Employee Onboarding Surveys: 4 Types + Question Templates

According to research from Jobvite, 30% of employees leave their jobs within their first 90 days. That’s why onboarding is so important. But how can you ensure your employee onboarding program encourages new hires to stick around? That’s where onboarding surveys come in.

In this article, we'll guide you on the type of questions to ask in your onboarding survey. These questions will help you get the feedback you need to create an onboarding experience that allows your new hires to succeed from their first day.

Plus, we've created a downloadable employee onboarding survey template that you can use for your own onboarding surveys.

What is an employee onboarding survey?

An employee onboarding survey helps organizations collect feedback about new hires’ onboarding experience. It gives you insights into how well your onboarding process is working.

It's more than just a questionnaire. It's a critical feedback loop in your new hire roadmap that informs and improves the onboarding process. You learn about their expectations, satisfaction, and any red flags in your workplace environment. You also get to know what they think about the culture they've just entered.

For example, you might believe your introduction to company culture is thorough, but newcomers might find it lacking in certain areas. Without a new employee survey, you’d never know.

It works because it's proactive. Instead of waiting for issues to arise, you’re actively seeking out onboarding feedback.

Why are employee onboarding surveys important?

You want your new hires to stick around, right? Here's something to think about: 69% of employees who enjoy great onboarding stay with a company for three years or more. That's a big deal.

Onboarding surveys make new hires feel like their voice and perspective matter. And when they feel heard, they stick around.

These surveys tell you more than just how onboarding is going. They can show you if your team leaders are doing a good job and if your training is on point. This info is key.

Types of onboarding surveys

You can use different types of employee onboarding surveys at different stages of onboarding. They each have different objectives, but you can also blend parts of them together. In the following sections we’ll dive into specific examples of onboarding survey questions. We’ll cover onboarding surveys about the recruiting process, orientation, employee engagement, and employee satisfaction.

Employee onboarding survey questions about recruitment

Employee onboarding survey questions about recruitment

75% of job candidates are never or rarely asked for feedback after applying for a role. Companies miss this opportunity to get valuable insights about their recruiting process.

In your onboarding survey, ask new hires how they feel about your company's recruitment process and the quality of the information they received. Employee feedback from this section will help you improve your hiring process's efficiency and attract better candidates.

1. Does the job description align with the actual role

According to data from LinkedIn, 49% of job seekers believe that job details are one of the most important parts of a job description. Ask your new hires if they feel their duties align with the job description that was presented when they first applied for the role.

Getting this right means you're more likely to attract and keep the right talent. Plus, it keeps morale high and turnover low. If your onboarding surveys point to a gap between expectation and reality, you might need to tweak job descriptions or adjust role expectations.

Example onboarding survey questions

• "Did the job description accurately match your role?"
• "Were there any responsibilities or tasks you were surprised by in your role?"
• "Is there anything about your job that wasn’t mentioned during the recruitment process but you think should have been?"
• "On a scale from 1 to 10, how accurate was the job description compared to your actual work?"
• "What changes would you suggest for the job description based on your experience?"

2. Measure candidate satisfaction

Candidate satisfaction measures an employee's satisfaction with the recruitment process. If a new hire is happy with the recruitment process, they're more likely to kick off their new role on a positive note. They'll feel confident, comfortable, and excited about what's ahead.

One effective way to measure how satisfied your new hires were with the hiring process is by using Likert scale questions.

This approach uses a scale (often five or seven points) to gauge how much someone agrees or disagrees with a statement. It’s a good way to get a read on your new hires’ experiences and feelings about the whole recruitment process.

Example onboarding survey questions

• "Rate your satisfaction with the clarity of the hiring process steps."
• "How would you rate the ease of the application process?"
• "How satisfied were you with the time it took from application to hiring decision?"
• "Rate your satisfaction with the interview process."

3. Identify areas where you can improve the recruiting process

Use onboarding surveys to ask new hires which areas of recruiting need more work and which ones they enjoyed the most. This will give you a clear idea of what's working in your recruitment process and how you can improve the areas that aren't.

For example, If someone says the interviews felt too long or the email replies were slow, you can address these issues in your company’s HR team training.

Example onboarding survey questions

• "What part of our recruitment process did you find most effective?"
• "Were there any stages in the recruitment process that you felt could be improved? Please explain."
• "How did you feel about the length of the interview process?"
• "How satisfied were you with the responsiveness of our recruiters?"
• "What suggestions do you have for improving communication between candidates and our recruiting team?"
• "Based on your experience, how could we improve our interview process?"
• "Which aspects of the recruitment process stood out to you as particularly enjoyable or helpful?"

