Insight
July 29, 2025
Reduce Turnover Costs and Create a Workplace That Retains Top Talent
Employee engagement survey: 100 sample survey questions
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Date posted
Aug 12, 2025
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Many organizations struggle to maintain consistent, meaningful communication with their employees. As teams grow and priorities shift, it can become more difficult to keep everyone aligned, informed, and confident that their voices are being heard. When communication falters, people don’t just feel uninformed, they often feel ignored.
When employees don’t feel heard, engagement drops, and their connection to the workplace weakens. Active listening isn’t just a good practice; it’s foundational to the employee experience. In many organizations, leaders rely on assumptions instead of real feedback. The gap between what leaders think and what employees feel can create a major divide.
When people don’t feel listened to, frustration builds, stress goes unrecognized, and small problems compound. According to research from Aon, 83% of employees feel they are not heard ‘fairly or equally’. This disconnect can lead to reactive leadership, increased turnover, avoidable burnout, and blind spots at every level.
83%
of employees feel they are not heard ‘fairly or equally’
Pulse Surveys give employees a simple, reliable way to be heard on a regular basis. Annual engagement surveys still have their place, but by the time results come in, the insights may be overdue. Relying on feedback that only comes in once a year leaves the potential for problems to grow unattended for 11 months. In many cases, employees have either adjusted to the problem, moved on, or burned out as leadership is left diagnosing yesterday’s issues.
At Navigate Wellbeing Solutions, we call them Pulse Surveys because it reflects the heartbeat of your organization in real-time. These short, focused check-ins are designed to track how people are feeling in the moment so leaders can respond with clarity and speed, enabling you to take a proactive approach while strengthening engagement and enhancing your company culture.
If you want to understand how employees are really doing, the simplest place to start is by simply asking them. Pulse Surveys solve these issues by giving employees a consistent, low-friction way to share how they’re truly feeling and what they need. Done right, Pulse Surveys give leaders visibility into what’s really happening, and a chance to act before it’s too late.
What are Pulse Surveys?
A Pulse Survey is a short, focused check-in designed to capture real-time insights about the employee experience. Pulse Surveys are fast, targeted, and repeated on a regular cadence.
Think of them as vital signs for the organization. A Pulse Survey tracks the health of the workforce the way a heart rate monitor tracks the body. Quick readings. Regular cadence. Immediate insights.
But they’re not just about collecting data. They’re about building trust. When Pulse Surveys are designed thoughtfully, analyzed promptly, and acted on consistently, they become a feedback loop that signals: we’re listening, and we’re willing to act.
How Pulse Surveys strengthen organizational health
Town halls, annual surveys, and one-on-one meetings help surface specific topics, but some employees may feel too intimidated to speak up. As we’ve learned from the trend of quiet cracking, employees may not feel comfortable voicing their dissatisfaction due to several factors, like a lack of psychological safety, job insecurity, or fear of being labeled as a low performer.
In contrast, Pulse Surveys:
Reach everyone, not just the vocal few
Offer consistent measurement over time
Capture subtle changes before they become visible problems
Give employees a safe, low-effort way to share honest feedback
Help leaders take timely action before issues escalate
Without that structure, feedback becomes noisy, reactive, and easily dismissed. A well-constructed Pulse Survey doesn’t just measure mood. It drives action. Here's how.
Why Pulse Surveys are essential to employee wellbeing
Pulse Surveys give organizations a real-time view into the employee experience, something annual surveys and informal conversations can’t deliver on their own. When done well, they create a reliable feedback loop that helps leadership identify problems early, respond faster, and build trust over time. Rather than waiting for issues to surface, Pulse Surveys give you a steady stream of insights to guide decisions, improve communication, and strengthen engagement across the board.
Surface issues early
When stress, misalignment, or team friction start to rise, the signs are subtle: more sick days, missed deadlines, and short tempers. Without direct feedback, these signals can be misread or ignored. Immediate feedback enables leadership to investigate and promptly address issues that can escalate into more significant problems if left unaddressed.
Additionally, with Pulse Surveys, you can address issues before they even have a chance to come up. If you’re considering policy changes or introducing new programs, you can proactively get feedback from employees to make an informed decision and any necessary adjustments before rolling anything out.
