Best questions for civil servant survey about policy impact evaluation

Here are some of the best questions for a Civil Servant survey about policy impact evaluation, plus tips to ask smarter and get more from your respondents. With Specific, you can quickly build a tailored survey in seconds to gather rich, contextual feedback.

The best open-ended questions for Civil Servant policy impact evaluation surveys

Open-ended questions let us dig into details you might miss with checkboxes or scales. They encourage real stories, reveal nuance, and surface unexpected insights—which is crucial for complex topics like policy impact evaluation. The downside? They sometimes have higher nonresponse rates compared to closed-ended questions—Pew Research Center reports rates around 18% for open-ended, versus 1–2% for closed-ended questions. [1] Still, by thoughtfully designing follow-ups, we balance depth and response rate for actionable feedback.

Here are 10 open-ended questions we recommend for Civil Servant policy impact evaluation surveys:

1. In your view, what has been the most significant impact of this policy on your day-to-day work?

2. What challenges have you faced when implementing this policy?

3. Can you share a specific example of positive or negative outcomes resulting from this policy?

4. Did the policy affect any groups or stakeholders in unexpected ways? If so, how?

5. What do you believe are the key factors contributing to the success or failure of this policy?

6. How has this policy changed how you interact with citizens or other organizations?

7. Are there aspects of the policy that feel unclear or difficult to interpret? Please elaborate.

8. What input or feedback have you received from external stakeholders about how this policy works in practice?

9. If you could change one thing about this policy, what would it be and why?

10. What additional support, resources, or guidance would help you better achieve the policy’s goals?

Open-ended questions like these routinely uncover hidden pain points and ideas that static questions miss. A 2024 study found that 81% of respondents surfaced issues that weren’t even listed in any closed-ended rating grid. [3] Even when people rate their experience “very good,” probing with open-enders can surface negative feedback that helps you iterate fast. [2]

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for Civil Servant surveys

Single-select multiple-choice questions help us easily quantify opinions, benchmark attitudes, or quickly start a more in-depth conversation. They’re especially useful when respondents might be short on time, or when you need consistent data across a large group. Use them to spot trends, then dig deeper with follow-ups.

Question: Overall, how would you rate the effectiveness of this policy in achieving its intended goals?

• Very effective

• Somewhat effective

• Not effective

• Not sure

Question: How prepared did you feel to implement this policy in your role?

• Very prepared

• Somewhat prepared

• Not prepared

• Other

Question: Which area has been most impacted by this policy?

• Service delivery

• Interdepartmental collaboration

• Administrative processes

• Stakeholder relationships

When to followup with "why?" For any rating or selection, following up with “Why did you choose that?” draws out critical context and personal stories. For example, if a civil servant selects “Not effective,” a targeted follow-up can explore what isn’t working—leading to actionable changes.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always consider adding "Other" and a follow-up field, especially for roles, impacts, or outcomes that might be overlooked. These unexpected “Other” responses often contain unique insights you can’t anticipate upfront, helping you close knowledge gaps and iterate more effectively.

Use NPS questions for policy impact evaluation?

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) isn’t just for customer surveys—it’s a powerful shortcut to benchmark perception in civil servant policy evaluation as well. An NPS question quickly reveals how many respondents would advocate for, passively accept, or actively criticize a policy. This summary metric can be a valuable early signal for team alignment and broader sentiment.

If you’re curious about implementing NPS in your civil servant survey, you can instantly generate an NPS survey for civil servants about policy impact evaluation with Specific.

The power of follow-up questions

We’ve seen again and again that automatic follow-up questions make or break a policy evaluation survey. Research shows that follow-up designs lead to longer, richer responses and more actionable themes than static surveys. [4] Tools like Specific use AI to dynamically ask the right follow-ups, so respondents clarify, elaborate, and provide nuanced feedback—just like in a live conversation with a skilled researcher.

• Civil servant: “I faced challenges during rollout.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you tell me more about the specific challenges you encountered?”

How many followups to ask? Two or three contextual follow-ups usually deliver all the depth you need, without overwhelming the respondent. Specific lets you set limits and skip logic, so once you’ve collected enough info, the survey smoothly moves on.

This makes it a conversational survey: Instead of one-way forms, your survey becomes a real conversation, building rapport and surfacing richer insights.

AI analysis makes this easy. Even though you get tons of text responses, you can use AI to analyze survey responses, synthesize key themes, and interact with your data as easily as chatting with a colleague.

Automated followup questions are new and powerful—if you haven’t tried them yet, generate a conversational survey and see how much more insightful (and fun) the process can be.

How to prompt GPT/AI to generate survey questions

If you want to use ChatGPT or any other AI to come up with great survey questions about policy impact evaluation for civil servants, start with a direct prompt:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Civil Servant survey about Policy Impact Evaluation.

But you’ll get much better quality if you add context about your goals, your respondents, and your constraints. For example:

We're creating a survey for mid-level government civil servants to evaluate a recent policy change. The goal is to understand real-world implementation challenges and surface ideas for improvement. Suggest 10 open-ended questions that are nuanced, unbiased, and encourage detailed responses.

Once you have a candidate list, it helps to structure them:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Finally, focus your survey. For any category that matters most—say "stakeholder engagement" or "resource allocation"—ask:

Generate 10 questions for categories stakeholder engagement and resource allocation.

Effective prompts give AI the context it needs to deliver expert-level survey questions—and with a tool like Specific’s AI survey editor, you can refine and organize them simply by chatting.

What is a conversational survey?

Conversational surveys mimic the flow of a real dialogue. Unlike old-school survey forms, a conversational AI survey asks a question, listens to your response, and then naturally probes deeper based on what you say. This approach is proven to deliver richer, more actionable feedback on complex topics like policy impact evaluation, as every response is met with relevant, human-like curiosity.

How does AI survey generation actually differ from manual creation? Let’s compare:

Why use AI for civil servant surveys? Because you want honest feedback, smart probing on-the-fly, and a process that respects everyone’s time. With an AI survey example—especially one created with Specific—respondents are more engaged and their answers are fuller. You get the best of both worlds: easy survey creation and best-in-class data analysis, all inside a true conversational survey experience.

Want to see more? Check out our how-to guide on creating a civil servant policy impact evaluation survey with Specific, covering prompt tips and step-by-step setup.

See this Policy Impact Evaluation survey example now

Kick off your own civil servant policy impact evaluation survey and experience conversational feedback at a new level. AI-powered follow-ups and instant analysis make collecting and understanding in-depth responses easier than ever—so you can act on what matters, fast.