Start with purpose when developing a remote work survey

A remote work survey can explore many issues, but it’s best to focus on one area of concern. Otherwise, you run the risk of being overwhelmed with data that’s difficult to interpret. Decide at the onset what the purpose of your survey is, and use it to guide question development. Some potential purposes may include:

• Determining whether your employees wish to continue working from home
• Identifying challenges that stand in the way of remote workers’ effectiveness, productivity and efficiency
• Assessing how well your current remote work policy serves employees
• Evaluating how well you’re supporting and managing remote work employees
• Uncovering employee concerns about returning to work in person during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Revealing changes in employees’ priorities, goals and values following a temporary remote work assignment
• Monitoring changes in morale and job satisfaction among employees working entirely or partially at home
• Analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the resources you’ve provided to your remote work team

How to conduct a work from home survey

You can opt to administer surveys face-to-face or to use an online questionnaire to conduct a pulse survey. Each option has benefits and drawbacks.

Benefits of face-to-face surveys

Face-to-face surveys:

• Allow remote workers to reconnect with supervisors
• Ensure employees feel heard
• Present opportunities for follow-up questions
• Make it possible for management to take immediate action to address individual concerns

Drawbacks of face-to-face-surveys

Some potential downsides to face-to-face surveys include:

• Intimidation factor. Employees may not feel free to speak openly about their challenges. Some may try to please management with their answers, rather than provide real insight.
• Complicated scheduling. Finding time and space for your remote workers to come into the office for a meeting may be difficult, particularly if you haven’t yet reopened following a COVID-19 shutdown.
• Slow speed. Interviewing every employee will be a time-consuming process. It may be impractical if you need to quickly gather information prior to a reopen date.
• Difficulty assessing the big picture. Face-to-face surveys aren’t always ideal for assessing overarching issues. Even if the same member of the management team conducts every survey, you may struggle to spot trends and analyze all the data gathered.

Benefits of pulse surveys

Pulse surveys:

• Encourage honesty by allowing employees to remain anonymous
• Can be conducted quickly and easily
• Compile data automatically for easy review
• Allow you to explore big picture issues with ease

Drawbacks of pulse surveys

Some potential downsides to pulse surveys include:

• Reduced participation. Even if you make a survey mandatory, some employees may not respond, and these may be the same individuals who are currently struggling with remote work.
• Complicated follow-up. If the answers you receive lead to additional questions, you’ll need to conduct a second pulse survey.
• Inability to directly respond. An anonymous pulse survey won’t allow you to identify the members of your team who need increased support or more resources to succeed at working from home.
• Need for clarity. Because no one will be there to rephrase or further explain, your remote working survey questions need to be simple and precise.

Sample remote working survey questions

You may wish to use the following survey types and questions during a remote work survey.

Agreement statements

These remote working survey questions provide a list of statements and then ask whether employees:

• Strongly disagree
• Disagree
• Slightly disagree
• Neither disagree or agree
• Slightly agree
• Agree
• Strongly agree

Their format makes them beneficial for prioritizing the concerns raised. Some sample agreement statement questions include:

• I receive enough support from management while working from home.
• I clearly understand the goals and priorities of our organization.
• I have all the materials that I need to effectively work from home.
• I feel strongly connected to my team, even though we work in different locations.
• I feel as in the loop now as I did when working in the office.
• I understand the safety measures that will be in place to protect me when I return to work.
• I feel safe returning to in-person work.
• I feel able to stay home from work when I’m sick.
• I have everything I need to protect myself when I return to work.
• I feel effective coaching team members while working from home.
• I find it easy to adhere to a regular working schedule at home.
• I feel as in touch with my direct supervisor as I did while working in the office.
• I know who to turn to when I have problems while working remotely.
• I have an easy time getting in touch with my supervisor.
• I find it easy to collaborate with other team members while working from home.
• I fully understand the organization’s remote work policy.
• I know what work is expected of me on a daily basis.
• I am able to maintain a work-life balance while working remotely.
• I feel as motivated working from home as I did in the office.
• I find it easy to contribute during virtual meetings.

Free response questions

Free response questions enable employees to express themselves and come up with unique answers. They’re useful for gathering ideas directly from employees but take longer to review because every answer must be read individually.