Build psychological safety
Asking for feedback is more than a formality. It’s a message. It says, “We care how you're doing. Your experience matters.” When Pulse Surveys are anonymous and non-punitive, they create space for honesty. That builds psychological safety, especially when follow-up actions show the feedback was taken seriously. Over time, this creates a culture where people speak up earlier, more openly, and more often.
Enable smarter, faster decisions
Leaders need more than intuition to drive change. They need signals that are fast, reliable, and tied to real behavior. Pulse Survey data helps identify where energy is rising or slipping. It shows which teams are thriving and which are quietly struggling. It gives leaders the clarity to focus their time, support, and resources where they’re needed most.
Measure progress over time
You can't improve what you don't measure. One survey can surface a signal. Repeated surveys reveal a story. Pulse Surveys allow you to track changes in employee experience over time so you can see whether your actions are truly making a difference. It's not just about gathering input; it's about analyzing trends, spotting patterns, and measuring whether employee wellbeing is improving, declining, or holding steady.
This kind of visibility turns feedback into a decision-making tool. With Pulse Survey data in hand, leaders don’t have to guess what’s working. They can prove it and improve it.
The hidden cost of poor communication
When organizations fail to ask (or ask poorly), they pay for it. Poor communication erodes trust, creates confusion, and disconnects leadership from reality on the ground. Employees start to feel ignored or dismissed, which fuels stress, disengagement, and eventually, attrition. Minor issues that could have been resolved early get buried until they become systemic problems. Without a consistent way to listen and respond, organizations end up reacting to crises instead of preventing them, and the costs compound quickly, from lost productivity to increased turnover.
Disconnection
When employees don’t feel seen or heard, they start to pull back. Concerns go unspoken, feedback dries up, and the sense of shared purpose fades. Over time, frustration turns into indifference. People stop raising issues not because things are fine, but because they believe it’s not worth the hassle of trying to improve things if their effort won’t end up making a difference. That silence creates a dangerous illusion of stability. Leaders assume things are working, even as trust unravels beneath the surface.
Silence is expensive. It hides early signs of burnout, team dysfunction, or misalignment until they have already done damage. Left unchecked, disconnection spreads across teams, chips away at culture, and pushes top performers out the door. A strong listening strategy, built on regular Pulse Surveys, helps surface problems early so leaders can take action while it still matters.
Escalation
Small issues rarely stay small. Unclear expectations, lack of recognition, and mounting workloads tend to build quietly in the background. Employees might not say anything at first, but the frustration accumulates. By the time someone hands in their notice, the damage has already been done, and the warning signs were missed. Pulse Surveys help surface these patterns early. They give leaders a window into what’s building beneath the surface so they can respond before problems spiral into burnout, disengagement, or turnover.
Echo chambers
Without structured feedback like Pulse Surveys, decision-makers rely on meetings, manager reports, or informal conversations. This creates an echo chamber where only the most vocal or agreeable voices are heard. Employees who are overwhelmed, disengaged, or unsure if it's safe to speak up are often left out entirely. As a result, leadership makes decisions based on incomplete or skewed input. Wellbeing efforts often fall short, not because leaders don’t care, but because they focus on the wrong issues or are unaware of their existence.
Make every question count
If you’re ready to strengthen your employee listening strategy, the next step is asking the right questions. We’ve compiled a list of 100 Pulse Survey questions across key areas like workload, manager support, inclusion, recognition, and more. Use it as a starting point to create surveys that generate real insights and lead to meaningful action.
Here are 10 Pulse Survey questions you can start using today to check in with your team and build a stronger feedback loop:
Do you feel your workload is manageable right now?
Do you feel supported by your manager?
Do you feel safe speaking up when something isn’t right?
Do you feel recognized for your work?
Does your team work well together?
Do you have enough control over how you do your work?
Is leadership transparent about decisions that affect you?
Do you understand the company’s mission and values?
Do you have opportunities to grow in your current role?
Do you feel like you belong on your team?
Want the full list of 100 questions? Get access to a downloadable, categorized checklist covering everything from stress and psychological safety to recognition, inclusion, and leadership trust.
