Finding the best survey questions for employees during onboarding can make or break their experience at your company.
Great questions for new hire onboarding go far beyond generic satisfaction checks—they help you uncover friction points, validate training effectiveness, and pinpoint support gaps long before they threaten retention.
With AI-powered conversational surveys, it’s easy to adapt questions in real time based on responses, instantly analyze onboarding patterns, and act before small issues snowball.
7-day onboarding survey: First impressions matter
The first week is when new hires decide if they truly “belong.” Their initial experience influences perceptions of your culture, clarity of communication, and whether your company delivers on its promises. In fact, 70% of new hires know if a job is a good fit within the first month, and 29% decide in the first week. That’s why these check-ins are crucial for setting the tone early and preventing avoidable regrets. [1]
To spark candid insights, I recommend delivering these short-form in-product conversational surveys right in your HR platform or onboarding tools:
“How would you describe your first week here?” (AI intent: Probe for positives, areas of confusion, or unmet expectations)
“What, if anything, felt unclear or challenging so far?” (AI intent: Elicit examples and clarify pain points)
“Has anything surprised you—good or bad?” (AI intent: Explore expectations vs. reality and unique cultural moments)
“How supported did you feel by your team and manager?” (AI intent: Gather details on communication, resource handoff, or missed connections)
“What, if anything, felt unclear or challenging so far?”
“How supported did you feel by your team and manager?”
When paired with dynamic AI follow-ups, you never get stuck with one-word answers. The bot digs into specifics—so you see quickly if people are lost, confused, or pleasantly surprised. It’s the difference between generic feedback and actionable clarity.
30-day onboarding check: Building confidence and connections
By day 30, most employees should feel like part of the team, understand their responsibilities, and have access to what they need. Yet according to the data, only 13% of employees are satisfied with their onboarding. [2] For many, vague expectations and weak connections leave them adrift. A well-crafted 30-day survey bridges that gap by focusing on integration, confidence, and practical support.
“Do you feel clear about your role and priorities?” (AI intent: Probe for remaining ambiguities or mixed messages)
“Have you established working relationships with teammates?” (AI intent: Explore if introductions, collaboration, or buddy systems are effective)
“What’s one thing that would make your workflow smoother?” (AI intent: Elicit suggestions and flag missing resources)
“Is any information or training still missing?” (AI intent: Drill into specific gaps or delays)
“How would you rate communication and feedback so far?” (AI intent: Gather examples of support or lack thereof)
“Do you feel clear about your role and priorities?”
“What’s one thing that would make your workflow smoother?”
Surface-level question | AI-enhanced question with follow-ups |
|---|---|
Are you satisfied with onboarding so far? | Do you feel clear about your role? |
Did you meet your team? | Have you established working relationships? |
Do you have training materials? | Is any information or training still missing? |
By customizing questions for different roles or departments with the AI survey editor, you keep questions relevant and actionable—no need to reinvent the wheel for each team. That’s the power of building smart, scalable onboarding feedback loops.
90-day onboarding survey: Long-term success indicators
Day 90 marks the real transition from “new hire” to contributing team member. This is where engagement, satisfaction, and retention are cemented—or red flags emerge. Not surprisingly, 33% of new hires decide to stay or leave within the first 90 days. [3] An effective 90-day survey focuses on satisfaction, growth trajectory, and signs of retention risk.
“How confident do you feel in your ability to do your job independently?” (AI intent: Probe for remaining dependencies or blockers)
“What’s been your most meaningful achievement so far?” (AI intent: Explore motivators, highlight underused strengths)
“Where do you want to grow next—and do you know how to get there here?” (AI intent: Uncover perceptions of growth and career path clarity)
“Anything that would make you more likely to recommend us as an employer?” (AI intent: Probe for improvement opportunities and sense of belonging)
“Is there anything making you consider leaving?” (AI intent: Elicit candid risk signals and suggestions for loyalty)
“How confident do you feel in your ability to do your job independently?”
“Is there anything making you consider leaving?”
Conversational surveys transform these check-ins from stiff, form-based evaluations into real, two-way dialogues. Respondents open up. AI-driven follow-ups pick up on hesitation and dig as deep as needed. It’s not just a survey anymore—it’s a human-style conversation designed to foster trust and actionable insights. For practical examples of this conversational approach, see our survey pages and in-product surveys.
Automating your onboarding surveys with smart targeting
Delivering the right survey at the right time is easy when you use in-product tenure-based targeting. Simply set up automated 7, 30, and 90-day triggers based on hire date—no manual reminders or scheduling headaches. Surveys appear seamlessly in the apps or tools your new hires already use.
Event-based triggers let you prompt feedback immediately after key milestones—like finishing compliance training or wrapping up a first team project—capturing insights when they’re freshest.
Frequency controls guarantee no one gets survey fatigue, spacing each check-in for maximum response and minimum annoyance.
With automatic AI follow-up questions, surveys adapt on the fly—switching tone, depth, or topic based on the role, department, or prior responses. For instance, HR can set a rule so sales hires get a deeper probe on product training, while engineers get follow-ups about tool setup. Here’s how this actually looks:
A sales hire completes their first product demo. The onboarding platform recognizes the event and triggers a brief survey asking about demo readiness and training effectiveness. If the answer is “somewhat confident,” AI instantly asks, “What else would boost your confidence for live demos?”
An engineer wraps up their first sprint. The system targets them with a quick check-in: “Was anything about the sprint process confusing?” If they flag blockers, the AI explores specifics and suggests resources.
No chasing people down, no duplicated reminders—just the right question, at the right moment, for the right person.
Spotting onboarding gaps before they become problems
Once you start gathering onboarding feedback, the real value comes from AI-powered analysis—which instantly surfaces patterns across all new hire responses. Using advanced theme detection, you can flag repeated issues—like confusing first-day instructions, missing tools, or weak manager support—before they drive people to disengage or quit.
Want to see if confusion about training content is a pattern? Use a targeted analysis prompt:
“Show me recurring themes about training or resource gaps from 30-day surveys this quarter.”
Curious if certain managers need coaching?
“Compare feedback about manager support in the engineering vs. sales departments from new hires.”
Checking for risky retention trends across regions?
“Summarize the main reasons mentioned for considering quitting in 90-day surveys for EMEA hires.”
You can chat with AI about responses and drill into specific cohorts, roles, or time periods in seconds—no spreadsheet wrangling.
Pattern recognition is a game-changer: if multiple new hires in the same department highlight similar issues, HR can step in proactively, offer extra training, or refine onboarding flow before small issues cause bigger problems. Considering 20% of employees quit within the first 45 days, identifying trendlines early is a massive lever for retention and engagement. [1]
Transform your onboarding with conversational employee surveys
The right questions, asked at just the right moment, are the secret to onboarding experiences that turn new hires into loyal, high-performing teammates.
With Specific, you get a best-in-class experience for conversational employee surveys—making feedback effortless and engaging for both creators and respondents.
Create your own survey using the AI survey generator—get personalized, dynamic question sets, automatic follow-ups that dig deeper, rapid AI-led analysis that flags risks, and seamless integration right into your workflow. Don’t let onboarding be guesswork. Go from “what went wrong?” to “everyone’s thriving” with Specific, today.