The 2020s ushered in a new era of employee flexibility, freelancing, and work-from-anywhere mentalities.
People got a taste of remote work and the hybrid workplace experience, and since then, for many, that’s become the standard.
However, the other thing that’s happened is a greater expectation of what an employer should provide in general — not just freedom, but treating employees like humans who need validation, respect, and employee recognition.
In fact, employee recognition surveys are the perfect solution for employers looking to satisfy modern workplace demands and to make their employees feel seen, heard, and valued.
“44% of employees switch jobs because of not getting adequate recognition for their efforts.” — Achievers Click To TweetEmployee recognition only boosts retention, which is why implementing tools and solutions like employee recognition surveys is paramount when it comes to competing for top talent.
In this article, we’re going to define employee recognition surveys, explain reasons for conducting them, break down the specifics about how to conduct them, examine employee recognition software, provide you with employee survey sample questions, and much more.
Without further ado, let’s get right into this comprehensive guide for employee recognition surveys!
What is an employee recognition survey?
An employee recognition survey is a feedback survey designed for gauging and assessing the level of employee recognition within a company. Most importantly, these solutions help you analyze whether or not employees actually feel seen.
Reasons to Conduct an Employee Recognition Survey
📊 Accumulate data for building your employee recognition program
Accumulating data for your employee recognition program can help you identify patterns and notice trends in employee behavior, performance, and contributions.
Additionally, with more data, you can customize your employee recognition because it paints a nuanced, individualized picture. It also aids in continuous improvement and monitoring of the results of your program.
How you can implement this at your organization: You can accumulate data with an employee survey that allows your staff to answer relevant questions, provide valuable feedback, and vote on which aspects of your recognition program are working. If you are looking for ideas, try out this survey template!
🤩 Learn about employee recognition preferences
Learning about employee recognition preferences can help you personalize recognition so that way it resonates with your team. It will be much more effective and impactful, enhancing engagement and motivation.
The other effect that gaining an understanding of individual preferences will do is that it will prevent leaders and managers from doling out the recognition that could be viewed as insincere.
How you can implement this at your organization: You can quickly gain a keen understanding of employee recognition preferences with an employee rewards platform. Start using this customizable employee recognition survey platform to help drive behavior and build a company culture of workplace positivity today!
🎣 Gather insights into what matters to employees
Gaining insights about what matters to employees can help with employee recognition by providing leadership and management teams with information about what types of recognition will be the most meaningful to employees.
Create programs and initiatives around the results. With personalization, your team will go from feeling like mere personnel to valued humans with a shared mission.
How you can implement this at your organization: Bonusly can give you a leg up on the competition by keeping your employees feeling appreciated, recognized, and highly motivated.
Now, peer-to-peer recognition and incentives are made easier than ever!
🙈 Identify blind spots (areas you can improve your employee recognition program)
Identifying blind spots in your employee recognition program can boost employee recognition by indicating where the program could potentially fall apart.
Once you identify blind spots, you can change the program by adding new types of recognition, providing more personalized rewards, and whatever other necessary tweaks are needed.
How you can implement this at your organization: Whether your business is fully in-person, fully remote, or functioning on a hybrid model, build an inclusive workplace with an employee points program!
🎂 Understand which milestones are important
Understanding which milestones matter the most can help you recognize the goals, moments, and milestones that are aligned with both the employees’ and the company’s values.
This will boost productivity, employee satisfaction, and the overall sensation of belonging.
How you can implement this at your organization: Use a digital rewards platform that makes milestone rewards, awards, incentives, recognition, and gifting as easy and simple as a few clicks of a button!
Whether you want to offer gift cards, shoutouts, or any other real-time recognition strategy — you can find something for everyone.
How to conduct an employee recognition survey
1) Establish the purpose and set survey goals
Determine the types of information you hope to gain from the survey and take that further by figuring out how to make the results actionable.
2) Come up with survey questions
Develop a set of concise, clear, and easily digestible employee recognition survey questions.
3) Determine a survey method
Conduct the survey through online platforms, phone interviews, in-person, or as written interviews. There are employee survey software tools you can try out that help organize your results and analyze areas that can be improved.
4) Choose your participants
You could interview all of your employees or you might want to zero in on a particular team or department. Alternatively, you could randomize the survey or questionnaire to be sent to an unspecified sample of your company.
5) Send out the survey
Once you have determined the survey platform or the feedback tools and methodology for executing your surveys, go ahead and send them out along with a deadline for completion.
6) Review the results
Take note of any patterns and overlapping issues in the responses and try to find actionable solutions to address these problems and concerns.
Things to know about employee recognition surveys
▶︎ What should the employee recognition survey cover?
▶︎ What should the employee recognition survey cover?An employee recognition survey should cover whether or not employees feel recognized and valued, the frequency employees experience recognition, the types of recognition they prefer, and how their leadership and management make them feel.
Additionally, your survey can give you a glimpse into how engaged employees are at work, their suggestions for improving engagement and recognition, and their overall morale.
▶︎ How long should the employee recognition survey be?
An employee recognition survey should be based largely on the number of questions as well as the depth of the covered topics. Having said that, the response rate will go up if the survey is kept short because the longer it appears to be, the more employees will simply opt out of participation.
Of course, you do not necessarily need to hit every angle of employee recognition in one go. You can send a series of short pulse surveys and likely extract the same information at a higher rate.
▶︎ How should the employee recognition survey be distributed?
An employee recognition survey can be distributed in a variety of ways. The particular route you take should be the method that you believe will maximize participation.
