Form questions
Diversity and inclusion survey questions that start with belonging
Twenty two questions is a full annual instrument and twelve works as a shorter round. Three should never be dropped: whether people can be themselves at work, whether their ideas get the same hearing as anyone else in the room, and whether they believe the promotion process is fair. The first two measure inclusion and the third measures whether it has any consequences.
An inclusion survey that opens with demographics tells people they are being counted before they are being asked anything. These questions start with what the workplace is like to be in, move to the processes that decide who gets ahead, and leave the optional demographic questions until the end.
The questions
Belonging
I can be myself at workRating gridRequired
Row one of a five point agreement grid. The plainest inclusion question there is.
My ideas get the same hearing as anyone else in the roomRating gridRequired
Row two. An observable behaviour, not a statement about values.
I am invited to the conversations that affect my workRating gridRequired
Row three.
Someone here would speak up if I were treated unfairlyRating gridRequired
Row four. It measures the bystanders, who decide whether a culture holds.
I can raise a concern about respect without it costing meRating gridRequired
Row five.
How comfortable would you be raising a concern with your own manager?Single choice
Very comfortable to very uncomfortable, with prefer not to say.
Do you feel you have to hide something about yourself at work?Single choice
Yes, sometimes, no, prefer not to say. Do not ask what it is.
Fairness of process
How fair is hiring and interviewing here?Rating gridRequired
Row one of a fairness grid running very unfair to very fair, with a neutral middle for people who have never been through it.
How fair is promotion?Rating gridRequired
Row two. Usually the lowest scoring row, and the one that predicts leaving.
How fair is pay and the pay review?Rating gridRequired
Row three.
How fair is access to interesting work?Rating gridRequired
Row four. Work allocation is where inclusion is decided long before promotion is.
How fair is the handling of flexible working requests?Rating gridRequired
Row five.
In the last year, have you seen someone treated unfairly here because of who they are?Single choice
Yes, no, not sure, prefer not to say. Never ask who.
If you had seen it, would you know how to report it?Single choice
Yes and I would use it, yes but I would not use it, no, prefer not to say. The middle option is the finding.
Have you been passed over for something you were ready for?Single choice
What would change it
What one change would make this a more inclusive place to work?Long text
Say plainly in a paragraph above the field that individuals should not be named.
Which of these would you actually use?Multiple choice
Mentoring, sponsorship, a staff network, flexible hours, accessible facilities, none of these.
Has anything the company did this year made a real difference?Single choice
Yes, no, I did not notice anything. The third option is the most common and the most useful.
About you, all optional
Which age group are you in?Dropdown
Every option list in this section ends with prefer not to say.
How do you describe your gender?Dropdown
Include an I use another term option as well as prefer not to say.
Do you identify as a person with disability?Dropdown
Yes, no, prefer not to say. Do not ask for the condition.
How long have you worked here?Dropdown
Tenure cuts the belonging results more sharply than most identity questions do.
Which questions to make required
This survey is anonymous by default and carries no name field. Only the two grids are required, because a partly completed grid cannot be averaged and the grids are the survey. Every demographic question is optional, every one of them offers prefer not to say, and the form says in plain words above the section that skipping them does not weaken the response. Nothing about witnessing unfair treatment is required, because a forced answer there is the fastest way to lose a respondent who has something to report.
- I can be myself at work
- My ideas get the same hearing as anyone else in the room
- I am invited to the conversations that affect my work
- Someone here would speak up if I were treated unfairly
- I can raise a concern about respect without it costing me
- How fair is hiring and interviewing here?
- How fair is promotion?
- How fair is pay and the pay review?
- How fair is access to interesting work?
- How fair is the handling of flexible working requests?
The form built from these questions
A static copy of a form built from part of the bank, exactly as it renders.
How to change this for a different organisation
A small company. Below about eighty people, demographic cuts stop being safe and start being identification, so drop the demographic section entirely and say why. Keep both grids, add a single question about whether the person would recommend the company to someone from a background not well represented in it, and report only company wide numbers. A survey that cannot promise anonymity should not pretend to. A workplace with shift and frontline staff. Office focused wording about rooms and conversations reads as irrelevant to someone on a ward or a loading dock, so rewrite the belonging rows around shifts, rosters and crews. Add a fairness row about how shifts and overtime are allocated, which is the frontline equivalent of access to interesting work, and make sure the survey can be answered on a phone in a break room. A second round. The most useful change on a repeat run is to keep every grid row identical and add one question: whether anything the company did since the last survey made a real difference. Changing the rows to fix their wording restarts the trend line, and the trend is what makes the second round worth running at all.
Questions people ask
Why put demographic questions at the end?
Because they are the part people are most wary of. Asked first they set the tone and raise the abandon rate before anyone has answered anything useful. Asked last, after the real questions, they read as a way of cutting the results rather than as an identity check at the door.
How small a group can be reported separately?
Fifteen responses is a common floor for a demographic cut, and it should be printed where staff can read it rather than buried in a policy. Below that, report the group inside a larger one and say plainly that you have done so, because a silent suppression looks like a deleted result.
Should the survey ask who behaved badly?
No. A survey is the wrong instrument for an allegation, and inviting names turns an anonymous form into an unmanaged complaints channel with none of the protections a real process has. Ask whether people know the reporting route and whether they would use it, which is the actionable version.
Is an anonymous inclusion survey worth running in a small team?
Run it, but without demographic cuts and without team level reporting. In a team of twelve, anything more granular than a company total identifies people. A small organisation usually learns more from structured conversations than from a survey it cannot report safely.
What should be published afterwards?
The grid averages, the three lowest scoring rows, and what will be done about them with a date. Publishing nothing is the single most reliable way to halve the response rate next time, and publishing only the good rows is worse, because people can see which ones are missing.
Can this replace an engagement survey?
No, and it should not be merged into one either. An engagement survey asks about the job and the manager; this one asks about fairness and belonging. Bolting four inclusion questions onto a long engagement instrument produces answers too shallow to act on and makes both surveys harder to trend.
Should managers see their own team results?
Only where the team is large enough to clear the reporting floor, and only alongside the company average for context. A manager handed a single low score with no comparison will usually look for who wrote it, which is the opposite of what the survey was for and the fastest way to lose next year.
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