While often seen as a big-company issue, for small businesses, where every member counts, employee disengagement is even more severe. When someone checks out mentally, it shows easily. Research from a consulting firm claims that disengagement and attrition cost an average-sized SandP 500 company between $228 million and $355 million a year in lost productivity. There’s limited research on how much it costs small companies, but business owners can promise: It might be much less money, but it’s still more serious than that.
The upsides are obvious. Engaged employees are more productive, stay longer, and help create a stronger workplace culture. Yet, engagement is slipping. In the U.S., the percentage of highly engaged employees dropped from 33% in late 2023 to just 30% in early 2024, which represents 4.8 million fewer people who feel truly connected to their work. For small businesses, that kind of disengagement has an outsized impact.
This article gives you a ready-to-use employee engagement survey template built specifically for small businesses. A template comes with a ready-made, structured format that you can customize and use to create consistent documents or processes. It's designed to be clear, customizable, and easy to roll out so you can start gathering meaningful feedback, take action where it matters most, and increase employee engagement.
What Is an Employee Engagement Survey?
An employee engagement survey is a structured way to measure employee sentiment: how connected, motivated, and committed your employees feel at work. It goes beyond job satisfaction, because this type of survey digs into whether people feel valued, heard, and aligned with your company’s mission and goals.
Unlike employee satisfaction surveys, which typically ask how “happy” employees are, engagement surveys focus on drivers of performance: Do people feel recognized for their work? Do they have the tools to succeed? Are they proud to be part of the team? Performance surveys, meanwhile, evaluate how well someone is doing in their role, and not how engaged they are while doing it.
The goal of an engagement survey is to understand what’s working, what’s not, and where to improve. That’s especially helpful in small teams, where one disengaged person can impact the entire group dynamic.
Most small businesses run engagement surveys once or twice a year. But you can also run quick “pulse” surveys, which are shorter, more frequent check-ins that help you spot trends and changes in morale over time.
Employee Engagement vs Employee Satisfaction: Key Differences →
Why Small Businesses Need Engagement Surveys
In small teams, every hire matters, and losing a great employee hits harder. That’s why engagement surveys are more pressing for SMBs. They help you catch early signs of disengagement before it turns into turnover.
Silent disengagement is real. Employees may not voice concerns directly, especially in close-knit teams where they don’t want to cause waves. A well-designed survey gives people a safe, structured way to share what’s going well and what’s getting in the way.
These surveys also help build a culture of transparency and trust. When employees see that their feedback is heard and acted on, they’re more likely to stay invested in the company’s success. It sends a message: your opinion matters here.
Beyond internal value, running engagement surveys makes your business look more professional. It shows that (even as a small team) you’re serious about your people, just like the big players are. That’s a powerful message to current and future employees alike.
Employee Engagement Survey Template
This ready-to-use engagement survey template is designed for small businesses that want honest, actionable feedback from their teams. It covers key areas that impact engagement, like communication, growth, and work-life balance.
How to use it: You can send this survey via Google Forms or any HR software you use. You can make it your own by taking out categories that don't apply or adding questions that are specific to your role. Here are some additional tips:
- Anonymous surveys will get more honest answers.
- Use a 5-point scale (e.g., Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree).
- Add role-specific or open-ended questions as needed but ask your employers for a single-line answer, written by them (not copy-pasted from an LLM)
- Review rSort results by category to find areas of focus.
- Make changes to placeholders like [Your Company Name] as needed.
Employee Engagement Survey
1. Workplace culture and Belonging
- I feel a strong sense of belonging at [Your Company Name].
- I am treated with respect by my colleagues.
- The company culture promotes inclusion and collaboration.
- I feel comfortable sharing ideas or concerns without fear of negative consequences.
- I believe the company genuinely cares about employee wellbeing.
2. Leadership and Communication
- Leadership clearly communicates the company's vision and goals.
- I trust the leadership team to make decisions in the best interest of the organization.
- I feel informed about important changes and updates.
- My manager communicates expectations clearly.
- I receive feedback that helps me improve and grow.
3. Role clarity and Alignment
- I understand what is expected of me in my role.
- I know how my work supports the company’s mission and strategy.
- I feel that my skills are well-matched to my job responsibilities.
- My goals are clear and achievable.
- I know who to turn to when I need support or direction.
4. Growth and Recognition
- I have access to learning and development opportunities.
- I feel encouraged to pursue professional growth.
- My contributions are acknowledged and appreciated.
- There are opportunities for advancement at [Your Company Name].
- I receive recognition when I perform well.
5. Tools, Resources and Work environment
- I have the tools and technology I need to do my job effectively.
- My physical or remote work environment supports productivity.
- I have access to the information I need to work efficiently.
