Employee engagement survey: 45 questions and eNPS guide

A good employee engagement survey asks 30 to 50 short questions grouped by the drivers that shape engagement (manager, growth, recognition, pay fairness, wellbeing and belonging), plus an eNPS question and two or three open-text prompts. Most items use a five-point agreement scale. The survey is only worth running if results are protected by an anonymity threshold and every team commits to two or three actions within a month of the results.

Below are 45 sample questions, the eNPS formula with a worked example, and guidance on cadence, anonymity and frontline surveys in Hindi. Engagement shows up later in your employee attrition rate, and the reasons people give when they leave are covered in our guide to exit interview questions.

What is an employee engagement survey?

Engagement is the degree to which employees are committed to the organisation, willing to put in discretionary effort and intend to stay. A survey measures it in two parts:

• Outcome items, which measure engagement itself: pride, intent to stay, willingness to recommend.
• Driver items, which measure the conditions that cause engagement: the manager, growth, recognition, pay fairness, wellbeing and belonging.

The outcome score tells you where you stand. The driver scores tell you what to fix. A survey with only outcome items produces a number and no plan.

How to write good survey questions

• One idea per item. "My manager gives me feedback and supports my growth" is two questions.
• Statements, not questions, on a five-point scale: strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly agree.
• First person and specific: "I know what is expected of me at work", not "Expectations are clear".
• Keep it under 15 minutes. For a desk-based audience, 40 to 50 items is the upper limit; for frontline staff, 20 to 25.
• Use the same items every year so trends mean something. Change no more than 10% of items between annual surveys.

45 sample engagement survey questions by driver

Engagement outcomes (5)

1. I am proud to work for this organisation.
2. I would recommend this organisation as a great place to work.
3. I see myself working here two years from now.
4. I rarely think about looking for a job at another company.
5. This organisation motivates me to go beyond what I would in a similar role elsewhere.

Manager (8)

6. I know what is expected of me at work.
7. My manager gives me regular, useful feedback on my work.
8. My manager treats everyone in the team fairly.
9. I can raise a concern with my manager without fear of consequences.
10. My manager recognises good work.
11. My manager keeps the team informed about changes that affect us.
12. My manager cares about my wellbeing.
13. I have had a meaningful conversation about my career with my manager in the last six months.

Growth and development (7)

14. I have the opportunity to learn and grow here.
15. I received the training I needed to do my job well.
16. I can see a path to my next role in this organisation.
17. Internal candidates get a fair chance at open positions.
18. My work makes good use of my skills and abilities.
19. The performance appraisal process here is fair.
20. I understand how my goals connect to the company's goals.

Recognition (6)

21. When I do good work, someone notices.
22. I have been recognised for my contribution in the last month.
23. Recognition here is given fairly, not only to a favoured few.
24. Senior leaders appreciate the work done at my level.
25. My colleagues acknowledge each other's contributions.
26. Promotions here go to the people who deserve them.

Pay fairness and benefits (6)

27. I am paid fairly for the work I do compared with similar roles here.
28. I am paid fairly compared with similar roles in other companies in my city.
29. I understand how my salary and increment are decided.
30. My salary is credited accurately and on time.
31. Our benefits (insurance, leave, allowances) meet my needs.
32. I understand my payslip and deductions.

Wellbeing and workload (7)

33. My workload is manageable most weeks.
34. I can take leave when I need it without difficulty.
35. I rarely have to work on weekly offs or holidays.
36. My working hours allow me enough time with my family.
37. I feel physically safe at my workplace.
38. Stress at work is manageable for me.
39. I have the tools and equipment I need to do my job.

Belonging and inclusion (6)

40. I feel I belong in this organisation.
41. People here are treated with respect regardless of gender, background, language or religion.
42. I can be myself at work.
43. I trust that complaints of harassment would be taken seriously and handled fairly.
44. My team works well together.
45. Senior leadership communicates openly about where the company is going.

Open-text prompts (add two or three)

• What is the one thing we should start doing to make this a better place to work?
• What is the one thing we should stop doing?
• If you were CEO for a day, what would you change first?

Item 43 links to your POSH Act compliance; a low score there is an early warning worth acting on quickly. Items 30 and 32 often surface payroll issues HR did not know about.

What is eNPS and how do you calculate it?

Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) uses one question: "On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this organisation as a place to work?"

• Promoters answer 9 or 10.
• Passives answer 7 or 8.
• Detractors answer 0 to 6.

eNPS = % promoters − % detractors. The result ranges from −100 to +100. Passives count in the total but not in either percentage.

Worked example

A company with 1,200 employees runs its annual survey and receives 840 responses, a 70% response rate.

Group	Responses	Share of 840
Promoters (9 to 10)	336	40%
Passives (7 to 8)	294	35%
Detractors (0 to 6)	210	25%
Total	840	100%

eNPS = 40 − 25 = +15.

Now split it by location. Pune has 120 responses with 30 promoters (25%) and 42 detractors (35%), giving −10. The company score of +15 hides a site with a serious problem. Always segment eNPS by department, location, grade and tenure band, above the anonymity threshold.

Any positive eNPS means more promoters than detractors. Rather than chasing an external benchmark, track your own trend over survey waves and the gap between your best and worst segments.

Pulse vs annual surveys: which should you run?

