25 questions a manager should ask his employees

Managing a team means dealing with diverse personalities, as well as different working styles, communication methods, preferences, and motivations. For the group to function properly and its members to collaborate effectively, the manager must successfully build team cohesion. They need to ensure that team members get to know each other so they can work better together.

A good manager also gets to know their team members to adapt their management style and thus succeed in getting the best out of everyone.

To achieve this, team management requires preparation, particularly with questions designed to better understand your employees' professional and personal preferences.

Here are 23 questions to ask both new hires and long-standing employees to help you build a profile of them, understand them, and manage them better.

4 questions about working style

These questions will help you understand your employees' preferences regarding management, communication, working style, and training. The goal is to adapt your management style to encourage them to perform at their best.

How do you prefer to be managed?

In a company, some employees need close supervision, constant feedback on their work and tasks, and encouragement and recognition to be effective. Others, however, are much more productive and creative when working independently, or feel uncomfortable receiving compliments or praise.

To avoid appearing as a micromanager or an overly lenient manager, and to get the most out of your team, you need to know how your employees prefer to be managed. You can observe them, but that might take some time, or you can ask them directly.

How do you like to work?

Just like personality, working style varies from person to person. Some of your employees have excellent team spirit and perform better when working in a group. Conversely, others are more effective when working autonomously on independent projects. Some people prefer remote work, while others are more efficient surrounded by their colleagues and the buzz of an open-plan office. You will improve your team's productivity by knowing how each person likes to work.

What's the best way to communicate with you?

At work, communication is essential and must be a two-way street. Today, with the widespread adoption of remote work and the rise of hybrid teams, it can be challenging to establish effective communication that suits all your team members.

So, whether your employees work remotely or in the office, you should ask them how they prefer to communicate. Are they fans of video conferences and instant messaging, or do they prefer phone calls, face-to-face meetings, and emails? Whatever their preferences, you need to adapt to facilitate exchanges and encourage continuous communication for better collaboration.

How would you like to learn a new skill?

For your company to remain competitive, it must constantly evolve and adapt. This applies to its products and services, its projects, and its employees. Training is an essential tool for your employees to develop and acquire new skills. To ensure that the training offered will be effective, you must consider each person's best way of learning to provide them with a suitable format: practical training, in-person theoretical courses, seminars or conferences, online courses, etc. By adapting the learning method, you can be sure that your employees will retain what they have learned.

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25 questions to ask your employees in a survey

Now that you're ready to launch your satisfaction survey, here are 25 questions, divided into 5 categories, to gather useful feedback and improve team performance and well-being within the company.

5 personal development and well-being questions

Fulfilled and healthy employees are more engaged, productive, and creative. By taking an interest in their well-being and development, you show that you care about them as individuals, not just as employees.

1. Do you feel supported by the company in your personal and professional development?
2. Do you have access to the resources and training you need to progress?
3. What do you think about your work-life balance?
4. Does the company contribute to your overall well-being?
5. What initiatives could we implement to improve your well-being at work?

Identify trends and weaknesses to implement concrete actions, which could include training, workshops, or well-being programs.

5 questions about career development

Understanding your employees' career aspirations allows you to best support their development, retain them, and keep them motivated.

1. Do you feel heard and supported in your professional development aspirations?
2. What are your short-term and long-term career aspirations?
3. Do you have the professional development opportunities you are looking for within the company?
4. What types of training or assignments would interest you for career advancement?
5. Do you have a clear understanding of the career advancement opportunities within the company?

Offer individualized career plans and tailor development opportunities to each person's aspirations.

5 questions about team cohesion and communication

The team cohesion questionnaire is a classic. This survey is essential because good communication and strong group cohesion are crucial for creating a positive, collaborative, and high-performing work environment.

1. How would you describe communication within your team?
2. Do you feel comfortable expressing your ideas and opinions?
3. How would you describe the relationships among your team members?
4. Do you think information flows effectively within the company?
5. What could we improve to foster communication and team cohesion?

Organize events and activities, encourage opportunities for interaction and camaraderie among teams, and improve internal communication tools to streamline communication and strengthen cohesion.