Some sample free response questions include:

• Name one aspect of your job that you would like to stay the same when you return to in-person work.
• Name one aspect of your job that you would like to change when you return to work.
• What safety measures would you like to see in place when we reopen the office?
• What do you believe are the biggest risks to your health and safety when we return to the office?
• What resources do you need to return to work safely?
• Describe your ideal work environment.
• What do you feel are the biggest advantages of remote work?
• What do you feel are the biggest disadvantages of remote work?
• What materials do you need to work from home effectively?
• What do you struggle with most while working from home?
• What steps could be taken to improve interactions with your direct supervisor during remote work?
• What remote work tool is the most useful to you and why?
• What remote work tool is the least useful to you and why?
• What would make it easier for you to interact and collaborate with other team members?
• Name one way that we can improve communications.
• Identify one area of our remote work policy that needs improvement.
• What adaptations did you have to make to successfully work remotely?
• Describe your at-home work setup.
• If you could make any changes to your at-home work setup, what would they be?

Multiple-choice questions

With multiple-choice questions, you give employees a limited number of answers to choose from. This can speed up data analysis, but employees may struggle if none of the answers apply to them. You can overcome this by adding another answer and providing space for a free response.

Some sample multiple-choice questions include:

How often would you like to work from home?

• Every day
• Four days per week
• Three days per week
• Two days per week
• One day per week
• Never

Which type of working arrangement best suits your position?

• Fully remote work
• Fully in-office work
• Hybrid, mostly remote work
• Hybrid, mostly in-office work
• Hybrid, equal split of remote and in-office work

How do you prefer to receive feedback on your job performance while working remotely?

• In writing only
• Via video conference
• In a face-to-face meeting at the office

Which answer best reflects your feelings about virtual meetings?

• We have too many
• We have the right amount
• We don’t have enough

How do you feel about the amount of contact you have with your direct supervisor?

• My supervisor contacts me too often.
• My supervisor could contact me a little less often.
• My supervisor contacts me just the right amount.
• My supervisor could contact me a little more frequently.
• My supervisor doesn’t contact me regularly.

Rating questions

With rating questions, you ask employees to rate something on a scale from one to 10. Some things that you can assess with rating questions include:

• Usefulness of remote work tools, such as your VPN and communication tools
• Level of employee satisfaction with working from home
• Readiness of staff to return to work
• How much support employees are receiving from their direct supervisor
• Effectiveness of tech support at troubleshooting problems for remote workers

What not to ask on a remote work survey

Avoid asking about the following during a work from home survey:

• Personal matters that don’t directly relate to business, such as are you finding it hard to maintain friendships now that you’re working from home?
• Family situations, such as are your children at home with you while you work?
• Anything that may change from day to day, such as how are you feeling?
• Aspects of your remote work policy that you can’t or won’t change in response to employee feedback
• Issues that you don’t have the power to react or respond to

Remote work survey FAQs

What is a remote work survey?

A remote work survey is a set of questions related to working from home. Like an employee satisfaction survey, it allows you to uncover obstacles to success and challenges posed and solicit feedback from your team.

Should my company conduct a work from home survey?

If you have employees working remotely, a survey can benefit your company by allowing your team to feel heard. Concerns raised in multiple surveys indicate areas of potential improvement for your company’s processes and policies. The results of the survey may also identify resources that you could provide to improve the performance of your remote work team. Even if the remote work was only temporary due to COVID-19, the information gathered from a survey will help you better prepare to shift to at-home work in the event of future emergencies.

How do you evaluate employees remotely?

Remote work can complicate the employee performance review process because supervisors can’t directly observe their team. One way to overcome the challenge is to have supervisors create actionable performance goals for each team member. The evaluation can then focus on whether employees achieved those goals. Also, have employees complete a self-evaluation work from home survey to identify their own strengths and areas of improvement.

Remote Work Survey Templates for PDF & Word

Download these templates to help you determine your team’s interest in working remotely. 

*Indeed provides these examples as a courtesy to users of this site. Please note that we are not your HR or legal adviser, and none of these documents reflect current labor or employment regulations.