Employee onboarding questions about orientation

When you bring new people on board, you want to make sure they start on the right foot. This is where an onboarding survey about orientation is helpful.

Short, sweet, and to the point. That's what you're going for with these surveys. You're showing you care about making everyone's start as smooth as possible.

Employee orientation introduces new hires to their team, role, and the company's basic information. In a new hire orientation survey, you can ask if they have all the necessary tools and resources to transition into their new roles seamlessly.

This section is also useful for determining if your new hire knows the company's policies, mission, and values.

1. Ask employees if they have the tools and resources they need

To ensure a smooth start, new employees need the essential information, technology, and tools to perform their jobs effectively. Ask if they were given access to all the different company platforms (e.g., email, Slack, Zoom, project management apps, etc.) for their first day of work. Also, verify whether new employees are equipped with the manual equipment they need, such as work computers and phones.

An onboarding feedback survey makes sure new employees understand exactly what is expected of them in certain situations, while also stating your company's legal obligations and defining employee rights.

Example questions

• "Were you provided with all the necessary tech and tools (e.g., email, Slack, Zoom, project management apps) on your first day?"
• "Did you receive all the manual equipment (e.g., computer, phone) required for your role? "
• "How would you rate the adequacy of the tools and resources provided to you for performing your job?"
• "Have you been given access to all the company platforms you need for your work?"
• "Have you read and signed your contract, and were you provided with the employee handbook?"
• "Is there any additional tool or resource you feel you need to perform your job effectively? Please specify."

2. Ask new hires if they have any questions

The first week on the job can be intimidating and nerve-wracking. With so much to take in; even the most seasoned professionals might hesitate to ask all the questions they may have. Often, new hires might feel overwhelmed or simply shy to speak up.

An onboarding evaluation form encourages employees to ask questions they may not have wanted to ask in person. It offers a safe space for new hires to voice their uncertainties or seek further clarification. You can use these onboarding survey questions to make sure future new hires feel adequately prepared.

Example onboarding survey questions

• "Do you have any unanswered questions about your role or responsibilities? If yes, please specify."
• "Were there any topics you wish were covered more in-depth during orientation?"
• "How comfortable do you feel asking questions during your onboarding process?"
• "Would you prefer additional resources or sessions to help clarify any aspects of your job or our company?"
• "Do you feel you clearly understand whom to approach with questions or concerns in your new role?"

New hire engagement survey questions

Include questions about engagement in your onboarding survey to measure employee satisfaction, motivation, and passion for their new roles —and influencing factors.

Do they feel they're part of something bigger? Do they feel their ideas are heard? Do they see a clear path for career growth? Gathering these insights will help you track how engagement levels change throughout a new hire's tenure.

For example, your results might reveal that your new hires feel overwhelmed and underprepared for their roles after the first 30 days. Awareness of these issues enable you to assign employee workloads accordingly and design better training for new hires.

1. Ask employees about their plans for the future

An engaged employee will be excited about their new job and what lies ahead. In contrast, disengaged employees typically don't care about the company's future and their role in it. That’s why you should ask employees about their career prospects and how they see their role within the company evolving.

This will help you understand whether employees perceive your organization as a rewarding workplace with potential for career advancement or a dead-end job. If it’s the latter, you should focus on improving your employee training and development programs and your internal mobility initiatives.

Example onboarding survey questions

• "How do you see your role evolving in the company over the next few years?"
• "Are you excited about your career prospects within our organization?"
• "What can we do to support your career goals and aspirations within the company?"
• "On a scale of 1 to 5, how motivated are you by the career development opportunities available in our company?"
• "What type of training or development programs would you be interested in to help advance your career with us?"

2. Include questions about role clarity

Role clarity means knowing what you’re supposed to do, how to do it, and how your work fits into the bigger picture of the company's goals. Unclear job expectations hurt employee engagement, accountability, and productivity.

Ask your new hires if they have a clear understanding of their responsibilities and tasks, and how their work contributes to the overall business goals.

Example onboarding survey questions

• "Do you feel you clearly understand your daily responsibilities and tasks?"
• "How confident are you about what is expected of you in your role?"
• "Can you see how your role contributes to the company's overall goals?"
• At 360Learning, we structure each new hire's onboarding with a clear outline of essential goals and checkpoints, while also encouragingindividuals to direct their own learning journey with self-paced learning.