5 questions about individual and collective workload

A balanced and well-distributed workload is crucial to prevent burnout, stress, and demotivation among teams.

1. How do you assess your current workload?
2. Do you feel capable of managing your workload effectively?
3. Do you have enough time to complete your tasks?
4. Do you think the workload is fairly distributed within your team?
5. What could we do to optimize workload management?

To improve this, adjust task distribution, rebalance the workload based on individual skills and availability, and optimize processes to save time for teams.

5 questions about compensation, benefits, and company culture

Compensation, benefits, and company culture are key elements for attracting and retaining talent. It is therefore important to ensure they meet employee expectations.

1. Are you satisfied with your current compensation?
2. What do you think of the benefits offered by the company?
3. How would you describe the company culture?
4. Do you feel aligned with the company's values?
5. Are there aspects of the company culture you would like to see evolve?

If necessary, review your compensation and benefits policy to ensure it is competitive and attractive. Implement actions to promote company values and create a positive work environment.

Employee satisfaction survey best practices

To conduct a successful survey, we recommend following a few best practices:

1. Start by defining clear objectives. Ask yourself what the purpose of this survey is, what key indicators to consider, and precisely target participants.
2. Design an effective questionnaire with concise, clear, and varied questions. It is advisable to opt for anonymous responses to ensure honest feedback and a good participation rate.
3. Before launching your survey, clearly communicate your intentions. Emphasize anonymity and choose the right channel to distribute your satisfaction questionnaire. This could be email, an internal platform, or a team meeting.

Finally, conduct a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the results to develop a concrete action plan to address the points raised.

What are the benefits of an employee survey?

Employee surveys are a valuable tool for companies looking to improve their work environment and overall performance. They allow for the anonymous and structured collection of employee opinions, concerns, and suggestions.

Among the key benefits of such a survey is improved employee engagement. Employees feel valued because they have the opportunity to express themselves freely. This helps identify factors of motivation and demotivation while fostering dialogue between management and employees.

Surveys are also a good way to improve working conditions by better understanding problems and implementing corrective actions.

Finally, surveying teams is ideal for generally increasing company performance. Engaged and satisfied employees are indeed more productive and perform better. By improving employee working conditions, companies also have the opportunity to reduce turnover rates and retain talent.

How to analyze your survey results?

Analyzing employee survey results is an essential step to draw relevant conclusions and implement effective actions.

First, you need to prepare and organize the data. To do this, check the consistency of responses and eliminate erroneous or incomplete data. Then, categorize the responses by theme, department, or question type to facilitate analysis.

Déterminez les moyennes, médianes, modes et écarts-types pour chaque question afin d’avoir une vue d’ensemble des réponses. Visualisez les données à l’aide de graphiques et de tableaux sur la plateforme Wimi pour identifier les tendances et les schémas.

Croisez ensuite les données et analysez les réponses en fonction de variables démographiques (âge, sexe, ancienneté) ou professionnelles (département, poste) pour identifier des tendances spécifiques. Explorez les liens entre différentes questions pour comprendre les corrélations qui peuvent exister.

Après la phase d’analyse, communiquez les résultats avec les employés de manière transparente et honnête, puis élaborez un plan d’action pour répondre aux problèmes soulevés par l’enquête. Par la suite, effectuez un suivi en réalisant des enquêtes de manière régulière afin de mesurer l’impact des actions mises en place et identifier les nouveaux enjeux.

Pour conclure

Les ressources humaines sont la force de toute entreprise. Il est donc important d’en prendre soin et de s’assurer que vos salariés possèdent tout ce dont ils ont besoin pour accomplir efficacement leurs tâches au quotidien. En tant que manager, vous devez veiller au bien-être, à la motivation et à l’engagement de vos collaborateurs.

En recueillant régulièrement leur feedback à travers ces différentes questions, vous êtes en mesure d’améliorer et d’adapter votre style de management, et de leur fournir ce dont ils ont besoin pour qu’ils soient productifs et heureux chaque jour au travail.