This article will guide you how to create an employee survey about communication effectiveness. With Specific, you can build a conversational AI survey in seconds—no expertise needed.
Steps to create a survey for employees about communication effectiveness
If you want to save time, just generate a survey with Specific now. Here’s how easy it is:
Tell what survey you want.
Done.
You honestly don’t even need to read further. Our AI leverages expert knowledge to instantly generate your survey. It also goes beyond static forms by asking respondents smart follow-up questions—so you’ll get insights, not just numbers. For complete flexibility, you can always customize your surveys from scratch too.
Why employee surveys on communication effectiveness matter
We can’t improve what we don’t measure, and communication within companies is a perfect example of this. Look at the facts: Only 13% of employees strongly agree their organization communicates effectively [2]. That’s staggeringly low! It means most teams feel out of the loop, uncertain, or even mistrustful. If you’re not running these surveys, you’re missing out on:
Pinpointing where miscommunication leads to delays and errors
Understanding gaps between leadership intentions and employee perceptions
Reducing expensive mistakes—since miscommunication can cost small companies $420,000 per year [3]
Retaining talent—because companies with good internal communication are 25% more likely to have lower turnover [4]
Organizations that prioritize the importance of employee recognition surveys and feedback gain a real competitive advantage. Effective measurement helps build trust, foster engagement, and drive better outcomes for everyone.[2][3][4]
What makes a good survey on communication effectiveness
Not every survey is created equal. High-quality employee communication surveys use clear, unbiased questions that get to the heart of real issues. You want every participant to feel comfortable and understood—so a conversational tone is critical. Questions should be simple to interpret, never leading, and avoid jargon or technical language that could confuse your audience.
Let’s face it: The ultimate measure of a good survey is the combination of response quantity and quality. High participation rates mean it was accessible and engaging; thoughtful, complete responses mean your questions resonated and didn’t feel like busywork.
Bad practices | Good practices |
|---|---|
Loaded or ambiguous wording | Neutral, precise, and clear questions |
Long or confusing introductions | Conversational, welcoming intro |
One-size-fits-all: no follow-ups | Smart followups for deeper insights |
Focus only on quantitative data | Mix of open-ended & structured |
To truly know if your survey works, check your completion rates and see whether people share real stories or just click random options. If you need inspiration, take a look at our best questions for employee communication effectiveness survey guide.
Types of questions for employee survey about communication effectiveness
Let’s talk about what great surveys include. You need a mix of question types to paint a full picture of employee sentiment.
Open-ended questions allow people to express themselves in their own words—perfect for uncovering specific stories, barriers, or suggestions. They work best when you want to invite honest, thoughtful feedback or find out “why” someone feels a certain way. For example:
What’s the main communication challenge you’ve faced in the last month?
How could internal messages be clearer or more relevant to you?
Single-select multiple-choice questions are great when you want structured, easy-to-analyze data, or to gauge prevalence of specific attitudes. You should use these when comparing departments, tracking trends, or finding common issues. Example:
How satisfied are you with communication from leadership?
Very satisfied
Somewhat satisfied
Neutral
Somewhat dissatisfied
Very dissatisfied
NPS (Net Promoter Score) question provides a quantitative read on overall sentiment and highlights extremes. It’s especially handy for benchmarking and comparing over time. For a ready-to-use template, check out our NPS survey for employee communication effectiveness. Example:
On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend this company’s communication practices to a colleague?
Followup questions to uncover "the why". Open with a quantitative or multiple-choice, but dig deeper by asking about the reasons behind the answer. This turns responses into actionable insights—and it keeps the survey dynamic, not static. For instance:
What could improve your satisfaction with communication here?
Want to go deeper? Our complete guide to effective employee communication survey questions and tips is packed with more sample questions.
What is a conversational survey?
Conversational surveys feel like a natural chat—not a boring homework assignment. Traditional surveys ask every respondent the same static questions, in the same order, ignoring their individual context. In contrast, AI-generated surveys (like those made in Specific) adapt in real time, with follow-up questions tuned to each participant’s answers.
Manual surveys | AI-generated surveys |
|---|---|
Static question list | Dynamic, adaptive questions |
No follow-ups or canned ones | Context-aware, relevant follow-ups |
Time-consuming to build and edit | Created or updated in seconds with AI |
Disengaging, form-like experience | Feels like a friendly chat |
Why use AI for employee surveys?
AI-generated surveys aren’t just faster—they’re fundamentally better at uncovering real employee sentiment. No other method lets you personalize in real-time, probe for detail, or analyze responses so quickly. If you’re searching for an AI survey example or want to see a new approach, give this a try in Specific. The conversational experience makes feedback gathering smooth for both creator and respondent.
If you want to learn more about rapid survey creation, see our full how-to guide on building employee communication surveys.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are where the magic happens. Instead of collecting shallow responses that leave you guessing, automated follow-ups drill down for clarity or examples—saving hours of email back-and-forth. Specific uses AI to generate these follow-ups in real time, just like a skilled interviewer, resulting in richer, more actionable insights and a genuinely conversational survey flow.
Employee: “Sometimes I don't understand leadership updates.”
AI follow-up: “Can you share a recent update that was unclear? What made it confusing?”
How many followups to ask? Two or three are usually enough—you want to reach the root cause without overwhelming respondents. Specific has settings so you can let AI stop asking once the answer is clear, or skip ahead if someone doesn’t have more to say.
This makes it a conversational survey. Each follow-up builds on the previous answer, making it feel like a two-way chat rather than a robotic Q&A.
AI-powered analysis. Effortless insight discovery. Even if you end up with lots of open-ended responses, it’s incredibly easy to analyze answers with AI. See our guide for quick steps and real examples.
Conversational, automated followups are a new standard—try generating a survey with these features and see the difference for yourself.
See this communication effectiveness survey example now
Jump in and experience a smarter, more insightful way to collect employee feedback. Unlock higher-quality, actionable insights instantly with Specific’s conversational AI survey builder—designed for teams that want real clarity without the hassle.