Pulse survey best practices: best questions manager pulse to improve employee engagement

Getting pulse survey best practices right starts with asking the right questions – especially when checking in with employees about their managers.

Manager-employee relationships drive engagement and performance across any team.

This guide covers essential questions you can use to run more effective manager pulse surveys and boost engagement through regular check-ins.

Start with trust-building openers

Opening questions set the stage for honest feedback by fostering psychological safety. If employees feel the survey is a real conversation, they’re more likely to share meaningful insights.

Great opener questions for manager pulse surveys include:

• "How are things going with your manager lately?"

• "What's one thing your manager did recently that helped you succeed?"

These questions are simple, positive, and conversational. They help employees warm up, lower survey anxiety, and signal that nuanced feedback is welcome.

Starting positive creates psychological safety. Employees are less defensive and more candid if the first touchpoint feels human.

Using Specific's conversational AI follow-up questions, the tone adapts based on employee responses – making people feel genuinely heard. A conversational format feels like a friendly check-in, not an interrogation, which reduces survey fatigue and builds long-term trust.

Assess communication and role clarity

Solid manager relationships rely on clear expectations and open lines of communication. It's no surprise: research shows managers account for 70% of the variance in engagement scores [1]. If a manager isn’t clear or present, engagement plummets.

Questions to measure manager effectiveness here:

• "How clear are you on what your manager expects from you?"

• "How well does your manager communicate team goals and priorities?"

• "When you need guidance, how accessible is your manager?"

Role clarity drives performance – when people don’t know what’s expected, stress rises, mistakes happen, and productivity drops.

Communication frequency matters too – too little means isolation; too much can feel like micromanagement. The sweet spot is regular, two-way updates where guidance never feels forced.

If an employee signals confusion or calls out communication gaps, AI-powered follow-ups can instantly probe what’s unclear and what would help – making feedback actionable, not just a box-check.

Measure feedback quality and growth support

Feedback isn’t just about annual reviews; it’s the day-to-day coaching and recognition that actually moves the needle. Employees who receive daily feedback are three times more engaged [2]. That’s a huge lever for manager impact.

Here are key questions on feedback and professional development:

• "How helpful is the feedback you receive from your manager?"

• "Does your manager support your professional development?"

• "How often does your manager recognize your contributions?"

Great managers don’t just evaluate – they actively coach. When responses indicate weak feedback or missed development opportunities, follow-up AI prompts dig deeper into what employees actually need.

The AI survey response analysis feature helps spot these patterns at scale: Which types of feedback do top teams value most? What recognition resonates? Suddenly, it’s not just anecdote; it’s a playbook for manager excellence.

Include eNPS with smart follow-ups

Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) isn’t just for brands – it’s a crucial temperature check on manager relationships. The twist? Ask directly about managers:

• "How likely are you to recommend your manager to a colleague?" (0-10 scale)

The 0-10 scale groups responses:

• Promoters (9-10): Love their manager

• Passives (7-8): Neutral

• Detractors (0-6): Unhappy and at risk

For promoters (9-10): The AI follow-up is “What makes your manager exceptional?” These answers help you understand what great looks like – so you can scale it across your org.

For detractors (0-6): The AI gently asks “What would need to change for you to rate higher?” This turns frustration into actionable suggestions – no manager left guessing.

Specific automates this process. When an employee answers the eNPS, follow-ups trigger instantly based on score, diving deeper on wins or pain points. It’s context-aware, so you get not just a number, but stories and catalysts for action – not just data for data’s sake.

End with an invitation to share more

The best surveys don’t just thank and close – they invite continued conversation and surface those unexpected gems.

Effective closing messages to use:

• "Thanks for sharing! Is there anything else about your manager or team you'd like to discuss?"

• "We appreciate your feedback. Feel free to share any other thoughts about improving your work experience."

The trick: don’t just say thanks – invite, explicitly, for more. Employees always notice when you’re still listening.

With Specific, respondents can keep chatting after the “end” of a survey, via the continued chat feature. So if someone wants to drop a story, suggest a radical idea, or flag an urgent issue, nothing slips through the cracks.

If you’re not leaving room for open dialogue, you’re missing out on the most valuable feedback. Often, the best action items are the ones you didn’t know to ask about – and that’s where this conversational format outperforms any static form.

Turn insights into action with AI analysis

Collecting feedback isn’t enough – you need to analyze, spot patterns, and close the loop with continuous improvement. That’s where Specific’s AI analysis comes in, supercharging the findings from your manager pulse surveys. Here are prompts to help you put that into practice:

Finding patterns across teams:

Show me the top 3 manager behaviors that correlate with high engagement scores

Identifying at-risk teams:

Which managers have the most detractors and what are the common themes in their feedback?

Tracking improvement:

Compare this month's manager feedback to last month – what's improving and what's declining?

AI-powered engagement surveys lead to a 35% jump in response rates and a 21% improvement in data quality – so you’re not just collecting more data, but better data [3]. Monthly or quarterly pulse surveys help you track progress and address issues proactively, not reactively.

Try the AI survey generator to create a custom manager pulse survey in minutes – tuned to your tone, audience, and real-world needs. Don’t just collect feedback – turn it into action.