For more details on how we organize onboarding at 360Learning, check out our onboarding playbook.

3. Pose questions about organizational alignment

Questions about alignment examine how well an employee's core values match your organization's. When folks understand and believe in your company's goals and values, they're happier and more engaged in their work.

You can further promote your organizational values by showing employees how their work directly supports key business goals.

Example onboarding survey questions

• "Do your values feel like they match our company's?"
• "How clear are the company's goals to you?"
• "How excited are you to contribute to our mission?

4. Measure employee pride

Engaged employees are your best brand ambassadors and source of positive word of mouth for recruiting. A poor experience during the onboarding process leads to low engagement and higher employee turnover.

When your employees are proud to work at your company, they are more likely to recommend their workplace to their network.

Example onboarding survey questions

• "Are you proud to work for our company?"
• "Would you recommend working here to your friends or family?"
• "What makes you proud (or not proud) to work here? Please explain."
• "On a scale of 1 to 5, how likely are you to talk positively about our company to others?"
• "What could we do to make you feel even prouder to work here?"

5. Explore the role that leadership and management play in employee engagement

Employees don't leave companies, they leave bad managers. And 82% of workers have considered leaving their jobs because of a bad manager. This shows how influential company leadership and management are to workplace sentiment and engagement.

To assess your leadership’s performance with new hires, ask employees how actively management was involved in their performance and career development during the first few months on the job.

Specific questions you can ask

• "Have you discussed your career goals with your managers?"
• "Do you receive regular performance feedback?"
• "Have your managers effectively communicated their work expectations for your role?"

General employee onboarding survey questions

Research from Gallup shows that an overwhelming 88% of organizations don't onboard well. Thankfully, there are many effective ways to improve your onboarding experience.

How do you know if you're doing it right? Start by identifying gaps, inconsistencies, or areas to optimize during the critical first 90 days of your new employee lifecycle.

1. Check in to see if new employees feel welcomed

First impressions matter. A lot. You want to make sure new employees feel like part of the team from day one. Feeling welcomed can make a huge difference. It helps new hires feel at ease and get excited about their new job. Feeling supported can positively impact a new hire's early employee experience and fosters a sense of connection and belonging. So it's crucial to find out if your onboarding program has achieved this goal.

In your survey, you can use the Likert scale method to ask new employees to rate how welcome, supported, and connected they’ve felt since starting their role.

Example onboarding survey questions

• "Did you feel welcomed on your first day?"
• "How supported do you feel by your team?"
• "Do you feel like you fit in with the company culture?"
• "How easy has it been to settle into your new job?"
• "Do you feel like you're part of the team?" 

2. Assess the effectiveness of your onboarding training

Training is the backbone of a good start. Itmakes new hires feel ready and able to tackle their new roles. But, not all employee training is created equal. It's important to check in and see if the training really hit the mark. Did it get them ready for the job at hand?

Open-ended questions are great for this. They let employees share their real thoughts on what helped, what didn’t, and what was missing.

Example onboarding survey questions

• "What was the most useful part of your onboarding training? Why?"
• "Was there anything you felt unprepared for after your training? Please explain."
• "Can you give an example of something you learned in training that you've already used in your job?"
• "Is there a topic or skill you wish had been covered in your training? What is it?"
• "How could we make our training more helpful for new employees?"

At 360Learning, we provide both standard and personalized training content for each learner, allowing new hires some flexibility in learning. Here's an example:

3. Follow up with employees about how they have adjusted to their new roles

The sooner employees adapt to their new workplace, the sooner they can perform to the fullest extent of their abilities. But it's not always smooth sailing. Inadequate employee onboarding support can damage long-term performance.

Ask new hires how they're doing, what they're struggling with, and if they feel like they fit in. Find out if they need additional support and if they have any gaps in their skills and knowledge.

Example onboarding survey questions

• "How are you feeling about your new role so far?"
• "What challenges have you faced while adjusting to your new job?"
• "Is there any additional support or training you need to feel more confident in your role?"

5 benefits of employee onboarding surveys

"Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients." Richard Branson

One way to make sure your new employees are getting off to a good start is by using employee onboarding surveys. Let's talk about why these surveys are so awesome.

Making new employees happy and stay longer

When new employees join a team, making them happy and wanting to stay is super important. Why? If they're happy, they're more likely to contribute to your organization for longer.

