You launch an engagement survey, expecting to collect a treasure trove of insights. Instead, you end up with a sea of 'neutrals' and confused or non-specific comments. Why?

Oftentimes it’s in the details of your survey design – confusing scales, vaguely worded questions, a lack of clear response options – that can turn a straightforward ask to share feedback into a cumbersome experience for your people.  

Well, good news! The Brilliant Ink Research Team is here to help.

Using every major survey platform, we’ve helped our clients analyze:

🙂 Hundreds of surveys of all kinds
😄 Thousands of questions
😅 Hundreds of thousands of employee comments

Below are a few of our favorite tips and best practices for writing an employee survey that will yield the MOST actionable feedback.

4 Common Problems With Your Employee Surveys

The tips below aren’t just about improving the user experience of your survey. They’re about ensuring your survey is designed for clarity, which protects the integrity of your survey data and, by extension, the effectiveness of the actions you take to address employee feedback.

Problem #1: You're Forcing Answers & Skewing Your Results

Picture this: A newly promoted people manager at your company is shown the following survey question and answer choices:

🚫 DON’T DO THIS:
How useful did you find the content of the most recent quarterly manager meeting?

• Very useful
• Useful
• Neither useful nor useless  
• Useless  
• Very useless

Since it was a recent promotion, this manager hasn’t had the chance to attend a quarterly manager meeting. In fact, they're not even sure if they're familiar with these meetings!

Given the above answer choices, your new people manager is now in a dilemma and will very likely choose a “neutral” response.

✨ WHY YOU SHOULDN'T FORCE IT 

In the example above, the new manager doesn't have enough information (yet!) to provide a valid opinion about these meetings. A neutral response, in this case, will skew your survey data and dilute the valuable feedback you need from the managers who did attend. After all, these managers probably have some hot takes to share with you, and you don't want to miss it! 🌶️

Solution: PROVIDE AN OPT-OUT ANSWER

Always include a "Not Applicable" option for questions that may not be relevant to all respondents.

✅ DO THIS:
How useful did you find the content of the most recent quarterly manager meeting?  

• Very useful
• Useful
• Neither useful nor useless
• Useless
• Very useless
• Not applicable: I did not attend the meeting.
• Not applicable: I'm not familiar with these meetings.

These additional response options will lead to more accurate data by distinguishing between a respondent’s legit neutral stance versus a situation where the respondent simply doesn't have enough information to provide a valid response.

✅ EVEN BETTER, PRE-QUALIFY AND SKIP AHEAD:
Did you attend the most recent quarterly manager meeting on January 13?

• Yes, I attended the meeting live.
• Yes, I watched the recording of the meeting.  
• No, I did not attend the meeting or watch the recording.
• Not applicable: I’m not familiar with these meetings.

Use a "pre-qualifier" question to gauge a respondent's ability to provide feedback. The example above is short, sweet, simple and super specific. Use survey skip logic or branching to show respondents the most relevant questions based on their responses.

🔖 Bookmark These Brilliant Measurement Resources For Communicators

• How To Get Employee Surveys Right To Drive Meaningful Change
• 10 Resources For Measuring Internal Communications Your Way
• How To Partner With HR On Your Internal Communications Preferences Survey
• The Internal Communications Data Storytelling Guide

Problem #2: YOUR SURVEY FLOW IS…JARRING

Your survey flow is extremely important – from how you group topics to the question order within those groups, and even the questions themselves. We’ll use a simple example to illustrate this.

Let’s say you received this follow-up survey from a restaurant where you recently dined:

TELL US ABOUT YOUR RECENT VISIT TO OUR RESTAURANT!

✅ How satisfied were you with the wait time to be seated?
✅ How would you rate the attentiveness of your server?
✅ How satisfied were you with the entree selection?
✅ How would you rate the presentation of your dishes?
🚫 Was the waiting area clean and comfortable?

In the example above, the question order took you through a mental journey of your experience...From being seated, to interacting with your server, to perusing the menu, to receiving your food.

And then, cue the record scratch. Mentally, you were getting ready to pay the bill. But instead, you're transported all the way back to the beginning of your journey.

✨ WHY YOUR SURVEY NEEDS TO FLOW‍

In a lengthy engagement survey, each time an employee has to recalibrate their understanding of a question's context, their attention span (and patience for your survey) tends to drop a notch. This disrupts the narrative flow, causes in-survey fatigue, and can ultimately make it much harder for respondents to provide focused feedback on each area.

Solution: TAKE EMPLOYEES ON A JOURNEY

Your survey should flow like a well-told story, where each question naturally leads to the next, and where you have strategic chapter breaks to help respondents context-switch.

For instance, for the restaurant example above, this would feel like a more logical progression:

✅ How satisfied were you with the wait time to be seated?
✅ Was the waiting area clean and comfortable?

