Employee opinion survey: best questions culture and values teams need to ask for actionable insights

This article will give you the best questions for an employee opinion survey focused on culture and values, plus insights on how AI follow-ups can transform surface-level responses into actionable insights.

Understanding workplace culture requires more than yes/no answers—it needs context, stories, and the ‘why’ behind employee sentiments.

We’ll explore question types that reveal authentic perspectives on company values and cultural alignment.

Core questions to assess cultural alignment

If you want to truly understand how employees experience your company’s culture and values, you need to go deeper than typical ratings. Here are some essential questions—and why they work so well:

• How well do our company values align with your personal values?
  This question gets at the heart of cultural fit. When personal and organizational values overlap, people feel more connected, motivated, and loyal. Responses here let you spot alignment—or dangerous gaps where employees feel disconnected.
  Example AI follow-up: "What’s one value where you feel especially aligned, or where you notice a mismatch? Why?"

• Which company value resonates most with your daily work?
  This helps you see whether your stated values are actually embedded in day-to-day behaviors or just ‘wall art’. If people struggle to name a value, or choose one for show, you’ll know which need stronger integration.
  Example AI follow-up: "Can you describe a recent task or project that reflected this value?"

• Describe a recent situation where you saw our values in action
  Storytelling brings culture to life. Concrete stories give you evidence of ‘real’ values vs. aspirational ones. These answers also make it easier for AI to cluster recurring examples in analysis.
  Example AI follow-up: "Who was involved and what did they do that stood out to you?"

• What aspects of our culture make you proud to work here?
  You’ll see which cultural strengths matter most for engagement, loyalty, and advocacy. The AI can then probe for specifics and surface the actual practices or norms driving pride.
  Example AI follow-up: "If you were talking to a friend, how would you describe what makes you proud to work here?"

Just asking isn’t enough—these open-ended questions work best with AI-powered follow-ups that dig for clarity, ask for concrete examples, and keep the tone friendly and curious. The conversational approach turns one-word answers into insights you can act on.

This kind of alignment isn’t just a “nice-to-have”—research consistently shows that 88% of employees and 94% of executives believe strong company culture is key to business success [1]. Nailing these questions builds the foundation for retention and performance.

Questions that reveal cultural disconnects

To spot pain points and disconnects in your company’s culture, you have to surface honest opinions—without making people defensive. AI-powered surveys let you frame questions empathetically and probe more deeply while keeping the conversation respectful.

• What’s one thing about our culture that doesn’t match what we say we value?
  This uncovers authenticity gaps. Maybe “transparency” is a value, but decisions feel opaque. When your survey asks this (and the AI nudges respondents for examples), you move past vague gripes to specifics leadership can address.
  Example AI follow-up: "Can you describe a time when this gap was most obvious to you?"

• If you could change one aspect of how we work together, what would it be?
  This uncovers friction points and process pain—without blame. Employees often know exactly what slows them down or creates frustration, but don’t volunteer it unless asked.
  Example AI follow-up: "What’s one step we could take to make that better?"

• How comfortable do you feel expressing disagreement with leadership?
  Psychological safety is the bedrock of innovation and honest feedback. A direct question like this, followed by gauging concrete situations, shows both perception and reality.
  Example AI follow-up: "Have you ever held back feedback? What would make it easier for you to speak up?"

AI follow-ups can ask, “Can you share a specific example?” or, “What would need to change for this to improve?”—and do it without a hard edge or pressure. This is what makes automated follow-up questions so effective: they’re always curious, not confrontational.

When employees are engaged in conversational surveys instead of traditional forms, they feel heard, not interrogated. That’s where honest answers and culture-shifting insights emerge.

Don’t ignore these friction points: according to current research, only 20% of employees strongly agree they feel connected to their workplace culture [3]. If your numbers look similar, it’s time to dig deeper and close the gaps.

Measuring cultural growth and employee voice

Great culture isn’t static—it grows. To support evolution, you need to give employees “ownership” and track changes over time. That means asking future-focused questions and showing employees their voice matters. Here’s how:

• How has our culture evolved since you joined?
  Answers here offer a pulse-check on your cultural trajectory and open a window into whether changes are landing—or if values are turning into empty slogans.
  Example AI follow-up: "What’s improved for you, and where have things slipped?"

• What cultural traditions should we preserve as we grow?
  This reveals the rituals, stories, or habits that employees truly care about—not just management’s favorites.
  Example AI follow-up: "Why is this tradition important to you?"

• How could we better involve employees in shaping our culture?
  When you invite people to co-create, you boost engagement and deepen buy-in. Specific’s surveys can prompt follow-ups on realistic, actionable ways for more voices to be heard.
  Example AI follow-up: "Have you seen another company do something that inspired you? What could we try?"

Here’s a quick comparison of how traditional vs. conversational, AI-powered surveys actually capture culture:

AI-powered analysis, like Specific’s survey response analysis, connects the dots across hundreds of stories and brings out hidden cultural patterns. Instead of reading every response, managers can simply ask, “What are the biggest risks to our values right now?”—and get actionable answers in seconds.

In fact, organizations with a well-defined business strategy and culture see a competitive edge: 69% of adaptive organizations report their culture as a source of advantage [2], and 76% of employees say a strong strategy boosts work culture [1]. Regular pulse checks help keep your evolution on course.

Making culture surveys conversational

Culture is personal. For sensitive topics like values and belonging, a conversational survey format works better than rigid assessments. AI follow-ups create real dialogue—not just a box-ticking exercise.

Follow-ups make the survey a conversation, so it’s a conversational survey.

With Specific, you can tailor the survey tone to stay warm yet professional—essential when inviting personal reflections or discussing tricky subjects. The AI behind each question invites more detail gently, and lets people answer in their preferred language with automatic localization. That drives higher candor from everyone, everywhere.

Here’s how to maximize your impact when using an AI survey generator for culture feedback:

• Design open-ended questions with room for follow-up and storytelling.

• Set the AI to probe lightly—asking “why,” “can you describe a moment?” or “what would help?” at just the right time.

• Regularly deploy these surveys—ideally each quarter—to track progress and identify early warning signs of disconnect. Don’t wait for crises to ask about culture!

• Always include a closing message that invites additional thoughts, making it clear the door’s open for more feedback.

The best conversational surveys adapt in real time. If someone gives a short answer, AI can gently ask, “Could you tell me more about that experience?”—naturally surfacing stories and context you’d never get from forms alone.

Transform culture feedback into action

The right questions—paired with smart, AI-driven probing—reveal the beliefs, habits, and stories that shape your real company culture. That’s how you go beyond buzzwords and transform feedback into meaningful change.

With Specific, you get the best-in-class user experience for building conversational surveys, making every step smooth and engaging for you and your team. AI instantly summarizes responses, highlights recurring themes, and turns hundreds of raw comments into clear action items you can actually use.

If you’re not running regular culture pulse checks, you’re missing critical signals about employee engagement and retention. Why let insight slip by?

Create your own employee opinion survey and start uncovering what really drives your workplace culture.