’re following the best course of action. And you’ll notice that comparing the data won’t be a major headache. That’s because numbers are much less prone to misinterpretation than opinions expressed in free text.
Take the example of Positive Leader’s PCI℠ (Positive Culture Index). It’s a comprehensive company culture survey partially inspired by Gallup’s Q12® survey of employee engagement.
Gallup’s Q12® is a score representing the average of 12 scores that Gallup recommends for measuring employee engagement. Respondents select an answer from a five-point scale in which “1” is the lowest score and means “strongly disagree” and “5” is the highest score and means “strongly agree.” Employees may also respond, “Don’t know” or “Doesn’t apply.” And because the PCI℠ is based on Gallup’s Q12® survey, you also get a score at the end of the assessment, which, in this case, indicates the overall quality of your organizational culture.
Considering Qualitative Input
Even though quantitative data is objective, you must also gather qualitative data because sometimes, it’s not easy to put thoughts and feelings into numbers. And without deets on those thoughts and feelings, it’d be hard to make strong conclusions about employee motivation, attitudes, and challenges.
For instance, if you ask employees to score 1–5 on how happy they are about their team, a number other than five won’t tell you much. But if you ask them to write about the reason for their incomplete satisfaction, you’ll get the gist of their complaint or worry. The PCI℠, too, relies not only on quantitative culture survey questions but also on open-ended questions to measure job satisfaction, dedication to quality, and resilience.
Segment Respondent Groups
Unequivocally, your team members divide into different groups according to distinct criteria. And that translates to varied perceptions of their jobs, colleagues, and your company.
To figure that out, keep answers anonymous by segmenting survey results according to age, gender, team, department, tenure, seniority, and organizational hierarchy level. And you can do that with a PCI℠ survey, as all its responses are confidential to encourage honest and accurate employee input. Besides, we can customize the survey to respondent groups that make the most sense to your company.
50 Sample Culture Survey Questions
We put together a list of culture assessment questions for you based on our years of experience in the field and the recommendations of subject matter experts. You might not use all of them in your culture survey, but it’s highly likely that many of them are usable as is.
General Workplace Happiness Questions
1. Would you recommend the company as a great place to work?
2. Are the company’s mission and vision clear?
3. Is your role relevant within the company?
4. Did you find the new-hire onboarding process helpful?
5. Is the company actively committed to corporate sustainability?
6. Has the company implemented social responsibility initiatives?
7. Is the HR department responsive in addressing your worries and inquiries?
8. Do you have the tools and resources you need to do your job?
Work Environment Questions
9. Are you comfortable expressing your opinions at work?
10. Do you fear retaliation when you share concerns or raise issues?
11. Are your suggestions taken into consideration?
12. Does the company welcome innovative ideas?
13. Do you have a healthy work-life balance?
14. Has the company put mental health policies in place?
15. Are you happy with the employee well-being programs offered by the company?
16. Would you say the company promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion?
17. Do you work in a safe, harassment-free environment?
18. Does the company support remote work and a flexible schedule?
19. Is the overall communication across the company clear, positive, and productive?
20. Are you timely informed of important company news and changes?
21. Do you feel supported by the company when you have personal or family emergencies?
22. Does the company have channels and procedures for ethics and compliance reporting?
23. Are you aware of the company’s channels and procedures for ethics and compliance reporting?
24. How comfortable are you relying on the company’s channels and procedures for ethics and compliance reporting?
25. Do you consider the company’s channels and procedures for ethics and compliance reporting to be effective?
26. Overall, is your work environment positive?
Leadership and Management Questions
27. Do you trust that the company’s leaders will make good decisions?
28. Are the decision-making processes transparent enough?
29. Do managers resolve conflicts timely?
30. Does the company prevent conflicts from happening in the first place?
31. Do you get regular feedback from your manager?
32. Does your manager deliver feedback at the right time and place?
33. Is the feedback you receive from your manager constructive?
34. Do you need more feedback than the one you’ve been getting from your manager?
35. Would you consider the company’s leaders to be role models in terms of values and behavior?
36. Is your workload realistic?
Growth and Career Development Questions
37. Does your manager support your career development?
38. Does the company offer opportunities for career development?
39. Are you happy with the opportunities for career development offered by the company?
40. Do you have opportunities for career advancement within the company?
41. Are you able to learn new competencies frequently at work?
Recognition and Job Satisfaction Questions
42. Do you feel valued in your role?
43. Are you recognized at work for your contributions?
44. Is the recognition you get enough?
45. Are you happy with the company’s reward programs?
46. Would you say your competencies are fully used in your current role?
47. Does your level of autonomy and decision-making match your role?
Team Collaboration and Peer Relationships
48. Is there teamwork within your team?
49. Do coworkers share knowledge among themselves?
50. Do members of different teams, departments, or units collaborate with each other?
Final Thoughts on Measuring Organizational Culture
With the right company culture survey questions and Positive Leader’s PCI℠, you’ll take one huge step in the direction of a prosperous company culture. Get started with a PCI℠ assessment here and obtain actionable insights on how to improve employee engagement and workplace happiness.
