Here are some of the best questions for an employee survey about employee well-being, plus actionable tips to make yours effective. If you want to build a survey in seconds, you can generate an employee well-being survey instantly with Specific.
Best open-ended questions for an employee survey about well-being
Open-ended questions give employees space to share honest feelings and nuanced perspectives—especially valuable in well-being surveys where unique experiences matter. Use these to uncover key themes, hidden pain points, or specific stories that closed-ended questions miss.
How would you describe your overall well-being at work?
What work situations make you feel most stressed or overwhelmed?
Can you share an example of when you felt especially supported at work?
What are the biggest challenges you face balancing work and personal life?
How do you usually cope when work becomes stressful?
Is there anything your manager or team could do to help support your well-being?
How comfortable do you feel talking about mental health at work? Why?
What would make this a healthier workplace for you?
If you've experienced burnout, what helped (or would have helped) you recover?
Any other thoughts about how we could improve well-being for everyone here?
Open-ended questions like these work best when you want real stories, not just numbers. They give employees a platform to voice what’s really going on—critical, since 58% of employees now report moderate to severe burnout on the job [2].
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for employee well-being surveys
Single-select multiple-choice questions are ideal when you need clear data to quantify issues or want to gently prompt employees to reflect, especially if they struggle to articulate feelings from scratch. They can break the ice and lead into richer follow-ups.
Question: How would you rate your overall well-being at work?
Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
Question: What is your biggest source of work-related stress?
Workload
Work-life balance
Management or leadership
Team dynamics
Job security
Other
Question: Do you feel your workplace supports your mental health?
Yes, always
Sometimes
No, rarely or never
When to follow up with "why?" It pays to ask "why?" right after a multiple-choice response—especially for answers like "No" or "Poor." For example, if someone selects "Poor" in well-being, asking "Can you tell me why you feel this way?" provides essential context. Without such follow-up, it’s tough to take meaningful action.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always include an "Other" option for questions about stressors or well-being barriers—respondents might face challenges you never considered. Following up on "Other" can uncover unexpected insights that shape your programs and policies in new ways.
It's worth recognizing that only 32% of employees feel engaged at work, with 16% actively disengaged—proving quantifiable questions are crucial for monitoring your workplace’s pulse and quickly identifying shifts [4].
NPS-style questions for measuring employee well-being
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) isn't just for customers. In an employee well-being survey, use an NPS-style question to gauge advocacy and satisfaction—“How likely are you to recommend this company as a great place to work?” It works because it captures not just satisfaction, but sentiment and engagement—factors strongly linked to retention and business outcomes. You can quickly generate an NPS survey for employee well-being with Specific.
Because 85% of employees intend to stay when they feel their wellness is cared for, consistent NPS tracking can show if you’re on the right path [5].
The power of follow-up questions
Automated follow-up questions are the game changer for employee well-being surveys. Want to know how and why? Read our full guide to automatic AI follow-up questions.
With Specific, you don't have to worry about one-size-fits-all follow-ups. Our AI asks context-aware follow-up questions in real time, adapting on the spot—just as a skilled interviewer would. This ensures you get the whole story and don’t miss hidden causes, which is vital when so many (51%) employees believe their workplace harms their mental health [3].
Employee: "I often feel overwhelmed by my workload."
AI follow-up: "Could you share a specific example of when your workload felt overwhelming? Was it a recent event or a recurring issue?"
How many followups to ask? We’ve found that 2–3 targeted follow-ups discover the key details without wearing out the respondent. With Specific, you can configure this and even let the AI skip ahead when enough detail is gathered—keeping the experience smooth and non-intrusive.
This makes it a conversational survey—not a boring form, but a back-and-forth exchange that feels natural and human. That conversational flow drives better engagement and trust.
AI survey response analysis is simple with Specific—even if you collect a flood of in-depth responses. AI rapidly analyzes and summarizes unstructured text so you can act on what matters fast. Explore more on our AI-powered analysis workflow.
Automated follow-ups are a new approach. If you want to experience it firsthand, try generating a survey with Specific and see the difference real conversation makes.
Prompts for coming up with great employee well-being survey questions
If you use ChatGPT, Specific's AI survey creator, or another AI, properly worded prompts make a big difference. A simple starting prompt could be:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for employee survey about employee well-being.
But AI works best with detailed context. For example, tell it about your company size, work model (remote, hybrid), recent changes, demographics, or survey goals. Here’s how:
Our company has 200 employees working remotely and in-office. We're experiencing change after a merger and want to understand emotional well-being, management support, and daily stressors to inform our new HR programs. Suggest 10 open-ended employee well-being survey questions for this context.
Once you have a long question list, you can organize it with this prompt:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
After reviewing, double down on the areas you care about most:
Generate 10 questions for categories "management support" and "work-related stress".
Iterative prompts like this create focused, actionable surveys.
What is a conversational survey?
Traditional survey forms are static—the same for everyone, with fixed questions and no context-awareness. Conversational surveys (like those powered by Specific) adapt in real-time, following the respondent’s lead. This difference means richer data, higher engagement, and less frustration for everyone involved.
Manual Survey | AI-Generated Survey (Conversational) |
|---|---|
Rigid list of questions, answered in isolation | Dynamic chat that tailors questions and follow-ups to each respondent |
Low completion rates (often 45% or less) | High completion rates (70–80%[10]) thanks to engagement |
Manual analysis, slow and expensive | Automated AI-powered theme detection, summaries, and insights |
Difficult to personalize or localize | Easy to customize; supports multiple languages out of the box |
Why use AI for employee surveys? Human-centered AI isn’t just a trend—it’s the practical way to understand your team at scale. With AI survey examples, you rapidly iterate, deploy, and learn from feedback, without heavy manual work—freeing up time to act, not just analyze. Platforms like Specific provide an unrivaled user experience, both for survey creators and respondents, making every interaction smooth and even enjoyable. For guidance on crafting your own, check out this step-by-step guide to creating employee well-being surveys.
See this employee well-being survey example now
Ready for insights you can actually use? See how a conversational AI survey uncovers what your people need, keeps engagement high, and makes analysis nearly instant with next-level follow-ups and expert design—unique to Specific. Create your own survey in minutes and start transforming employee well-being today.