A good onboarding process can make new hires 82% more likely to stay with a company. Employee onboarding surveys help new hiresfeel heard and supported, boosting retention.

Finding out what works well and what needs to get better

No one's perfect, and neither is any company's onboarding process. But how do you make something better if you don't know what's broken? Or even what's already great? That's where onboarding surveys help.

"If nobody's complaining, everything must be fine." This isn't always true. Sometimes, new employees might feel too shy or worried to speak up about issues. That's why actively asking for their opinions is so important.

Helping everyone feel part of the team

Employee onboarding surveys give new hires a voice. They make new employees feel valued and important, which is a big step in feeling like part of the team.

Onboarding surveys also help spot where the team might not connect as well as it could. Maybe new hires aren’t getting enough face time with their managers, or the team introductions were rushed. Once you know, you can fix it.

You can also use 360Learning’s Discussion Forum, where everyone can share ideas and talk. It's a great way to make learning fun and let everyone have their say.

Making the onboarding process smoother

Employee onboarding surveys are key to refining new hires' introduction to your company. They aim to make sure that every aspect of onboarding, from the welcome packet to training sessions, is effective and engaging.

Staying updated with regular feedback helps your onboarding evolve with changing work expectations.

Gathering valuable feedback from new hires

Employee onboarding surveys explain how new hires experience their first days and weeks at your company.

It signals to all employees that the company is dedicated to making sure everyone has the support they need to succeed. This can significantly impact morale and the overall company culture.

New hire survey best practices

Let's discuss some best practices for designing and implementing onboarding surveys.

Asking clear and simple survey questions

Confusing or complicated questions can muddy the results, making it hard to take action. Keep it simple and straightforward to encourage honest and useful responses.

Each question should explore a single concept. For example, instead of asking, "How satisfied were you with the training and the team integration?" break it down into two separate queries.

Keeping the new hire survey short and sweet

Limit your employee onboarding surveys to essential questions only. A lengthy new hire survey can overwhelm employees or lead to rushed answers without the insight you want. Aim for an onboarding survey that takes no more than 10-15 minutes to complete.

If a question doesn't directly contribute to improving onboarding, consider leaving it out.

Making sure responses are private

Privacy concerns can deter honest feedback if employees fear identification. Clearly communicate that survey answers are anonymous and will be used solely to improve the onboarding process.

Asking for ideas on how to improve

Frame questions in a way that encourages constructive suggestions, such as, "What could we have done differently to improve your onboarding experience?"

This method pinpoints areas for enhancement and gathers practical solutions from recent participants.

Taking action on what you learn

The real power of new hire surveys lies in your actions based on the feedback. Review survey responses promptly to identify common themes or areas for improvement. After that, develop a clear, actionable plan for addressing these points.

For example, If new hires consistently feel unprepared, it's time to enhance your training materials and sessions.

When to send employee onboarding surveys

Timing is everything, especially when it comes to gathering valuable feedback from new hires. Sending a survey too early may not get useful feedback while waiting too long may miss fixing important issues.

Here are the two ideal times for sending these important surveys.

30-day onboarding survey

After 30 days, new hires have formed initial impressions unaffected by the novelty of their role. The survey should ask about their first impressions, role clarity, and training effectiveness.

90-day onboarding survey

By 90 days, employees are usually integrated into their teams and understand their roles.

This survey goes deeper, examining ongoing support, cultural integration, and opportunities for growth.

Improve your onboarding effectiveness with our free employee onboarding survey template

Want to make sure you're asking your new team members the right questions? Download our free employee onboarding survey template.

This template helps you learn about their first days at work. You'll find out what they think about their job and if they feel at ease with how things are done in the company.

With these valuable insights, you can build stronger relationships with your team and improve new hire retention.

FAQs about employee onboarding surveys

What are the 4 C's of employee onboarding?

Here are the 4 C’s of employee onboarding:

• Compliance: Making sure new hires understand company policies and legal requirements.
• Clarification: Helping new employees grasp their roles and expectations.
• Culture: Introducing new hires to the company culture and how they fit into it.
• Connection: Building relationships between new employees, their colleagues, and the company.

What is the objective of onboarding surveys?

The objective of employee onboarding surveys is to gather feedback on the new hire experience, identifying areas of success and opportunities for improvement in the onboarding process.

How do you evaluate the onboarding process?

You can evaluate the onboarding process by:

• Analyzing the feedback from onboarding surveys
• Monitoring new hire performance
• Monitoring engagement over time
• Comparing these insights against established benchmarks