Forty survey questions employees can answer about their managers and leadership, organized by topic, with guidance on rating scales, anonymity, upward feedback, reading results and helping managers improve.
Managers shape the daily experience of work more than almost anything else. Employees who have a supportive, fair manager are more likely to stay and do their best work. Survey questions about management give managers a view they rarely get otherwise, highlight where coaching is needed and show which managers others can learn from. For frontline teams, the direct supervisor or shift lead is often the face of the whole company.
See anonymous employee surveys for how to protect anonymity.
In many frontline businesses, employees work most closely with a shift lead or supervisor rather than the store or general manager. If so, ask about both, and make it clear which role each question refers to.
| Area | Question |
|---|---|
| Communication | My manager keeps me informed about changes that affect my work. |
| Communication | I know what is expected of me on each shift. |
| Feedback | My manager gives me feedback that helps me improve. |
| Recognition | My manager recognizes me when I do good work. |
| Fairness | My manager treats everyone on the team fairly. |
| Fairness | Schedules and shifts are assigned fairly. |
| Respect | My manager treats me with respect. |
| Support | My manager makes sure I can take my breaks. |
| Growth | My manager supports my learning and development. |
| Trust | I would feel comfortable reporting a safety or conduct concern to my manager. |
| Overall | I would recommend my manager to a friend looking for a job. |
| Open | What is one thing your manager could do differently? |
Use these as a starting point and swap in questions that match the issues your business is working on.
| Avoid | Ask instead | Why |
|---|---|---|
| “Is your manager good?” | “My manager gives me feedback that helps me improve.” | Specific behaviors are actionable |
| “Don’t you agree your manager communicates well?” | “My manager keeps me informed about changes.” | Avoids leading wording |
| “Does your manager communicate and recognize you?” | Two separate questions | One topic per question |
| “Which manager is the worst?” | Rate your own manager’s behaviors | Avoids gossip and blame |
Survey questions about management can feed into upward feedback, where employees rate their manager, or 360-degree reviews that combine feedback from employees, peers and the manager’s own supervisor. Keep upward feedback anonymous and aggregated, and pair it with coaching. See 360 review.
Compare each manager’s results with the company average and with their own past results. Look for patterns: a manager strong on recognition but weak on fairness, or a location where scores dropped after a change. Pay attention to the questions on trust, respect and raising concerns, since low scores there can signal serious problems. Avoid ranking managers publicly.
Before sharing results, ask each manager to answer the same questions about themselves. Comparing their self-ratings with their team’s ratings is often the most useful part of the exercise. Where a manager rates themselves much higher than the team does, there is a blind spot to discuss. Where the team rates them higher, it can build confidence. Keep these conversations private and supportive.
Include a core set of manager questions in your full survey once or twice a year, and add two or three to quarterly pulse surveys. Ask the same questions each time so managers can see their own trend. After a manager starts in a new team, wait a couple of months before including them, so employees have enough experience to answer.
See how to be a good manager and the engagement action plan.
Managers should share their team’s results, not hide them. A simple format works: thank the team, share two strengths and one or two areas to improve, ask what would help and commit to specific actions with a date to check back. When a manager openly accepts feedback and changes something visible, such as holding regular one-on-ones or explaining schedule decisions, trust grows quickly and the next survey usually gets more honest answers.
Very low scores on respect, fairness or feeling safe to raise concerns, especially combined with high turnover, call for more than coaching. Senior leaders or HR should look into the situation through conversations with team members and exit interview themes, while protecting anonymity. Act promptly if there are signs of harassment, discrimination or retaliation.
A retail chain added eight manager questions to its twice-yearly survey. Most store managers scored well on communication, but several scored low on “Schedules and shifts are assigned fairly.” The district manager trained store managers on a fair rotation for weekend and closing shifts and moved schedule publishing earlier. In the next pulse survey, fairness scores rose in those stores.
EZTime makes it easy to ask employees about management: send quick surveys in the company feed, reach every shift on their phones, export results to Excel and follow up with announcements. Fair scheduling tools help managers act on fairness feedback.
Specific behaviors on communication, feedback, recognition, fairness, support, development, problem solving and trust.
Yes, with results reported only for teams large enough to protect identities.
About 10–15 in a full survey, or 3–5 in a pulse survey.
Review privately, pick one or two areas, agree on actions, share themes with the team and check progress.
A five-point agreement scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree works well for statements.
EZTime runs quick surveys that reach every shift and exports results for review. For a team of 15, EZTime starts at about $30 a month ($2 per employee).