We often take this a step further for our clients by using page titles and section headers in surveys — just to ensure respondents are crystal clear on the context:

TELL US ABOUT YOUR RECENT VISIT TO OUR RESTAURANT

✅ WAITING FOR YOUR TABLE
‍How satisfied were you with the wait time to be seated?
Was the waiting area clean and comfortable?‍

✅ SERVER EXPERIENCE
‍How would you rate the attentiveness of your server?

✅ MENU & FOOD SELECTION
‍How satisfied were you with the entree selection?
How would you rate the presentation of your dishes?

For your engagement survey, think about a day in the life of an employee or a journey through your company’s strategic pillars. Organize your survey in a way that mirrors natural thought processes or aligns with how initiatives are prioritized within the company:

• Begin big and broad with engagement and culture
• Transition into organizational strategy and leadership
• Move to role-specific questions
• Explore team dynamics, collaboration and communication
• Wrap up with open-ended feedback

PRO TIPS:

• Having trouble grouping and sorting your survey topics? Try a card-sorting exercise! Use a tool like Optimal Workshop, Miro, PowerPoint or Excel to shuffle your questions and re-group them into intuitive themes.  
• Strike a balance with survey page titles and section headers — keep them clear and concise! Great Brook Consulting has an awesome resource on this topic.

‍

Problem #3: YOUR QUESTIONS ARE TOO VAGUE

The specificity of your questions directly influences the clarity of the insights you can glean from your survey. In other words, when your survey questions are unclear, your data will be unclear.

🚫 DON’T DO THIS:
Please rate your level of agreement with the following question: Leadership has communicated a vision of the future that motivates me.

‍✨ WHY YOU NEED TO BE SPECIFIC

Who exactly does “leadership” refer to? 🤔 The CEO? Your divisional VP? People managers? Who knows?!

Because the question is unclear, respondents will likely respond with different leaders in mind. This doesn’t accurately reflect employee sentiment. It also doesn’t help you pinpoint specific areas for improvement.

Worst of all? Without specifics, it’s easier for leaders to poke holes in the data if the feedback is heavily unfavorable.

SOLUTION: LITERALLY, NAME NAMES IN YOUR SURVEY QUESTIONS  

Yep, you can use specific names when appropriate. Or, at the very least, add as much context and specificity as possible to your survey prompts to eliminate confusion.

Please rate your level of agreement with the following statements:

✅ The CEO has communicated a vision of the future for our company that motivates me.

✅ [My divisional VP] has clearly communicated how our division supports the company goals.

PRO TIP: Pre-test your survey questions with a few employees (or run it by the Brilliant Ink Research Team 🤓) to identify and correct any questions that may be vaguely worded.

PROBLEM #4: YOU’RE USING ACRONYMS AND JARGON

Even the most talented and empathetic HR and communications professionals are guilty of using acronyms or jargon – often without realizing it.

DON’T DO THIS:

🚫 I am satisfied with my Total Rewards.

🚫 Which channels do you prefer?

🚫 I understand how DOPA [department or project acronym] supports MyCompany’s strategic goals.

✨ WHY ACRONYMS AND JARGON ARE NEVER OK

Yep, “total rewards,” “channels,” and even that acronym you use to refer to a huge function within your company are all no-nos.

Sidenote: You’d be shocked how many times we’ve seen a survey sent to “WWRD” (Worldwide Research & Development) at a company, and employees within WWRD are completely mystified by that acronym.

Acronyms and industry or HR/internal comms jargon can alienate new hires or those unfamiliar with specific terminology. This makes your survey less inclusive and its results less representative of the entire workforce. While commonplace in the world of HR and internal comms, terms like “Total Rewards” and “channels” aren’t necessarily ubiquitous.

SOLUTION: EXPLAIN TERMS USED IN YOUR SURVEYS

Ensure the first instance of any acronym is always spelled out, followed by the acronym in parentheses. Always explain the terms used in your surveys before asking a question about it.

INSTEAD, DO THIS:

✅ How satisfied are you with the health benefits (medical, dental, vision) provided by the company?

• Very satisfied
• Somewhat satisfied
• Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
• Somewhat dissatisfied
• Very dissatisfied
• Not applicable: I am not enrolled in our health benefits program.

✅ Which of the following do you prefer for news and information?

• [Newsletter name], our weekly internal newsletter
• [Intranet name], our internal website
• Other options here

✅ I understand how World Wide Research & Development (WWRD) supports MyCompany’s strategic goals.

YOU'VE GOT THIS!

By addressing these common issues, your survey will not only be more straightforward for respondents to complete but will also yield richer, more accurate data.

Thoughtful survey design demonstrates respect for your participants' time and insights. It sets the stage for much more meaningful feedback.

Remember: The ultimate goal is to gather data that helps you!

With these refinements, you’ll be on your way to making clearer decisions and building stronger cases for change.

ENSURE YOUR SURVEY IS BRILLIANT

These tips are only some of the many ways you can uplevel your survey – but it’s not the whole shebang. Intrigued?

The Brilliant Ink Research Team is here to answer any questions and help you gather the best data possible. Let’s talk surveys!