Form questions

Pulse survey questions

Ask six to eight, every month, and change nothing between rounds. Three are never cut: whether people know what is expected, whether they feel safe raising a problem, and one open question. The rest of this page is the rotating slot and the alternatives you cycle through it quarter by quarter.

A pulse survey works because the questions never change, so the interesting thing is the line rather than this month's number. Six fixed statements, one workload question and one rotating topic is the whole instrument, and adding to it breaks the point of it.

The questions

The six that never change

  1. I know what is expected of meRating gridRequired

    The six fixed statements live in one grid on a one to five agreement scale, so the whole core takes about thirty seconds.

  2. I have the tools I needRating gridRequired

  3. My manager listensRating gridRequired

  4. I feel safe raising problemsRating gridRequired

    The row that moves first when something is going wrong somewhere in the company. Never cut it to shorten the survey.

  5. I would recommend working hereRating gridRequired

  6. I see myself here in a yearRating gridRequired

Workload and load

  1. My workload this month wasSingle choiceRequired

    Too light, about right, heavy but manageable, unsustainable. Four words that do more than a five point scale here.

  2. How many days did you work late this month?Single choice

  3. Did you take the leave you planned to take?Single choice

  4. How often were you interrupted from focused work?Single choice

The rotating topic

  1. This month's topic: how well did the new process work?Single choice

    One rotating slot, one topic, replaced each month. Two rotating questions turn a pulse into a short engagement survey.

  2. This month's topic: how clear was the change we announced?Single choice

  3. This month's topic: how useful was the training you did?Single choice

  4. This month's topic: how well is the new tool working for you?Single choice

  5. This month's topic: how well did the busy period go?Single choice

Open and segment

  1. One thing that would make next month betterLong text

  2. Did anything happen this month we should know about?Long text

    Wins count. A pulse that only collects problems is read as a complaints box and answered by the unhappy half.

  3. Your teamDropdownRequired

    The only segment worth recording. A team under five responses is never reported on its own.

  4. Is it OK for a manager to follow up with your team about these answers?Single choiceRequired

  5. How long have you been here?Dropdown

    Optional and worth skipping in a small company, where tenure plus team identifies people.

Which questions to make required

The six fixed statements, the workload question, the team and the follow up permission are required, because those are the fields the monthly chart and the follow up conversation are built from. Both open questions stay optional, and that is deliberate: making them compulsory in a survey that runs twelve times a year is how a two minute pulse turns into something people stop opening by March.

The form built from these questions

A static copy of the finished form, from its own example page.

Page 1 of 6

Your team *

The only segment we record. A team under five responses is never reported on its own.

↵Enter

Three ways to change this bank

For a shift based team, swap the interruption question for two shift ones: whether the roster was published far enough ahead, and whether the shift was properly staffed. Both change month to month in a way office questions do not, so they trend well. For a shorter version, run the six statement grid and nothing else. Thirty seconds, once a month, and it still supports the only chart anybody looks at. For a follow up wave, do not survey again. Publish the six numbers within a week, name the one thing being done about the lowest of them, and let the next month's round be the follow up. A pulse that is never reported back is answered by fewer people every month until it quietly dies.

Questions people ask

How often should a pulse survey run?

Monthly is the usual rhythm and the one most teams can sustain. Weekly produces noise and fatigue; quarterly is just a short engagement survey. Whatever cadence you pick, keep it fixed, because a pulse skipped for two months is read as a signal about the company rather than about the calendar.

How many questions can a pulse carry?

Six to eight, and the six fixed statements should be most of that. Every extra question is paid for twelve times a year. The discipline is in the rotating slot: one topic per month, replaced rather than added to, or the survey grows a question a quarter until nobody answers it.

Is a pulse survey anonymous?

It can collect nothing but the team, which is as close as a form gets. The risk is in reporting rather than collection, so set a floor of five responses before a team is shown separately and say that floor out loud on the first screen. People answer honestly when they know the rule.

What response rate should I expect?

High at first and then falling, unless results are published. The fall is the measurement: a pulse rate that drops for three months running is telling you the loop is not closed. Publishing six numbers and one action within a week of each round is what holds it steady.

Why must the questions stay identical?

Because the value of a pulse is the trend, and a reworded statement is a new statement. A row changed from my manager listens to my manager listens to my ideas will move several points on its own, and the chart then shows a change nobody made. Improve the wording once, then freeze it.

Should managers see their own team's pulse?

Yes, above the reporting floor, and with the written answers handled carefully because they are passed on as typed. The permission question matters here: asking whether a manager may follow up at team level gives people a way to say no without opting out of the whole survey.

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Other question banks

Employee engagement survey questions

An engagement survey earns its length only if every statement belongs to a section somebody owns and can act on. Built as five grids rather than forty loose questions, the results arrive already sorted into the conversations that follow them.

Manager effectiveness survey questions

Upward feedback is only worth collecting when the person answering believes it is anonymous, and belief comes from the form rather than from a promise in the invitation email. No name field, no email field, no login, and every statement about behaviour somebody could have watched.

Self assessment questions

A self assessment is the only part of a review written by the person who was actually there. It works when it asks for evidence rather than adjectives, which is why the goals section is a table with a result and a source for every line.

On writing the questions themselves, read How to write survey questions. For everything the builder can do, see the form maker. Step by step: Create a conversational form with AI, then View, export and manage your responses.

Sources

Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .