What Are the Best Manager Feedback Survey Questions for Managers and Leaders?

Organizations with effective managers see 6x lower turnover risk. Yet most employee surveys fail to measure the specific behaviors that drive manager effectiveness. Leaders chart the organization’s strategic direction, set the tone on values and ethics, and bear accountability for organizational performance. Managers translate those strategic intentions into local actions that guide the employees they lead. Without structured feedback on both roles, blind spots persist and retention suffers.

Employee listening events about management and leadership allow employees to voice their opinions on the day-to-day experiences within their team environment and the organization as a whole. Employee surveys must measure specific, observable behaviors to identify which managers drive retention and which create turnover risk.

What should a management survey measure?

A management survey should measure specific, observable leadership behaviors: communication clarity, expectation-setting, accountability, coaching effectiveness, recognition, inclusiveness, and support for professional development. Getting to those behaviors requires measuring two dimensions: what you ask (the factors) and who you ask about (managers versus leaders). The “What” involves knowing which questions capture manager and leader effectiveness. The “Who” involves asking employees to evaluate those factors separately for managers and leaders, producing a more thorough understanding of their day-to-day interactions. For instance, we might choose to ask about growth and development, but also ask separately in what ways the employee perceives their manager and leader to be supporting that goal.

The Perceptyx People Insights Model maps 10 factors and 40 themes across the employee experience. Managers and leaders directly influence every factor, making their effectiveness measurable through targeted survey questions.

Working to deliver on the organization’s strategy, managers have two primary responsibilities: team performance and talent retention. Perceptyx research shows that Managers who focus only on performance metrics see 40% higher burnout rates, while those who prioritize comfort over results see a 25% decline in productivity. If managers focus only on retention and creating a comfortable work environment, then performance may dip. If they only focus on performance and getting every ounce of output from their team, it can lead to burnout and unwanted attrition.

Manager effectiveness questions fall into two primary buckets: manager relationship and performance management, both of which are themes in our People Insights Model. Most organizations, depending on their culture and values, will score higher in one area than another. The following are examples of some Perceptyx survey questions about the two dimensions of manager performance, which employees are asked to rank on a five-point Likert scale from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”:

What defines a strong manager relationship?

• I am comfortable discussing concerns with my manager.

• My manager supports my skill and career development.

• I fully trust my manager to act in my best interest.

• My manager treats me with respect.

• My manager actively listens to my ideas and concerns before making decisions.

• My manager creates an environment where all team members feel included.

What matters in performance management?

• My manager provides useful feedback on my performance.

• My manager clearly communicates performance expectations.

• My manager holds me accountable for tasks and deadlines that I own.

• I feel appreciated for the work I do.

• My manager coaches me to improve my skills and grow in my role.

Manager survey questions produce reliable, behavior-level data when they follow three design principles:

1. Focus the questions to make it clear who employees should have in mind as they answer the questions.

2. Ask about observable behaviors.

3. Ask about themes that connect to your leadership and manager competency models, values statement, code of conduct, or other widely communicated behavior expectations.

Beyond rating-scale items, include two or three open-ended prompts that let employees describe specific situations. Questions like “What is one thing your manager could do differently to support your success?” surface context that scores alone cannot capture. These responses help HR teams and managers understand the “why” behind favorable or unfavorable ratings.

Who should employees think about when answering survey questions?

Employees should evaluate the manager with whom they have the most direct, day-to-day contact. Because most employees interact with multiple leaders and managers, survey questions need to specify which person the respondent should have in mind. For that reason, it’s advisable to define what you mean by “manager.” Do you mean the person to whom the employee goes for guidance when they encounter a problem at work? Or the person who conducts their performance evaluations? Definitions can be built into the questions themselves, or they can be provided as dynamic instructions on each survey page.

Why focus on observable behavior?

Ask about observable behaviors only. Questions about abstract qualities force employees to guess, producing unreliable data.

Instead of asking employees to rate a vague statement like “I feel my manager is effective in supervising my work,” use observable behavior questions like these:

“My manager gives me useful feedback about my work.”

“My manager asks for my ideas and my opinions.”

Any employee should be able to say whether they agree (or disagree) that their manager is displaying the behaviors in question.

Which survey themes should align with your manager behavior expectations?

If you’ve communicated a model for expected manager behavior, use that model to guide the design of your survey questions. If you don’t have a model, think about what your organization is trying to accomplish that relies on managers for success. Define how managers should behave to support that future vision. Using this approach, you might even include some aspirational questions, asking about behaviors that leaders would like managers to exhibit, even if those behaviors have not been formally codified.

Aspirational questions often produce low baseline scores because employees are rating behaviors they haven’t yet observed consistently. Scores should improve over time as behavior expectations are more widely communicated and managers receive targeted training. Simply posing the questions guides managers to exhibit, and employees to expect, the behaviors they suggest.

Five manager behaviors predict 80% of team engagement scores:

• Setting clear expectations

• Making sure employees have the resources needed for their work

• Showing fairness to all employees they supervise

• Communicating openly and regularly to employees

• Rewarding employees for their contributions

Perceptyx AI Agents can supplement annual survey data by capturing continuous manager feedback signals through conversational listening, giving HR teams real-time visibility into which behaviors are shifting before the next survey cycle.

Effective managers canmake or break an employee’s experience at work, so ensuring your listening events are aligned to measuring the right manager behaviors is critical.