You might decide to send out surveys via email, mail, an employee engagement survey platform, or a PDF that can be returned anonymously in the workplace. One of the easiest methods for maxing out participation these days is online survey tools. Read more about these solutions here.
▶︎ How should the employee recognition survey results be collected and analyzed?
Employee recognition survey results should be collected in a way that provides anonymity to the employees. This is the best approach for ensuring that you get honest, unfiltered feedback that you can use constructively to improve engagement and satisfaction in the workplace. Most online survey tools have built-in features that include some form of result collection.
If the survey is a paper survey then you will need to manually enter data. You could also hire a third-party surveyor. In the end, once the results are in, analyze the information with management and the upper level and take action to make any necessary changes.
▶︎ How can the survey results be used to improve employee recognition in the organization?
Survey results can be used to improve recognition in an organization by helping you to identify areas in need of improvement — you may even notice patterns developing in specific departments that really make pinpointing the underlying cause much easier.
Survey results can also help you tailor recognition efforts, communicate and share results, and assist in the implementation of an employee recognition program.
10 Employee Recognition Survey Questions
Does your manager make you feel appreciated and recognized for your contributions at work?
Why this question should be included in an employee recognition survey: Managers are often some of the most frequent and significant points of contact an employee will have at the company. They also can majorly uplift or massively discourage employees depending on their management style.
Do you regularly receive personalized, specific rewards and attention for your work?
Why this question should be included in an employee recognition survey: As an employer, you may not always be able to have a direct hand in every single instance of recognition, rewards, and attention, which is why you must create a culture of positivity in the workplace. An employee survey will give you a clear picture of whether or not your team is nurturing that culture from management to all other levels.
How exactly do you like to receive praise and recognition from your coworkers and management?
Why this question should be included in an employee recognition survey: Just like love languages are highly individual, how people want to be recognized and praised is deeply tied to their individual needs.
How have appreciation and recognition affected your motivation and your satisfaction as an employee?
Why this question should be included in an employee recognition survey: For better or worse, your employees will get specific about instances of employee appreciation (or a lack of it) that have left an impact on them.
What is the probability you would want to recommend us to anyone you know as a potential employer?
Why this question should be included in an employee recognition survey: One of the true tell-tale signs that an employee feels recognized and appreciated is whether or not they would recruit others to the company. After all, if a party is incredible, you’d want to invite your friends to it.
How can we improve recognition at the company and what would make you feel appreciated?
Why this question should be included in an employee recognition survey: This employee recognition survey question is one of the most important ones you could possibly ask because it can provide you with actionable insights to improve recognition and engagement.
Does the recognition you get at our company compare favorably to the recognition you have received at your previous jobs?
Why this question should be included in an employee recognition survey: Sometimes the truth hurts, but it’s good to find out how you stack up to past experiences. Comparison is inevitable and employee retention will be easier if your company is the one they view through rose-colored lenses.
How has your work been valued at this organization?
Why this question should be included in an employee recognition survey: This question gives you an idea of moments and specific instances that have left a strong impression on your employees. Once you understand what works, you can amplify and take even more actions similar to those.
Do you think management and your direct reports fully appreciate your contributions?
Why this question should be included in an employee recognition survey: One of the most crucial factors when it comes to retention and engagement is how employees feel about their coworkers and peers. This question is designed to check if they are happy with the people they work with.
Is having your work noticed or rewarded a regular occurrence at our company?
Why this question should be included in an employee recognition survey: If the answer to the above question is “no,” then you know at least one immediate change to implement.
People Also Ask These Questions About Employee Recognition Surveys
Q: ⭐️ What are the benefits of employee recognition surveys?
- The benefits of employee recognition surveys include but are not limited to gathering feedback, boosting employee engagement, constantly improving your program, understanding employee needs, identifying high performers, benchmarking, and much more!
Q: ⭐️ How do you create an employee recognition survey?
- Creating an employee recognition survey typically starts with defining the survey goals and objectives before selecting the participants, choosing questions, figuring out the survey method, testing the survey, distributing the survey, and analyzing and reporting the results. Of course, the most crucial steps are the actions you take after that and the follow up to see if your steps are making a difference.
Q: ⭐️ What are some best practices for conducting an employee recognition survey?
- Some of the best practices for conducting an employee recognition survey include getting clear about the purpose of the survey, keeping the survey anonymous, using open-ended and closed-ended questions, using a reputable surveying tool, providing clear instructions and timelines, promoting the survey, and being transparent about the feedback to demonstrate the organization’s accountability around taking action.
Q: ⭐️ When should I send out an employee recognition survey?
- There is no one answer to the question of when you should send out an employee recognition survey. However, anytime is a good time to use a survey to gather baseline data. For some specific instances, you could try surveying company events or major changes (such as mergers or acquisitions). Once you get started, you’ll want to conduct employee recognition surveys regularly.
Q: ⭐️ How often should I send a recognition survey to my employees?
- The frequency of employee recognition surveys will depend on several factors. Your particular goals are the main thing to take into consideration. Your first goal should be to gain baseline data. After that, track progress over time, monitor employee engagement, identify specific improvements, and measure the agreed-upon initiatives.
Q: ⭐️ What types of questions should be included in an employee recognition survey?
- You can ask a variety of questions in an employee recognition survey; however, these questions should essentially determine if employees feel recognized or not, how they like to be recognized, and what changes and actions need to be made. This type of survey is designed to keep employees satisfied, productive, engaged, and more than happy to stick around at your company.
