Finding the best survey questions for employees to give manager feedback can transform your workplace culture. Great questions are keys to unlocking honest insights about coaching, communication, and fairness—and that goes far beyond box-checking forms. Conversational surveys capture the nuances that traditional methods often miss, surfacing what really matters for teams to thrive.
Questions that reveal coaching effectiveness
Targeted coaching questions drive real growth because effective managers support their teams with direction and actionable feedback. Employees crave regular, constructive input—in fact, 89% of employees report higher engagement when they receive regular feedback, directly correlating to increased productivity [1]. But not all feedback efforts are equal.
Coaching frequency: “How often does your manager provide helpful coaching on your work?”
Reveals whether feedback happens consistently or if people feel overlooked.Development support: “Can you share an example where your manager supported your growth or learning?”
Shows if managers are investing in skills and advancement, not just task management.Actionability: “Does feedback from your manager help you take specific next steps?”
Unpacks if feedback is clear or just vague praise or criticism.Challenge and encouragement: “How does your manager help you push your limits without feeling overwhelmed?”
Highlights balance of challenge and support.
Here’s how AI can help dig deeper depending on an employee’s answer:
“How did your manager’s coaching make a difference in your recent project? Can you describe the outcome?”
“What resources or additional support would have amplified your development?”
Automatic AI follow-up questions adapt in real-time, asking for clarity or details when responses are broad and moving on when the answer is already specific. This dynamic approach steps in where traditional surveys get stuck, surfacing context you'd never get from a simple rating.
Surface-level questions | Deep-dive questions |
|---|---|
“Does your manager give you feedback?” | “Can you describe a time when your manager’s feedback helped you improve a specific skill?” |
“Are you satisfied with your coaching?” | “What kind of coaching would make the biggest difference in your development right now?” |
AI-driven follow-ups bring nuance to the conversation, adapting to each response instantly for more meaningful results.
Communication questions that uncover real insights
Strong manager-employee relationships are built on clear, honest communication patterns and effective feedback loops. When communication falters, misunderstandings and frustrations become routine. Open-ended questions get to the heart of how managers communicate—not just how often they send updates.
“How clearly does your manager set expectations for your goals and tasks?”
“What’s your preferred way to receive updates and information from your manager?”
“Can you recall a recent situation where a miscommunication created confusion? How was it handled?”
“How does your manager invite feedback from you about their communication style?”
Open questions often reveal themes hidden beneath simple numbers. And when responses hint at problems or confusion, AI can gently probe:
“You mentioned unclear expectations—can you give an example of when this happened and how it affected your work?”
“When your manager’s updates fall short, what information would have made your work smoother?”
With conversational survey editors, you can tailor follow-ups to match your culture and tone, making every question feel personalized. The conversational format naturally invites candid responses, helping employees feel safe enough to share what really happened, not just what sounds polite.
Measuring fairness and team dynamics
When employees question fairness indicators like workload distribution and recognition, morale takes a nosedive—and so does retention. Addressing fairness head on, and treating it as a dynamic part of team culture, signals to employees that their experience matters.
“Do you feel your workload is distributed fairly among your team?”
“How does your manager acknowledge contributions from everyone?”
“Are decisions made transparently, with input from all team members?”
AI-powered follow-up strategy is crucial here, as fairness is sensitive. Instead of blunt questions, ask for stories or examples without putting the spotlight on the individual:
“Can you share an instance where you felt team contributions were unevenly recognized? How did your manager address it?”
“Have there been moments when you or someone else spoke up about fairness? What was the outcome?”
Anonymous, conversational surveys not only increase honesty but also surface subtle tensions that routine surveys gloss over. And with AI summaries, patterns across responses quickly become visible—especially important since 65% of managers say AI improves fairness in appraisals [2].
Good practice | Bad practice |
|---|---|
“Describe a time when you felt recognized for your work.” | “Does your manager recognize your work?” (yes/no) |
“How do you see decisions being explained after they’re made?” | “Are decisions fair?” (rating scale) |
With AI follow-ups, employees are encouraged to expand without fear of confrontation, allowing team balance and inclusion issues to come to light. Plus, AI-generated summaries help organizations see trends fast—whether it’s a recurring problem with recognition or a leadership win worth celebrating.
How AI summaries reveal management patterns
Individual stories are valuable, but pattern recognition and theme extraction separate one-off grievances from company-wide challenges. That’s where Specific’s AI steps in: analyzing feedback at scale, organizing responses by theme (like “coaching gaps” or “communication breakdowns”), and surfacing what leaders need to know without hours of manual coding. In fact, 80% of organizations are investing in advanced analytics to better understand feedback trends and make data-driven decisions [1].
You can filter responses by department or role to target your next leadership workshop or policy change. With AI analysis tools, teams can even chat directly with the AI about survey results and drill down into specifics:
“What are the top three concerns employees have about team fairness?”
“Are there patterns in feedback about coaching consistency across different managers?”
“Summarize the most frequent feedback about communication between teams.”
By having actual dialogue with your data, you empower everyone to explore feedback—no data science background required. When AI can spot trends, offer summaries, and even respond to your questions, every piece of manager feedback gets counted and understood, driving evidence-based change.
Start collecting meaningful manager feedback
When you combine thoughtfully crafted questions with dynamic AI follow-ups, you transform your collected feedback into a wellspring of insight. A conversational approach—the heart of Specific’s platform—turns feedback from an interrogation into genuine dialogue, helping teams grow together. With AI-powered summaries, you skip the hours of sifting through responses and head straight to the themes that matter.
Ready to get started? Use the AI survey generator to create your own survey—one designed to reveal the real stories, strengths, and opportunities hiding in your team’s experiences. The future of manager feedback is conversational, insightful, and made for action—no spreadsheets required.