Getting meaningful insights from an employee survey template focused on culture and values requires more than just collecting responses—you need to analyze them effectively.
This guide walks you through how to extract actionable takeaways from employee culture surveys, using smart follow-up techniques to uncover the stories and behaviors that reveal what your organization truly values.
Why traditional culture surveys fail to capture real workplace dynamics
Traditional checkbox surveys about culture usually scratch the surface. People know the “right” answers when you ask them to rate statements like, “I feel respected at work” or “Our company lives its values.” The problem? These ratings rarely capture what the culture is actually like.
Employees tend to give socially acceptable answers, especially when the survey is about hot topics like diversity, inclusion, or trust. The result? Lots of 7/10s with little you can act on. Real culture shows up in specific stories and behaviors—not in generic ratings. For instance, learning that someone’s proudest recent moment at work involved helping a struggling colleague tells you more than an answer to, “How collaborative is our environment?” According to Gallup, 70% of the variance in employee engagement boils down to the manager’s day-to-day behavior, not what’s on the company poster. [2]
What actually surfaces the truth? Follow-up questions transform a static survey into a conversation. Suddenly, you’re not just collecting data, but uncovering the “why” behind every answer. As respondents tell their stories in their own words, you learn what behaviors are celebrated, tolerated, or ignored.
Essential questions for your culture survey that actually work
If you want depth, skip the “rate our culture 1-10” stuff. These question examples go further—uncovering real behaviors and moments that define your workplace experience.
“Tell me about a recent time when you felt especially proud (or frustrated) to work here. What happened?”
This surfaces real, emotional moments: outcomes of culture in practice. You want the stories, not just the superficial answer.“In your daily work, when have you seen our company values in action—or maybe contradicted? Can you walk me through what you experienced?”
This makes people reflect on lived values, anchoring their responses in observable behaviors.“Think of a coworker who really represents our culture. What did they do recently that stood out?”
By asking for specific actions, you get examples of how culture is embodied beyond leadership messaging.“What’s one unwritten rule about working here that everyone seems to know? How does it play out?”
Unwritten rules often reveal the subtext of a company’s culture—the stuff not in handbooks but that truly shapes work life.
Why do these work? They get employees sharing specifics—names, moments, actions. That’s where patterns appear, and you can see real alignment (or disconnect) between stated values and daily reality. Through automatic follow-ups, the AI survey digs deeper:
“What made that situation stand out for you?”
“How did your team respond?”
“If you could change something about how that played out, what would it be?”
Want to create a set of tailored culture questions for your team? Use the AI survey generator to design your own, including custom follow-ups for richer context.
Surface-level Questions | Deep-insight Questions |
|---|---|
How would you rate our culture on a scale from 1-10? | Describe a recent event that made you proud (or uneasy) to work here. |
Do you feel respected at work? | Can you share a story where you or a teammate lived out (or challenged) a company value? |
Measuring values alignment through behavioral questions
Values alignment doesn’t show up in your mission statement. It lives in the small, messy decisions employees make every day. Want to know if your team “walks the talk”? Ask questions that get at real workplace behaviors:
“Describe a time you faced a tough choice at work. What did you do, and what guided your decision?”
“Was there ever a moment when you felt pressured to act against the company’s stated values? What happened?”
“Tell me about a time you saw someone put our values above business goals. What impact did it have?”
Behavioral interviewing techniques work in surveys just as well as in hiring. Instead of hypothetical questions, you prompt for real situations. When someone mentions a values conflict, follow-ups help unpack the root of the tension—uncovering gaps and, sometimes, resilience stories.
AI can add qualitative nuance by probing for context. For example:
“What factors made that decision difficult?”
“How was your choice received by teammates or leaders?”
“Looking back, would you act differently now?”
If you want to dig into larger response patterns, the AI survey response analysis feature is designed to help. Here’s an example prompt for analyzing values alignment:
“Identify examples where company values conflicted with team priorities and summarize how people navigated those situations.”
“Find common themes in why employees felt proud or uneasy. What values or behaviors show up most often?”
Turning employee feedback into culture insights
The challenge isn’t getting stories; it’s making sense of dozens (or thousands) of open-ended responses from your culture survey. Analyzing qualitative feedback is where things get real—but also where insight hides.
Look for patterns in stories and behaviors across responses. Don’t fixate on word counts or sentiment alone; pay attention to the context around what’s shared. If multiple employees mention the same kind of situation—like “managers always have our backs” or “decisions get changed last minute”—you’ve found a cultural through line. The real culture lives in these recurring details.
Theme identification unlocks organizational DNA. When you see the same type of scenario play out again and again (for better or worse), you’re seeing the real operating system of your company. Patterns around recognition, conflict, autonomy, or inclusion reveal themselves in story form. Remember, 63% of U.S. employees prioritize diversity and inclusion when choosing where to work—a clear sign of shifting expectations. [3]
AI analysis can reveal unexpected connections, like how positive stories about teamwork overlap with negative ones about unclear recognition. Here are some prompts for analyzing culture survey data:
“What top three behaviors stand out as signals of our culture?”
“Where do employees’ stories about teamwork differ from leadership’s stated values?”
“Highlight any repeated challenges employees describe when trying to live our values.”
Conversational survey data gives a richer, more human picture than checkbox responses, making it much easier to spot what’s really going on before big problems surface—especially if you want to tackle disengagement, burnout, or toxic subcultures early. Unsurprisingly, 45% of employees cite toxic work environments as their reason for quitting. [4]
From insights to action: What to do with your culture data
Nothing kills trust faster than asking for honest employee feedback and doing nothing with it. Once you’ve found the themes, act on them—or all this work goes to waste, and survey fatigue goes up.
Prioritize your findings based on both frequency and impact. If you notice that stories about recognition or fairness come up repeatedly, these are high-leverage areas. When sharing findings, protect anonymity but preserve the meaning—use themes, anonymized examples, and direct quotes (with permission if needed) to highlight change opportunities for leadership and the wider team.
Follow-up surveys close the loop. By tracking whether changes make a difference, you prove you’re listening and learning. This way, culture surveys become regular conversations, not once-a-year check-ins that collect dust. You iterate and refine your questions over time using the AI survey editor—describe what’s working or missing, and the AI updates your template in seconds. Ongoing feedback is the key to building a culture of continuous improvement. The best companies know this—71% of employees are likely to stay in workplaces that value ongoing feedback. [5]
Ready to understand your workplace culture?
To truly engage employees and grow with purpose, you have to ask the right questions in the right way. Conversational surveys let your team share stories that reveal how your values are lived (or not) in day-to-day work.
Move beyond generic forms—create a survey that unlocks the stories, patterns, and behaviors that shape your organization. Want to see what’s really happening in your culture? It’s time to create your own survey.