Staff questionnaire on employee engagement

Even if there doesn’t appear to be any real problems, staff questionnaires can reveal a great deal about a business. Where any issues are highlighted, you can swiftly take action to nip them in the bud. Ideally, this process should be conducted on an anonymous basis - you're more likely to get honest answers. Use our questionnaire to unearth the facts.

Moving around

According to research, nearly half of employees plan to leave their jobs over the next 18 months. This is because they are unhappy - for various reasons - with their current employer. So even if your own employees seem content, it's quite likely that you have one or two who are thinking of moving on. Of course, if you won't be upset to see them go this won't be a problem, but if it’s a valued employee, sooner or later someone else is going to benefit from their skills and all the time and money you've invested in training them.

Many large organisations use employee engagement questionnaires to discover what their staff are really thinking. These are completed on an anonymous basis usually once or twice a year. Because the employees can't be identified you're more likely to get honest answers. This information can be revealing; it may also help you tackle hidden problems quickly and, more importantly, before they get blown out of proportion.

Getting to the bottom of it

You can keep the areas you wish to ask about narrow, or broaden the questionnaire to cover everything; this will depend on what you’re trying to achieve. For example, you may wish to ask about some, or all, of the following:

• pay and other financial benefits
• non-financial benefits such as work-life balance
• the employee's understanding of the company and their own role within it
• levels of motivation and any negative factors within their role
• career development; and
• communication within your organisation.

The trick is to keep the questionnaire simple. Our Staff Questionnaire on Employee Engagement uses an easy-to-follow format and can be amended to suit your requirements. It also has space for employees to make any other comments if they wish. When sending it out specify the return date and who it should be given back to - sending and returning by e-mail loses the element of confidentiality.