This article will guide you how to create an employee survey about manager support, the easiest way — just use Specific. You can generate your own survey in seconds.
Steps to create a survey for employees about manager support
If you want to save time, just generate a survey with Specific. Creating surveys for employees with AI is incredibly easy and efficient — here’s exactly how it works:
Tell what survey you want.
Done.
Honestly, that’s it. You don’t even need to read further if you just want a great employee survey about manager support fast. AI draws from expert knowledge to build your questions, and — here’s the kicker — it will even ask respondents follow-up questions during the survey, helping you gather deeper insights automatically. If you want to build any survey from scratch, you can use this survey maker to customize your own.
Why manager support surveys matter for employees
Let’s be direct: if you’re not surveying employees about manager support, you’re missing out on critical insights that affect your organization’s success and retention. Here’s why:
Manager support drives engagement: According to Gallup’s 2025 State of the Workplace, 70% of team engagement is directly linked to the manager, meaning just one person can sway an entire team’s morale or productivity. [1]
Development gaps hurt performance: Yet, 44% of managers have received no training at all. [1] If you never ask employees, you won’t see where support is lacking or spot issues early.
If you skip employee feedback surveys, opportunities fly out the window. Employees crave a voice and want support from their leaders. A whopping 92% believe feedback is essential for business efficiency, but only 25% feel their company does it effectively. [2] Not gathering input means you’re missing clear signals about what’s working, where managers need help, and where employees feel unheard.
The importance of employee recognition surveys and the benefits of regular employee feedback aren’t just buzzwords—they directly drive engagement, retention, and satisfaction. Without data, you risk blind spots in culture and performance, and struggle to attract or keep top talent. Implementing an employee survey on manager support turns gut feelings into actionable insight.
What makes a good manager support survey?
A good employee survey about manager support is clear, unbiased, and uses a conversational tone—so people answer honestly. The best surveys aren’t just a list of formal questions; they engage people like a real conversation, so respondents feel safe sharing both praise and criticism.
You want quality and quantity: high response rate, and answers with real depth. Generic or loaded questions result in junk data, while unclear instructions mean few people respond. Here’s how it looks in practice:
Bad practices | Good practices |
|---|---|
Ambiguous or leading questions | Clear, neutral phrasing |
Stiff, formal tone | Conversational, friendly tone |
No follow-up questions | Exploratory follow-ups |
The measure of a good survey? Both a high rate of participation and meaningful, actionable feedback. Always aim for surveys that feel welcoming and spark real dialogue. If this sounds daunting, remember: a conversational AI survey handles most of this for you.
Question types and examples for an employee survey about manager support
Great surveys mix question types to dig into manager support from multiple angles. Here’s how we break them down:
Open-ended questions let employees tell their story in their own words, which is perfect for uncovering details or unanticipated themes. Use these when you want honest, nuanced feedback — especially about specific experiences or improvement ideas. Here are two open-ended question examples:
“Can you describe a time your manager went above and beyond to support you?”
“In what areas could your manager provide you with better support?”
Single-select multiple-choice questions are efficient for quantifying opinions or tracking change over time. They’re great for questions where you want a quick, structured answer. Example:
“How often do you receive helpful feedback from your manager?”
Frequently
Occasionally
Rarely
Never
NPS (Net Promoter Score) question is ideal for measuring overall sentiment about manager support in a single, comparable number, making benchmarking easy. If you want to add an NPS question to your employee survey on manager support, try this NPS survey generator. Example:
“How likely are you to recommend your manager to other employees seeking support?” (0-10 scale)
Followup questions to uncover "the why". Open-ended, single-select, or NPS questions alone might not give context. That’s where real-time followups shine: after an answer, the survey automatically asks clarifying “why” or “how” questions, helping you dig deeper. Example:
Employee: “I rarely receive feedback.”
Follow-up: “Can you tell us more about how this affects your work or what would help?”
To see more question examples, best practices, and creative ways to phrase manager support survey questions, check out this detailed guide for survey creators.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey uses AI to make the feedback process feel like chatting with a thoughtful interviewer, not filling out a cold form. Each response can trigger smart follow-up questions, and the survey adapts in real time, drawing richer insights from employees. This is a game changer compared to old, static survey forms—less friction, higher participation, and more actionable answers.
The difference is clear:
Manual surveys | AI-generated surveys |
|---|---|
Static, pre-set questions | Dynamically adapts questions |
Manual analysis needed | AI instantly summarizes, finds insights |
Lower engagement rates | Higher completion and more thoughtful answers |
Why use AI for employee surveys? The best reason: it removes hassle while raising quality. Instead of wrestling with forms or templates, you describe your survey in plain English and get a guided, expert-quality interview backed by the latest research. Plus, tools like Specific offer the best-in-class user experience for conversational surveys—both for creators and respondents. The feedback loop feels smooth, natural, and genuinely useful.
If you want to understand how to create a great conversational survey for employees on manager support, we’ve covered the process step by step in this article.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are the heart of conversational, AI-driven surveys. Instead of leaving answers vague or incomplete, smart surveys dynamically probe for clarity—just like an expert interviewer would. See how automatic AI follow-up questions in Specific elevate your response quality and insight depth.
Employee: “My manager could improve communication.”
AI follow-up: “Can you share a recent example of where communication fell short or what you would have needed instead?”
Without that follow-up, you end up with unclear statements—was it feedback frequency, tone, or response time? Automated followups surface the specifics, so you can actually fix what matters, instead of guessing. They also save you from endless back-and-forth emails, making the whole process much smoother for everyone.
How many followups to ask? Usually, 2-3 followup questions after an initial response brings enough clarity. Give employees the option to skip or move to the next topic once you’ve gathered the insight you need. Specific lets you define these settings, so the conversation stays purposeful without bogging anyone down.
This makes it a conversational survey: real-time followups transform a rigid survey into a flowing conversation, unlocking honesty and detail that static forms rarely touch.
Survey response analysis is easy with AI: once you have responses, even if they’re mostly unstructured text, analyzing everything is a breeze. See how AI-response analysis works for manager support surveys — it can instantly highlight trends, themes, and outlier opinions, so you spend less time sifting through data and more time acting on what matters.
We recommend you try generating a survey and see the experience—automated, contextual followups will surprise you with how easy and effective they make feedback collection.
See this manager support survey example now
Get a firsthand look at how conversational AI surveys make employee feedback easy, actionable, and insightful—no friction, just better results. See for yourself and create your own survey in seconds with expert-level depth and clarity.