How to Write a Work Survey

by Jessica Jones
Use product surveys to obtain feedback from your target audience on current, new or upcoming products.


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Learning more about how your employees perceive the workplace allows you to make beneficial changes to improve productivity, increase employee commitment to the organization and provide overall happiness. Conducting work surveys gives employees a chance to share their opinions and insights about current company policies and procedures, workplace environment and impending changes. Create a work survey that is easy for employees to read and complete within a short period of time.


Determine the reason for conducting a work survey as this will help guide you through the writing process to make sure you ask relevant questions. For example, to learn more about your employees' reaction to a recent company merger, create questions about workload, how departmental shifts affected productivity or how employees feel about the direction of the company, rather than questions about employee health insurance or retirement plans. Focused questions allow you to gather specific types of information from employees.


Create a list of possible survey questions. Vary the form of questions to gather different degrees of information. For example, use a numbered scale for questions pertaining to employee happiness, job satisfaction or company strengths and weaknesses in particular areas. Use short answer questions to probe employees for new ideas, suggestions or comments on particular changes made within the organization. Other types of questions include true or false and multiple choice. Compile a list of 50 to 100 possible survey questions.


Narrow your list of questions to create a survey of no more than 30 to 50 questions. Employee work surveys should take no more than 20 to 30 minutes to complete.


Create your work survey in a Word document, Excel spreadsheet or website page template if posting the survey online. List survey questions based on the type of information most important or necessary for you to learn as your employee's attention span and willingness to participate will decrease as they go through the survey. This could distort the results.


Proofread the survey to correct any errors and to ensure that employees understand each question. Print off copies of the survey or post it on your organization's Intraweb for employees to complete.


  • Tell employees how you plan to use the work survey so they understand the importance of completing it. Employees want to know that their opinions matter when it comes to organizational changes.


  • Do not conduct more than one or two surveys per year as employees will grow tired of providing on-going feedback about the workplace.

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