You’ve heard the adage: People leave managers, not companies. While many factors play a role in preventing employee turnover and improving employee engagement, management is arguably the most critical piece.
To better understand how this plays out in your organization, your employee engagement survey needs to include questions that capture valuable data on employees’ perceptions of managers.
We’ve compiled 32 employee survey questions about management to cover in your employee engagement survey. You certainly don’t need to include them all, but asking questions along these lines will help you uncover insights and opinions about your managers and improve your workplace.
Feedback, recognition, career development, and performance expectations are essential pieces of the employee engagement puzzle. These 4 questions will help you drill down to those essential employee needs so you can uncover potential gaps in your management approach and focus your engagement efforts effectively.
Employees need to hear from their managers about what they do well and how they can improve. Constructive feedback not only helps employees succeed in their roles but also demonstrates that you care about them and their work.
When employees feel valued by their leaders and understand what is expected of them, they will feel empowered to do their jobs well and are more likely to be engaged in their work.
Clear and consistent communication is the foundation of a strong manager-employee relationship. Poor communication from the top can lead to frustration, confusion, and de-motivation. Of course, it’s not always easy to pinpoint where communication may be failing. These questions can help you identify areas where communication may be missing or insufficient.
Trust is the foundation of any good relationship, including between employees and their managers. If your employees don’t feel safe and respected at work, they will be less likely to ask questions, bring problems to the attention of leadership, and feel motivated or empowered to do their best work. That’s why it’s so important that managers foster an environment of trust and mutual respect within their teams.
Here are a few questions to gauge how comfortable your employees are with their manager:
How effective are your managers at leading? Do they have the skills, training, and resources they need to succeed? The answers aren’t always obvious—especially if your managers check off all the usual boxes of “good management practices.”
That’s why it’s helpful to ask employees directly:
These are good questions to ask if a manager is doing all the right things on paper (holding regular 1:1s, giving public praise, solving problems, etc.) but the team is still disengaged. The answers can help point to potential gaps in the manager’s skillset or identify tools or resources they may need to be effective.
Career development is a key driver of employee engagement. Employees who see a future at their company and a path to grow are more likely to be engaged and motivated to succeed.
Managers play an essential role in developing employees and providing opportunities to grow. Use these questions to see how well your managers are coaching and developing their team and identify opportunities to close any gaps in communication or training.
Work-life balance isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s essential to the well-being of your employees and—by extension—your bottom line. Poor work-life balance leads to higher stress and employee burnout and disengagement. In fact, one study by the American Psychology Association found that burned out employees are 2.6 times more likely to be actively seeking another job.
The top causes of employee burnout include:
Use these questions to help you identify how well your leaders are managing work-life balance among their teams.
Choosing your survey questions is one small step in conducting an employee engagement survey. Download our Pulse Survey Templates to help you build successful surveys.
Published June 23, 2021 | Written By Kristin Ryba
Engagement 
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