8 min read
Staff Wellbeing Survey Questions for Care Providers
If you are writing a staff wellbeing survey in-house, the question set matters less than most people expect and the distribution matters far more. That said, bad questions will sink a good distribution — so here is what to ask, and what to avoid.
Ask about conditions, not satisfaction
The most common mistake is asking how satisfied or happy people are. You get a number that goes up or down and gives you nothing to act on.
Ask instead about the things that produce those feelings: whether breaks happened, whether the rota arrived in time to plan around, whether supervision took place, whether anything followed the last time someone raised a concern. Those answers point at specific changes.
The domains worth covering
A workable care-sector survey covers roughly eight areas. Fewer and you will miss something; many more and completion rates fall.
- Workload and staffing pressure — is the job doable as scheduled?
- Rota predictability — enough notice to plan a life around?
- Breaks and recovery — did they actually happen last week?
- Supervision and support — does it happen on schedule?
- Recognition — is good work noticed, including on nights and weekends?
- Psychological safety — is raising a concern safe, and does it lead anywhere?
- Emotional demand — including bereavement and difficult incidents.
- Intention to leave — the forward-looking risk measure.
Example questions that work in care settings
Keep them concrete and time-bounded. "Do you get enough support?" invites a vague answer; "In the last four weeks, how often did you take your full break on a long shift?" does not.
- In the last four weeks, how often did you take your full break on a long shift?
- How far in advance do you usually know your shifts?
- When you last raised a concern, did you find out what happened to it?
- In the last three months, has anyone at work asked how you are coping?
- After a resident died, was there any acknowledgement from the team or your manager?
- How likely is it that you will still be working here in twelve months?
Questions to avoid
Some questions actively damage a survey. Anything that could identify a respondent — exact role in a small team, precise length of service, which specific shift — will suppress honest answers even if you never intend to use it that way.
Avoid double-barrelled questions ("Do you feel supported by your manager and colleagues?"), because you cannot tell which half a low score refers to. Avoid leading phrasing. And avoid asking anything you have no intention of acting on, because it sets an expectation you will then disappoint.
Keep it under ten minutes
Length is the single biggest determinant of completion in a shift-working population. A survey that takes twenty minutes will be completed disproportionately by people with twenty minutes to spare — who are, by definition, not the ones under the most pressure.
Twenty to thirty well-chosen questions is usually enough. Resist the urge to add "while we are asking" items from other departments.
Plan the feedback before you send it
Decide in advance who will feed results back, when, and in what form — including what you will say about things you cannot change.
Surveys stop working when staff conclude nothing follows. The feedback step is not a courtesy at the end; it is what makes the next round possible.
Rather not build and run this yourself?
We design the question set around your service, chase participation across every shift, and write the report.
Every guide here ends the same way: measure before you act.
A free consultation is the quickest way to work out what measuring would tell you.