- Company processes and systems support my daily work.
- I know where to go for help when I encounter a problem.
6. Work-life balance and Wellbeing
- I am able to maintain a healthy balance between work and personal life.
- I feel supported when I need flexibility for personal or family matters.
- My workload is manageable.
- I feel comfortable using my paid time off or vacation days.
- The company actively supports employee wellbeing and mental health.
Open-ended questions (optional but recommended) -Ask them to answer in a single line. If you ask for extended answers, you're risking they just paste something from an LLM.
- What’s one thing we could do to improve your experience at [Your Company Name]?
- What do you enjoy most about working here?
- What’s one change that would help you feel more supported or engaged?
- Is there anything we’re currently doing that you feel isn’t working?
Tips for Customizing the Template
No two teams are the same, and your engagement survey should reflect that. Start by reviewing the template and removing any employee engagement questions that don’t apply to your business model, team size, or current priorities. For example, if you don’t have formal career development paths in place yet, you might hold off on employee survey questions about advancement opportunities.
Next, consider adding role-specific questions for different departments. For instance, marketing teams might benefit from questions around creative autonomy, while customer support may need items focused on stress, tools, or ticket volume. If you’re using the same form across the company, use conditional logic in your survey tool to show or hide sections based on role.
Finally, don’t skip open-ended questions. Such surveys allow employees to share what’s not covered by multiple-choice responses, and could bring out the most valuable insights about employee experience. You don’t need many. Even just one or two per section will work.
The more tailored your survey feels, the more likely employees are to take it seriously, and the more useful your results will be.
What to Do With the Survey Results
Gathering employee feedback is valuable but not enough. Acting on it is what really drives engagement. Once you’ve collected responses, begin by organizing the data into categories that match your survey structure: leadership, communication, role clarity, growth, tools, and work-life balance.
From there, move to transparency. Sharing the results with your team—at least in summary—shows that you’re serious about listening. You don’t need to disclose every comment, but you should highlight key insights, both positive and constructive. A simple team meeting, internal memo, or email update can go a long way toward building trust.
The next step is turning feedback into action. Choose two or three themes to focus on, ideally, the ones that matter most to employees and are within your control to improve. Then create a straightforward action plan. This might include manager training, updating job descriptions, or improving access to resources. Give people accountable tasks and due dates to keep them open and trustworthy.
Finally, plan to run a follow-up “pulse” survey in 3 to 6 months. This helps you track progress and keep the feedback loop active.
Measure Employee Engagement with HR Software: Survey Tool for Employee Survey Questions
Running engagement surveys manually doesn’t need to be just another task on your list. With TalentHR’s employee performance feature, you can simplify feedback, track trends, and keep your finger on the pulse of employee engagement, all without adding admin overhead.
TalentHR also bundles an AI-powered employee surveys software and an interview questions generator. Regardless of if you're checking in after a big change or tracking long-term engagement, you can gather honest input through flexible, anonymous surveys. To always ask the right employee engagement survey questions, you can use built-in templates, or make your own with AI-assisted tools.
TalentHR connects engagement data to performance metrics and gives you a clearer view of how your team is doing, individually and company-wide. You can use it to find patterns in morale, figure out where people can improve, and keep track of their progress over time. The platform's automated review cycles make sure that feedback keeps coming in, so you never miss out on actionable insights.
With tools like pulse surveys and performance reviews, TalentHR helps small businesses build a continuous feedback loop that feels natural and not forced.
You can get started for free. Sign up for TalentHR. It takes seconds to set the tool up.
Employee Engagement Surveys FAQs
Q: What’s the difference between engagement and satisfaction surveys?
A: Satisfaction surveys focus on how pleased employees are with things like pay, perks, or work conditions. Engagement surveys go more in-depth and try to measure commitment. They measure emotional connection, motivation, and whether employees feel valued and aligned with the company’s purpose.
Q: Should engagement surveys be anonymous?
A: Yes, because anonymity facilitates honest, constructive feedback. When employees know their survey responses can’t be traced back to them, they might be more likely to share what they really think, especially about sensitive topics like leadership or workload.
Q: How do I increase participation in employee surveys?
A:Start by explaining why the annual employee engagement survey matters, and how the results will lead to real action. Keep it short and relevant, and send it at a time when employees aren’t overloaded. Reminders help, but what drives long-term participation is credibility: if employees see that feedback leads to visible change, they’ll keep participating.
Q: What’s the best tool for running small business surveys?
A: For simple setups, Google Forms or Typeform work well. But if you want to connect surveys with performance and engagement data, tools like TalentHR offer a more complete solution. It lets you run surveys, track trends, and connect feedback to actual outcomes, all in one place.
