Benefits Survey Questions and Templates

The world of work is changing, and with it the wants and needs of your employee base. Benefits which in a different time would have proven highly desirable are on their own are no longer adequate in the face of shifting workforce priorities and a tumultuous global stage. Your people need support that extends beyond the rote basics and provides them with the tools they need to build stability and thrive.

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Industry-lead organizations in it for the long run can expect to evaluate, reprioritize, and update their employee benefits package regularly if they want to stay competitive among other top employers. Keeping up-to-date on trends in employee engagement and support can be a helpful guideline if you’re unsure of what to implement. The most effective strategy, however, lies in directly asking your employees what they want. 

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Periodic distribution of benefits surveys and engagement questionnaires can give you invaluable insight into employee sentiment, and help you to design better packages which both support employee wellbeing and affect positive stats among business concerns like retention and performance. Here’s what you need to know. 

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The importance of benefits survey questions

The aim of a robust employee benefits package should first and foremost be to support employee wellbeing so they in turn feel engaged at work and able to help drive organizational achievement. Survey responses solicited from employees themselves lets you know which benefits are most desirable, and will offer the most utility and support to your workforce. If you start from here, you will be able to:

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• Reap a positive ROI from those benefits which are actually being used.
• Efficiently allocate resources to the right benefits. 
• Quickly locate and address pain points within your benefits strategy which may impact employee performance and engagement. 
• Foster critical employee metrics like retention and performance.
• Involve employees in the decision making process, and communicate that the organization values their input and participation.

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Goals and expectations for your benefits survey questionnaire

Before you start building your survey, you must clearly define the objective of its delivery, and maintain transparency around this objective at every step of the way. The answers you hope to receive will determine the questions that end up on the final draft.

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Some goals you may set include:

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• Getting an idea of how employees feel about the current benefits package.
• Building a list of most desired benefits to influence an impending package restructure.
• Understanding the felt impact of a recent change to your benefits package.

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Defining objectives will also help to set expectations regarding execution of the survey itself. If you’re setting a goal requiring actionable answers, you need to consider how you can structure your questionnaire to prompt optimum responses. “Yes or no”-majority surveys will take less time to collect than scaled or short-answer formats, but they may offer less clear insight into employee sentiment. 

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Benefits survey questions: Sample questionnaire

Here are a few examples of questions you may choose to include on your employee benefits survey. 

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1. Do you feel satisfied with the benefits available within the current employee package?
   
   
2. Do you feel you are able to easily access and engage all relevant benefits within the current employee package?
   
   
3. Do you feel you were made adequately aware of all benefits available to you and how to use them at the start of your tenure with our company?
   
   
4. Of the benefits available in the current package, which do you engage most often? Which do you engage least often?
   
   
5. We strive to offer benefits which are competitive at the industry level. Which benefits would you like to see included in the future, especially those available at other companies?
   
   
6. Please rank benefits within the current package in terms of their importance to you (mark those which are irrelevant to you with N/A). [list benefits]
   
   
7. Please rate the quality of [benefit] on a scale of 1 to 5.
   
   
8. How does our current benefits package measure up to the package maintained by other companies for which you have worked?
   
   
9. Which areas of our benefits package do you feel supported by? Which areas do you feel need work?
   
   
10. What trends or initiatives have you noticed relating to benefits that you think our company could benefit from?

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How to deliver your benefits survey template

Once you’ve set your objectives, decided on your questions, and designed your survey, you need to deploy it to your workforce. 

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There exist a multitude of employee survey solutions you can access which provide convenient templates, metric tracking, and even pre-written questionnaires for a number of relevant business topics.

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You may choose to engage one of these solutions to your purpose, however it is important to prioritize accessibility in your final distribution. Employees without immediate internet access during work hours (storefront workers, warehouse employees, etc.) may find a paper-based survey easier to complete. 

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Tracking and distribution is also easily achievable via a simpler email format, and allows you to reach a vast majority of your employee base, even those with limited access to technology. Emails also typically garner a better response rate than application-based or paper surveys.

To gain the best of both worlds, you might engage email to ask for feedback and include a link to a structured solution-based survey elsewhere.

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Benefits survey email to employees

Here is a useful template you can engage to structure your next email-format employee benefits survey.

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Subject line: 5 Minute Survey Regarding [Company Name]’s Employee Benefits Package

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Body: 

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Hi [Employee],

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Executives and the HR team at [Company Name] are working to update the current benefits package to better support our employee base, and we’d love to know what you think.

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At the bottom of this email you’ll find a link to a pre-structured survey where we’ll ask for feedback regarding the current package, ideas for benefits to include in the future, and any other information you’d like us to take into account as we move forward with this project. 

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Your input is critical at this stage. Please complete the survey by [date] to have your voice heard. 

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With regards,

[CEO, CHRO, etc.]

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[Link to survey]

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Final thoughts: Benefits survey questions

One benefit idea you might not see suggested on your employee feedback forms is a comprehensive financial wellness solution. And that’s because many organizations don’t realize the impact their company can have on the financial wellbeing of their workforce. 

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Financial wellness benefits are often overlooked when businesses are putting together their packages. Beyond the 401K and other obligate salary and retirement benefits, organizations tend to see financial intelligence as a thing resting solely in the hands of the individual. But companies can foster better productivity and performance among their workforce by helping employees to overcome financial stress and insecurity by offering benefits which help them to better and holistically track, strategize, and manage their personal finances. 

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And this is exactly what Origin offers. Find out more about how Origin can help your company and your workforce to thrive by signing up for a free demo today.