Employee Culture Survey
A strong workplace culture doesn’t happen by chance—it’s built through feedback, trust, and continuous alignment. An employee culture survey helps uncover how people truly feel about the values, leadership, and environment at work.
We will breaks down key concepts, sample questions, and best practices for designing surveys that lead to real cultural change.
What is an employee culture survey?
An employee culture survey is a structured questionnaire used by organizations to assess how employees perceive the values, behaviors, and environment within their workplace.
These surveys help evaluate how well company culture aligns with employee experiences and expectations, identifying both strengths and areas for improvement.
Why are employee culture surveys important?
Employee culture surveys provide insights into how employees feel about the work environment, leadership, communication, inclusion, and values. The results help organizations:
- Improve employee engagement and satisfaction
- Strengthen alignment between culture and business goals
- Identify gaps in leadership and team dynamics
- Foster a more inclusive and collaborative workplace
What are common employee survey questions about culture?
Some widely used employee survey questions on culture include:
- “Do you feel aligned with our company values?”
- “How would you describe the work environment here?”
- “Is open communication encouraged and supported?”
- “Do you feel included and respected at work?”
- “How well do your leaders reflect the company’s culture?”
These employee culture survey questions measure clarity, consistency, and employee sentiment.
What should a culture employee survey include?
A strong culture employee survey should cover topics such as:
- Trust in leadership
- Clarity of organizational values
- Inclusion and diversity
- Peer collaboration and team spirit
- Recognition and accountability
Each section should be a mix of rating-scale and open-ended questions to capture both depth and measurable insights.
How is an employee safety culture survey questionnaire different?
An employee safety culture survey questionnaire focuses specifically on how employees perceive safety practices, communication, and accountability in the workplace. It typically includes questions like:
- “Do you feel safe reporting safety concerns?”
- “Are safety policies clearly communicated and enforced?”
- “Do leaders prioritize employee safety?”
This type of employee survey about culture emphasizes safety-related attitudes and behaviors.
How do you design effective employee culture survey questions?
When designing employee culture survey questions, make sure to:
- Use clear and neutral language
- Cover core values, communication, leadership, and trust
- Include both quantitative (scale-based) and qualitative (open-ended) questions
- Tailor questions to reflect your organization’s mission and current challenges
- Ensure anonymity to promote honest feedback
Employee pulse surveys:
These are short surveys that can be sent frequently to check what your employees think about an issue quickly. The survey comprises fewer questions (not more than 10) to get the information quickly. These can be administered at regular intervals (monthly/weekly/quarterly).
One-on-one meetings:
Having periodic, hour-long meetings for an informal chat with every team member is an excellent way to get a true sense of what’s happening with them. Since it is a safe and private conversation, it helps you get better details about an issue.
eNPS:
eNPS (employee Net Promoter score) is one of the simplest yet effective ways to assess your employee's opinion of your company. It includes one intriguing question that gauges loyalty. An example of eNPS questions include: How likely are you to recommend our company to others? Employees respond to the eNPS survey on a scale of 1-10, where 10 denotes they are ‘highly likely’ to recommend the company and 1 signifies they are ‘highly unlikely’ to recommend it.
Based on the responses, employees can be placed in three different categories:
- Promoters
Employees who have responded positively or agreed. - Detractors
Employees who have reacted negatively or disagreed. - Passives
Employees who have stayed neutral with their responses.
What are the benefits of conducting employee culture surveys?
Running employee culture surveys helps organizations:
- Uncover gaps between stated and lived culture
- Identify areas where change is needed
- Support inclusion and psychological safety
- Shape people strategies based on real insights
- Benchmark culture shifts over time
How often should you run an employee survey about culture?
Most organizations conduct a culture employee survey annually or bi-annually. However, running shorter pulse surveys on culture every quarter can help track cultural changes more regularly and keep conversations ongoing.
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