50+ Employee Retention Survey Questions to Control Attrition

When job applications reach the 3 million mark annually, one wonders what IBM is doing right.

Getting new hires doesn’t always translate into a happy workforce and a successful workplace. 

But you know what does? 

Employee stickiness.

In this case, IBM emerges a winner with a staggering employee retention rate of 82%. So, what’s the secret sauce behind this success?

The question is, how will you know if your employees are satisfied or not before it’s too late?

Well, if not the whole recipe, we do know a few star ingredients – Employee happiness and satisfaction. 

That’s where employee retention surveys can help. Today, we’ll share with you 50+ employee retention survey questions so you can create customized surveys to gauge employee satisfaction and experience.

Let’s take it from the top.

What Is an Employee Retention Survey?

An employee retention survey is a carefully crafted questionnaire used by organizations to gather candid feedback from their workforce on job satisfaction, working conditions, and the overall employee experience (EX).

Its primary goal is to uncover the key factors that play a role in employee retention and empower organizations with valuable insights for enhancing the workplace environment and reducing attrition.

Prerequisites of an Employee Retention Survey

Before you jump into creating employee retention surveys, here are some prerequisites you should address first.

Setting Clear Objectives

Creating a survey without clearly laid out objectives is like hunting without a good aim – you’ll be shooting just for the sake of it. 

In our context, retaining employees is the end goal; it’s only the outcome of your real objective: to understand your employee experience and identify where you need to do more work. Clear objectives help shape your survey’s design and get you actionable and accurate insights.

Survey Channel Selection

The choice of survey channel is another crucial consideration. You can use multiple deployment channels, like sending survey links via emails or on your communication portals, embedding surveys in your emails, and launching surveys on your HRS.

So, decide the channels of deployment you can leverage to ensure a good response rate on your surveys.

Read More: Survey Abandonment Guide: Causes, Impact & Solutions

51 Employee Retention Survey Questions for EX Insights

Let’s get cracking at the feedback bit from the quote. When you have valuable insights from your surveys, the rest will fall into place by taking corrective measures based on the feedback.

Without further ado, here are 51 employee retention survey questions you can ask your employees. We’ve divided these retention questions based on the insights they collect. 

Employee Retention Survey Questions on Job Satisfaction

1. On a scale of 0 to 10, how satisfied are you with your current role and responsibilities?

Create Your Own Job Satisfaction Survey Today

2. How well do you fit in with the culture and values of our organization?
3. How likely are you to recommend working at our company to a friend or family member?
4. Are you content with the tasks and responsibilities assigned to you?
5. Do you feel that your skills and abilities are effectively utilized in your job?
6. Are you happy with the opportunities for professional growth and advancement in your current position?
7. On a scale of 0 to 10, how satisfied are you with your overall work experience in the organization?

8. If you could change one thing about your job or workplace, what would it be?
9. What aspects of your job do you find most rewarding and enjoyable?

Read More: Employee Satisfaction Surveys: A Complete Guide To Boost Turnover

Employee Retention Questions to Gauge Employee Growth & Development

10. How often do you receive training and development opportunities that help you grow your skills and knowledge?

11. How clear are the expectations and goals for your career progression?
12. How much do you feel you can influence the direction and strategy of our organization?
13. How confident are you that you can achieve your career aspirations within our company?
14. How often do you encounter new challenges and opportunities that keep you motivated and engaged?
15. Are you provided with adequate opportunities for professional growth and development?
16. Have you attended any training or development programs offered by the organization?
17. Do you feel that the company invests in improving your skills and knowledge?
18. How would you rate the effectiveness of the training programs you’ve participated in?

Explore more employee training and development questions here!

Employee Retention Survey Questions on Recognition at Work

19. How frequently do you receive recognition and appreciation for your work?

20. How meaningful and impactful is the recognition you receive?
21. How well do your manager and peers acknowledge your strengths and contributions?
22. How satisfied are you with the rewards and incentives you receive for your performance?
23. How do you prefer to be recognized for your work?

Employee Retention Survey Questions on Feedback Quality

24. Do you receive regular and constructive feedback from your manager?
25. How helpful and actionable is the feedback you receive?
26. How comfortable are you giving feedback to others?
27. How open and responsive are your manager and peers to your feedback?
28. How do you use feedback to improve your work quality and productivity?

Employee Retention Survey Questions on Intent to Stay

29. How likely are you to stay with the company for the next two years?

30. Are you currently exploring job opportunities outside the organization?
31. Do you see a long-term future with the company?
32. What factors, if any, might lead you to consider leaving the organization?

Employee Retention Survey Questions on Work-Life Balance

33. Do you feel that your job negatively impacts your work-life balance?
34. Are you comfortable with the flexibility of your work schedule?

35. Are you provided with the resources and support needed to maintain a healthy work-life balance?
36. How often do you find yourself working outside of regular business hours?

Employee Retention Survey Questions on Managerial Effectiveness

37. How would you rate your supervisor’s ability to support your professional growth?

38. Do you feel comfortable discussing your concerns and career goals with your supervisor?
39. Are you satisfied with the leadership and guidance provided by your immediate supervisor?