Which manager behaviors do employees widely expect?

Employees widely expect managers to show genuine personal interest, support career aspirations, and create a sense of individual connection. These expectations are reshaping how organizations design surveys: according to Perceptyx benchmark data, seventy-three percent of organizations now measure manager relationship quality in annual surveys, up from 45% in 2019. Workers under 30 are 3x more likely to seek new jobs within 30 days than older workers, driven primarily by manager relationship quality. Younger workers, in particular, have expectations regarding:

• Sense of connection to their manager

• Manager interest in and support of their career aspirations

• Feeling like they are treated as unique individuals

• Manager showing a personal interest

According to Perceptyx research, workers younger than 30 years old are more than 3x as likely to report that they have engaged in job-seeking behavior within the last 30 days than those over 30 years old, suggesting that managers are essential to retaining younger talent.

Further, employees are asking for more from managers than just guidance about how to perform their work tasks. They want:

• Meaning and purpose in their work

• Psychological safety within their team

• Belonging in the organization

When employees report that they possess all three of these characteristics, they are 24x more likely to say they have an effective manager according to Perceptyx research — suggesting that enabling managers to improve these outcomes among their direct reports produces more effective managers, and in turn improved engagement and retention across the organization.

What questions assess leadership effectiveness?

Leadership effectiveness survey questions should focus on four concepts that build or erode trust: competency, communication, consistency, and care for people. Most employee surveys fail to measure leadership separately from management, missing critical insights about organizational direction and strategic confidence.

Referring to the People Insights Model can give us the “What” to identify what factors are most important to consider asking employees about, using the Leader as the “who” to be evaluated. Perceptyx research has uncovered four key concepts that build or erode trust in leadership, especially during times of change.

To measure the effectiveness of the leadership team, survey questions should focus on these four key concepts:

Clarity about the strategy, confidence in leaders’ ability to execute the strategy, and clear communication about what is going on in the company influence employee engagement.

These strategic drivers of engagement sit solidly in the purview of executive leaders and are typically included in leader-focused questions in employee surveys. No other leader group can have as much impact on these aspects of organizational life.

More recently, again in response to changing employee expectations, new themes are emerging in employee survey questions that focus on leaders:

• Visibility of leaders: Do employees see them and know who they are?

• Social responsibility of the company: Do leaders guide the organization in doing what is right for the planet and the communities they serve?

• Inclusiveness: Do leaders exhibit core inclusive behaviors and use their voices to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace?

What should you ask about management and leadership?

Manager and leadership survey questions identify specific behavior gaps that drive turnover. Organizations that measure and act on these insights reduce regrettable attrition by 30-40%.

To put these insights into practice, start by auditing your current survey against the behavioral dimensions covered in this article. Identify whether your questions distinguish between managers and leaders, focus on observable actions, and align with your organization's stated expectations. Then build a listening cadence that pairs annual surveys with shorter pulse checks to track progress on the gaps you uncover.

With a comprehensive portfolio of listening products and expertise in survey design and listening strategy, Perceptyx can help you identify what you should be asking employees to improve your employee experience.Explore Perceptyx's manager effectiveness solutions to get started.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many questions should a manager feedback survey include?

Keep the survey to 25–40 rating-scale items plus two or three open-ended prompts. This length covers key themes — relationship, performance management, communication, and trust — without causing survey fatigue.

How often should we run a manager feedback survey?

Run a full survey once a year to track trends, then send short quarterly pulse surveys (5–10 questions) to monitor progress on action plans. The annual survey establishes your baseline across key themes such as relationship quality, communication, and trust. Quarterly pulses let you catch early warning signs between full cycles, so managers can course-correct before issues affect retention.

Which rating scale works best for manager feedback items?

A five-point Likert scale (strongly agree to strongly disagree) gives employees enough range to express nuanced opinions while keeping the survey easy to complete. It also aligns with industry benchmarks, so you can compare your scores against external data. Perceptyx uses this scale across its manager effectiveness surveys for exactly these reasons.

How do we keep employee responses confidential?

Use a survey tool that masks individual answers and reports only aggregated data, usually for groups of five or more respondents. State this rule in the invitation so employees feel safe giving honest feedback.

What Open-Ended Questions Should a Manager Feedback Survey Include?

Limit open-ended prompts to two or three per survey to protect response rates. Focus each prompt on a specific behavior or outcome rather than asking broadly about the manager overall. Strong examples include:

• What is one thing your manager does that helps you do your best work?

• What is one change your manager could make to better support your growth or development?

• Is there anything else about your experience with your manager that you would like to share?

Open-ended questions capture context that rating scales miss. They help managers understand the reasoning behind their scores and give HR teams specific language to use in coaching conversations.

What Makes Employee Feedback About a Manager Useful Rather Than Vague?

Useful feedback describes a specific behavior and its impact. Vague feedback describes a general feeling. Compare these two responses to an open-ended prompt asking what a manager could improve:

• Vague: “My manager could communicate better.”

• Specific: “My manager sets deadlines during our team meeting but rarely explains the reasoning behind them, which makes it hard to prioritize when two deadlines conflict.”

The second response gives the manager a concrete behavior to change. Survey design drives this difference: questions that ask about observable actions, rather than abstract qualities, prompt employees to write more specific answers. That is why Perceptyx structures both rating items and open-ended prompts around behaviors rather than general impressions.