Here are some of the best questions for an employee survey about onboarding experience, plus tips on how to craft them for deeper insight. Using Specific, you can generate an AI-powered survey in seconds—no manual setup needed.
Best open-ended questions for employee onboarding experience surveys
Open-ended questions enable employees to freely express their honest feedback, offering rich, qualitative data that reveals underlying issues, satisfaction, or needs. They’re perfect when you want authentic context and not just a number. For these reasons, open-ended questions excel in onboarding surveys—employees can share perspectives you hadn’t even considered. Research shows teams that use open-ended onboarding survey questions gain a far deeper understanding of employee sentiment and can spot small pain points before they grow.[1]
What part of your onboarding experience surprised you the most?
What information would have helped you feel better prepared during your first week?
Can you share a moment in onboarding when you felt especially supported—or unsupported?
Which steps of the onboarding process felt the most confusing or unclear?
How well did your onboarding align with your expectations about your role?
If you could change one thing about the onboarding experience, what would it be?
Was there any important training, information, or support you think was missing?
Is there anyone or anything that made your onboarding experience memorable, either positively or negatively?
What advice would you give to future new hires starting the onboarding process?
How did you feel at the end of your onboarding—and why?
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for onboarding experience
Single-select multiple-choice questions are essential for quantifying employee experience trends—great if you want quick comparisons, summary charts, or to follow up if a pattern stands out. They’re often less mentally taxing for employees, helping to start a feedback conversation. Many teams mix these questions with open-ended ones, then dig deeper using follow-ups.[3]
Question: How clear was the information you received before your first day?
Very clear
Somewhat clear
Not clear
Other
Question: How long did it take you to feel comfortable in your role after onboarding?
Less than 1 week
1–2 weeks
More than 2 weeks
Still not comfortable
Question: Did you know where to go for help during onboarding?
Yes, always
Sometimes
No, rarely
When to follow up with "why?" It’s powerful to ask "why?" if a respondent chooses an unsatisfying answer—like picking "Not clear" to the first question. This unlocks the context and the emotion behind the choice. For example, if you see a pattern of unclear onboarding, follow up: “Can you describe what information wasn’t clear or what you needed instead?” This creates an easy path for honest sharing.
When and why to add the “Other” choice? Use “Other” when the possible responses might not be exhaustive—maybe your process is evolving or you want unexpected insights. Adding a follow-up, “Please describe,” can reveal issues or ideas you’d otherwise miss.
Should you use NPS for onboarding experience?
NPS, or Net Promoter Score, is a familiar question for gauging loyalty and satisfaction. For onboarding, it asks: “How likely are you to recommend working at our company to a friend based on your onboarding experience?” Its simplicity and focus make it fast to answer and easy to benchmark over time. Plus, a well-designed NPS onboarding survey helps reveal how onboarding impacts long-term employee advocacy. Leaders get a pulse on brand reputations and underlying pain points right out of the gate.
The power of follow-up questions
We’ve noticed from running thousands of onboarding feedback surveys that automated follow-ups—like those from Specific—dramatically improve insight quality. Check out our guide to automated follow-up questions for details. The real magic is that AI can instantly probe unclear answers or dig for stories and specifics, saving you endless emails or meetings later. Follow-up questions clarify ambiguous responses, unlock specifics, and let employees feel truly heard.[1]
Employee: “Onboarding was fine, but I did get lost in some places.”
AI follow-up: “Could you share which places or moments felt confusing or where you got lost?”
How many follow-ups to ask? I find 2–3 follow-ups per question is the sweet spot. That’s enough to clarify and deepen responses, without burning out your employees. With Specific, you can set this limit, and the AI will move on if complete context is reached.
This makes it a conversational survey—not a dry form, but a real dialogue where employees feel like they’re chatting with a thoughtful colleague, not just selecting boxes.
AI makes qualitative feedback analysis easy. Even when you have a ton of unstructured text responses, our AI survey response analysis and survey generator features let you chat with your data, track themes, and spot sentiment shifts with almost no manual effort. It’s a game-changer, especially with onboarding where stories matter.
Curious? Try generating an employee onboarding survey with automatic, smart follow-ups and see how much more you’ll learn—effortlessly.
Prompting AI to create powerful onboarding survey questions
Ready to use AI for brainstorming? Here’s how:
Start simple, then add context:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Employee survey about Onboarding Experience.
But AI does better with more context. Add your company, size, onboarding goals, or recent changes:
We’re a 50-person tech startup that just changed onboarding processes. Generate 10 open-ended questions to learn if new hires feel supported and where improvements are needed.
Next, organize:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Then, go deeper on a focus area:
Generate 10 questions for “Training and Resources.”
What is a conversational survey and why does AI make it better?
A conversational survey feels like a chat, not a test—it adapts live to each answer, digs deeper, and keeps things easy and personal. With AI survey generation, you’re not stuck writing every question or predicting every follow-up. Instead, the AI asks just what’s needed, clarifies in real time, and delivers insights that traditional forms can’t touch. This is exactly what Specific’s surveys do best—making both the creator and respondent experience smooth and engaging.
Manual Surveys | AI-Generated Surveys |
|---|---|
Create questions and branches by hand; time-consuming | AI builds the survey in seconds, including logic and follow-ups |
Usually no real-time follow-ups; insights may be shallow | Digs deeper by recognizing and probing unclear answers |
Analyzing text data takes huge effort | Automatic, AI-powered analysis and summaries |
Rigid experience, feels like a chore | Feels like a conversation—friendly, personalized, intuitive |
Why use AI for employee surveys? The best insights come from respondents who feel comfortable and listened to. AI-powered conversational surveys meet employees where they are—on desktop or mobile—adapting to their pace and language. They surface the truth faster, automate the boring parts, and let you focus on acting, not guessing. If you want to learn more about the process, see our how-to guide on creating onboarding surveys.
See this onboarding experience survey example now
Explore how an AI-generated, conversational onboarding survey from Specific can instantly elevate your insights and make employee feedback effortless—get ahead and start building today.