Employee feedback surveys need the right questions to capture meaningful manager feedback that drives real change.
Pulling honest, actionable feedback about managers starts with thoughtful question design—and using smart follow-ups to dig beneath surface-level answers.
Let’s explore the best questions for manager feedback and see how conversational surveys, especially with AI, uncover context that traditional forms miss.
Core questions that unlock honest manager feedback
Choosing the right questions in your employee feedback survey makes all the difference. Here are 7 of the best questions for manager feedback, each crafted to reveal specifics managers can act on:
How well does your manager communicate team goals and expectations?
Clear communication keeps everyone aligned. Open-ended versions let employees elaborate, while scaled questions quantify consistency. This is a top driver of engagement and performance. [1]Do you feel comfortable approaching your manager with questions, concerns, or ideas?
Approachability is the foundation of trust, and it’s often best measured with a blend of scale and "why or why not" follow-up. [1]How effectively does your manager provide constructive feedback to help you improve your performance?
Honest feedback fuels growth—ask for examples so you get actionable stories, not just ratings. [1]Does your manager support your professional development and career growth?
Support matters: employees whose managers discuss career goals are almost 3x more engaged. [2]How well does your manager handle conflicts within the team?
Effective conflict resolution prevents frustration and churn. Open-ended responses can reveal patterns. [2]What is one thing your manager could do to help you be more successful?
This open, future-focused question invites practical, personalized feedback.When was the last time your manager recognized your work?
Timely recognition is tied to higher retention and morale. Scaled frequency with space for details gets even richer input.
Each question’s format matters—open-ended prompts draw out stories and specifics, while scaled multiple-choice gives clarity for trends. Traditional surveys often settle for a “yes/no” or basic 1–5 score, missing the real stories behind the numbers—especially when there’s no follow-up.
A quick comparison:
Traditional Survey Response | Conversational Survey Response |
"Yes" | "Yes, my manager communicates well, especially during one-on-ones where expectations are clear and I feel heard." |
"No" | "No, sometimes project goals aren't clear, so I’m unsure what's expected and deadlines shift without notice." |
Adding smart, AI-powered follow-up questions transforms these quick answers into detailed, actionable feedback—so you understand why someone answered the way they did and what’s really going on within teams. Discover more about automatic AI follow-up questions and how they power deeper insights.
How AI branching turns surface feedback into actionable insights
AI-powered branching uses automated follow-up questions to dig deeper based on every response. If a team member rates their manager low on communication, the AI instantly asks for clarity—uncovering specifics about what’s broken, not just that something feels off.
Here’s how it works in practice:
Initial response: "I’m not satisfied with how feedback is given."
AI follow-up: "Can you share an example of feedback that felt unhelpful or unclear?"
If the issue relates to recognition, the AI might ask: "How would you like recognition to be handled instead?"
AI follow-ups make the experience feel like a genuine, two-way conversation—not a stiff, one-sided form. This shifts the dynamic, encouraging people to share more honestly and in greater detail.
"Can you describe a recent conversation with your manager where expectations were unclear?"
"What steps do you think your manager could take to improve feedback?"
"How would you feel about more regular one-on-ones for development?"
By probing for context, causes, and suggestions, AI-powered surveys deliver insights you cannot get from a static set of questions. This approach adapts in real time—helping reveal the ‘why’ behind every answer. Try customizing your own survey’s follow-up logic with the AI survey editor to see how flexible it can be.
Target the right questions to the right employees
Not all teams—and not all employees—should get the same manager feedback questions. To get relevant, usable input, you need to target by both team and seniority level.
For engineering, ask: "How effectively does your manager support your technical growth and autonomy?"
For sales, try: "Does your manager celebrate wins effectively and provide coaching on deals you lose?"
For customer support, ask: "How does your manager help you address challenging customer cases?"
Seniority-based targeting is critical. New hires care about onboarding, accessible feedback, and mentorship. Senior staff focus on vision, autonomy, and influence over strategy. If you send everyone the same questions, you’ll miss what’s truly impacting retention for each group.
Questions for new hires | Questions for senior staff |
"How has your manager made your onboarding experience smoother?" | "How does your manager communicate and align team strategy with company goals?" |
"Do you feel comfortable asking for help or clarification?" | "Do you feel your expertise is utilized and recognized within decision-making?" |
"Is feedback from your manager helping you ramp up faster?" | "How well does your manager remove roadblocks and support high-level success?" |
Delivering targeted surveys in-product—right within the tools your teams already use—means you can ask the right question, to the right person, right when it matters.
Transform feedback into management improvements
Sorting through open-ended manager feedback by hand is tedious, and critical patterns are often missed. That’s where AI shines—automatically sifting through hundreds of comments, finding trends, and pulling out common themes across teams, all in seconds.
"What are the recurring concerns employees have about communication with managers?"
"Which departments mention lack of career development most often?"
"Who feels unsupported, and what specific support do they seek from their manager?"
"Are there positive feedback trends we can model across other teams?"
Theme extraction by AI enables you to zoom out and see systemic issues—like gaps in recognition, development, or conflict resolution—across different teams and roles. Filter by team or job level to pinpoint exactly where improvements (or best practices!) are needed most. Explore how to analyze feedback with AI for actionable leadership changes.
Best practices for launching manager feedback surveys
Building trust is essential: psychological safety and anonymity ensure employees can give honest feedback without fear. Anonymous responses mean three times more likelihood to report true issues. Timing is key—quarterly or after major milestones works best, preventing fatigue while surfacing trends before they escalate. [3]
Multi-language support ensures every voice is heard, especially critical for global teams spread across different regions or countries.
The main objections I hear? Survey fatigue and fear of retaliation. Conversational, AI-driven formats increase response rates by making surveys feel natural, interactive, and even enjoyable—so people don’t dread them. If you’re not soliciting regular, structured manager feedback, you’re missing vital clues to morale, engagement, and talent retention.
Ready to gather meaningful manager feedback?
Conversational, AI-powered surveys make it simple to get honest, detailed manager feedback that drives real improvements. You can transform manager-employee relationships and create a healthier work environment—starting today: create your own survey.