Factor	Annual survey	Pulse survey
Length	40 to 50 items, 12 to 15 minutes	5 to 10 items, under 3 minutes
Frequency	Once a year	Monthly or quarterly
Purpose	Full diagnosis of all drivers; year-on-year trend	Track a few drivers and the effect of actions
Analysis depth	Deep segmentation by team, grade, location	Trend lines, eNPS and two or three focus drivers
Risk	Results are stale by the time actions land	Survey fatigue if nothing visibly changes
Best for	Setting the year's people priorities	Checking whether actions are working

A common rhythm for a 500 to 5,000 employee company is one annual survey plus three quarterly pulses of 6 to 8 items, each including eNPS and the items for that year's focus drivers.

Anonymity thresholds: protecting respondents

People answer honestly only if they believe they cannot be identified. Three rules make that real:

• A minimum group size. Results for any segment with fewer than a set number of responses, commonly 5 to 10, are suppressed. A team of four never sees its own scores; its responses roll up into the next level.
• No back-door filtering. Combining filters (department plus gender plus tenure band) can narrow a group to two people. Apply the threshold after every filter combination.
• Careful open text. Comments can identify people by writing style or detail. Show them only at levels above the threshold, and remove names and identifying details.

Under the DPDP Act, survey responses linked to an employee are personal data, so tell employees what is collected, who sees results and how long responses are kept, and keep raw data access limited to the survey administrators.

Running bilingual surveys for frontline staff

For plants, warehouses, retail and field teams, an English-only desktop survey reaches mostly managers. Practical steps:

• Translate, then back-translate. Have one person translate into Hindi and another translate back into English to check the meaning survived.
• Use simple, spoken Hindi, not formal or Sanskritised vocabulary.
• Shorten the survey to 20 to 25 items and keep the scale labels identical across languages.
• Offer access on a mobile phone or a shared kiosk during paid working time, with a supervisor-free window to answer.
• Add other regional languages where your workforce needs them, such as Marathi, Tamil or Gujarati.

English item	Hindi version
I know what is expected of me at work.	मुझे पता है कि काम पर मुझसे क्या अपेक्षा की जाती है।
My manager treats everyone in the team fairly.	मेरे मैनेजर टीम में सभी के साथ निष्पक्ष व्यवहार करते हैं।
My salary is credited accurately and on time.	मेरी सैलरी सही और समय पर मिलती है।
I feel physically safe at my workplace.	मैं अपने कार्यस्थल पर सुरक्षित महसूस करता/करती हूँ।
I can take leave when I need it without difficulty.	ज़रूरत पड़ने पर मुझे छुट्टी आसानी से मिल जाती है।
I would recommend this organisation as a great place to work.	मैं इस संस्था को काम करने के लिए एक अच्छी जगह के रूप में सुझाऊँगा/सुझाऊँगी।

Have a native speaker review any translation before launch; the versions above are a starting point.

From results to action planning

Most surveys fail after the results arrive. A simple four-week plan:

1. Week 1: share results. Company results to all employees; team results to each manager whose team clears the threshold.
2. Week 2: team discussion. Each manager holds a 45-minute conversation: what surprised us, what matters most, what can we change ourselves?
3. Week 3: commit to two or three actions. Each action has an owner, a date and a measure, such as "monthly one-to-ones for every team member, starting November".
4. Week 4: publish the company-level actions. Leadership picks two or three organisation-wide actions from the lowest-scoring drivers.

Then use the next pulse to check whether the targeted items moved. If employees see no change, the next survey's response rate is the first thing to drop. Linking managers' action follow-through to their own goals, as discussed in our HR metrics and KPIs guide, keeps it on the agenda.

Common mistakes

• Asking only outcome questions, which gives a score with no clue about causes.
• Changing the questionnaire every year, so trends cannot be compared.
• Showing results for teams of three, which destroys trust in anonymity.
• Running the survey in English only when much of the workforce is more comfortable in Hindi or a regional language.
• Publishing results months after the survey closes.
• Treating the survey as HR's project rather than every manager's.
• Asking about pay fairness without being ready to explain how pay is decided.

FAQs

How many questions should an engagement survey have? An annual survey commonly has 30 to 50 items plus two or three open-text prompts. Pulse surveys use 5 to 10 items. Frontline versions should stay around 20 to 25.

What is a good eNPS score? Any score above zero means more promoters than detractors. The most useful comparison is your own trend over time and the gap between your strongest and weakest teams.

How often should we run an engagement survey? A common rhythm is one annual survey and quarterly pulses. Running full surveys more often than you can act on results reduces participation.

Should engagement surveys be anonymous? Yes, in practice. Most organisations make individual responses confidential and suppress results for groups below a minimum size, commonly 5 to 10 respondents.

What response rate is acceptable? Higher is better, and many organisations aim for 70% or more. A low rate in one team is itself a signal worth investigating.

Can we survey frontline workers who do not use email? Yes. Use short surveys in Hindi or the local language, accessible on a mobile phone or a shared kiosk during working hours.

How NeevHR helps

NeevHR surveys let you build eNPS, rating, agreement, choice and open-text surveys with department targeting, and suppress results below the anonymity floor you configure, with eNPS breakdown and by-department analysis. Engagement tracks eNPS and pulse trends across survey waves alongside peer recognition and announcements. The NeevHR mobile app is coming soon, and a Hindi interface is planned. To see survey analytics on sample data, book a demo.

This article provides general information for educational purposes. Last reviewed: 17 Oct 2026.