Employee Retention Survey Questions on Team Dynamics:

40. Do you feel your team is supportive and cooperative?
41. Are you satisfied with the level of collaboration and communication within your team?
42. Is there a sense of camaraderie among your colleagues?
43. How well does your team handle conflicts and challenges?

Employee Retention Survey Questions on Compensation and Benefits:

44. Are you satisfied with the current compensation and benefits package?
45. Do you believe your compensation is fair in comparison to industry standards?

46. Are the benefits provided aligned with your needs and expectations?
47. Are there any additional benefits or perks you’d like to see offered?

Employee Retention Survey Questions on Organizational Culture:

48. Does the company’s mission and values resonate with you?
49. Do you feel a sense of belonging and inclusion within the organization?
50. Are you aware of the career advancement opportunities within the company?
51. How would you describe the workplace culture at our organization?

Why Use Employee Retention Surveys?

Employee retention surveys are invaluable tools that help employers gather insights into various aspects of the workplace, such as employee satisfaction, communication, management style, training opportunities, and overall employee engagement. Some compelling reasons to use an employee retention survey include.

Identify Reasons for Employee Turnover

An employee retention survey can help employers identify the reasons why their employees are leaving. If there’s a common reason, then employers can try to address that specific issue to reduce the number of employees leaving.

High employee turnover can be costly. It not only requires resources for recruitment and training but also results in a loss of institutional knowledge. By understanding and addressing the factors contributing to employee turnover, organizations can save on these expenses.

High-Level Employee Engagement and Productivity

Engaged employees are more likely to stay with their current employer. By using an employee retention survey, employers can learn about their employees’ satisfaction levels and identify what areas they need to improve. This feedback gives employers a chance to make changes that can improve employee engagement and productivity.

Gauge the Effectiveness of the Organization’s Management

Employee retention surveys are also useful in gauging the efficacy of the organization’s current management and training practices. If there are areas that employees feel are lacking in terms of leadership, managers can work to improve the situation.

Improve Recruitment and Overall Growth

A high turnover rate can be costly for employers in terms of recruitment and training costs. By using an employee retention survey, employers can reduce the number of employees leaving the organization, which can have a positive impact on overall growth and the bottom line.

Promotes Open Communication

Employee retention surveys create a platform for employees to voice their opinions, concerns, and suggestions anonymously. This fosters open communication, trust, and transparency, which are essential for building a positive workplace culture.

Gain a Competitive Edge

In a competitive job market, organizations need to differentiate themselves as employers of choice. By addressing issues identified in retention surveys, organizations can attract and retain top talent in their industry.

Tips to Make Your Surveys Engaging and Successful

It will all be a wasted effort if your employees aren’t prompted to take the survey. The best thing to do is tick all the boxes in your survey best practices checklist to ensure your surveys are flawless, engaging, and able to collect desired insights. Here’s a checklist for you: 

Keep the Surveys Anonymous to Uphold Confidentiality

Employees should feel comfortable providing honest feedback without fear of repercussions. To achieve this, you must guarantee the anonymity and confidentiality of survey responses. 

This trust is vital for obtaining genuine insights from your employees to get a holistic view of our employee experience. You can leverage an online employee survey tool like Qualaroo that automatically collects anonymous feedback. 

Read More: 10 Best Anonymous Feedback Tools to Collect Unbiased Insights

Timing and Frequency

When it comes to employee retention surveys, timing and frequency are essential factors to consider. Although the exact schedule may vary, maintaining a consistent survey cycle is crucial. Typical survey intervals include quarterly, bi-annual, or even annual surveys, but it ultimately depends on the nature of your organization.

Additionally, you should avoid conducting surveys during periods of high stress or significant events to ensure employees can provide thoughtful responses.

Create Simple, Straightforward, and Short Surveys

If you want your surveys to get a high response rate, follow these dos and don’ts:

• Don’t ask leading questions, 
• Use simple language when framing survey questions,
• Only ask one thing at a time,
• Keep the surveys short and to the point.

Bonus: Check out these survey errors that you should avoid on top of following the best practices.

Leverage Branching and Skip Logic for Personalized Survey Flows

It is crucial to ask targeted questions to the appropriate individuals to obtain accurate data and meaningful insights. Qualaroo can assist you in achieving this. With its advanced features like branching and skip logic, you can create highly personalized and relevant training surveys.

You can customize the questions based on participants’ previous responses. This ensures that the survey remains engaging and allows employees to skip the questions they don’t wish to answer.

Let me explain how branching logic operates:

Focus on Employee Sentiments for a Holistic View of Employee Experience

Employee feedback from surveys is highly powerful, given you asked the right questions. But what if you had a third eye that could help you see employee emotions?

With the sentiment analysis capabilities of Qualaroo, you can extract emotions from your employees’ responses to get an idea of how employees associate with your organization emotionally.

You can see the most used vocabulary in responses in word clouds to visualize the emotions represented in the feedback:

High Attrition? Employee Feedback to Your Rescue!

Having happy and satisfied employees can be your key to reducing employee attrition. So, the first step toward this is identifying what makes your employees content and happy at their jobs and what doesn’t.

With employee retention survey questions, you can create surveys that will collect these valuable insights for you in real time so you can do what’s necessary to make your organization a talent magnet.

Frequently Asked Questions