Corporate Wellness

Employee wellbeing survey in 2026: 120 sample questions +tips

Last updated on 6 Feb 2026

Time to read: 14 minutes

If you ask most leaders, they’ll tell you employee wellbeing is on their agenda. And to be fair, many organisations are investing more than they did a few years ago. The challenge is that executive confidence doesn’t always align with employee reality… and that gap can lead to underinvestment, misplaced priorities, and low impact.

Our Return on Wellbeing report found that CEOs view wellbeing as a business asset, but they often overestimate how well their employees are doing. This perception gap can be large:

76% of CEOs believe their organisation supports employees’ mental wellbeing, but only 33% of employees agree; for physical wellbeing, it’s 80% of CEOs versus 36% of employees, and for financial wellbeing, 76% versus 30%.
For physical wellbeing, it’s 80% of CEOs vs. 36% of employees.
For financial wellbeing, it’s 76% of CEOs vs. 30% of employees.

This is not just a communication issue. Many wellbeing strategies are shaped by leaders, but these often do not reflect what employees experience day to day.

Why does this gap exist? Executives often feel better than their employees do.

One reason for this disconnect is that senior leaders’ own experiences can shape their assumptions. Our research shows that 90% of CEOs rate their mental health as excellent or good. When leaders feel stable, they may think the organisation is doing enough, especially if they focus on benefits, policies, or budgets rather than how employees actually use them.

Our findings also highlight another mismatch: leaders think they set a good example for wellbeing, but employees often do not notice. While 72% of CEOs say they share their wellness journeys with staff, only 16% of employees are aware of them. This matters because visible leadership influences whether people feel safe taking breaks, using wellbeing benefits, or setting boundaries.

Employees are struggling right now

Employee feedback shows that stress is a serious issue. It is a main cause of poor wellbeing at work.

Nearly half of employees (47%) say work stress is “wrecking” their mental health, making it the top cause of emotional strain.
The report also states that 96% of employees experience work-related stress.
Even with wellbeing programmes, many employees still face heavy workloads, a fast pace, and too little recovery time, all of which harm their mental health.

Why does measuring wellbeing matter?

Employee wellbeing is complex. It includes mental, physical, emotional, social, and financial aspects. You cannot improve what you do not measure, and wellbeing is no exception.

Measuring employee wellbeing helps organisations:

Identify hidden risks such as burnout, disengagement, or presenteeism
Understand which groups or teams need additional support
Track the impact of wellbeing strategies over time
Build trust by showing employees their voices matter
Make smarter investment decisions based on real needs
Measuring wellbeing is not just about meeting compliance requirements. It is about creating a feedback loop that leads to real action.

Tip: Measure wellbeing through employees' eyes—access, experience, and impact. Do not rely solely on executive perception or spending, as this can lead to delayed or misdirected action, especially when stress and burnout threaten performance and retention. Clear metrics based on employee feedback are essential to drive meaningful results.

How to measure employee wellbeing effectively?

Measuring wellbeing is not just about collecting positive scores or running an annual survey. To be useful, it should help you find risks, set priorities, and track impact over time. This takes intention, structure, and above all, trust.

Be clear on why you’re measuring wellbeing

Before choosing questions or tools, organisations need to be clear about their purpose. Are you trying to:

Identify burnout and stress risks?
Understand why absence or turnover is rising?
Evaluate whether wellbeing benefits are working?
Support managers with better insight into team needs?
Build a long-term wellbeing strategy tied to performance?

If there is no clear goal, surveys can overwhelm rather than inform. Employees quickly spot this, reducing honesty and participation. Summing up: a focused wellbeing survey should enable decision-making by drawing on employee experience rather than just collecting data.

Measure it as a multi-dimensional experience

Employee wellbeing is not just one measure. If you focus only on mental health or engagement, you will get an incomplete and sometimes misleading picture.

Effective measurement looks across multiple, interconnected dimensions, including:

Mental and emotional wellbeing (stress, anxiety, psychological safety)
Physical wellbeing (energy, fatigue, movement, sleep)
Workload and recovery (pace, pressure, ability to disconnect)
Work-life balance and flexibility
Social wellbeing (belonging, relationships, inclusion)
Manager and leadership support
Access to and use of wellbeing resources

This matters because wellbeing issues often overlap and have root causes beyond individual resilience. For example, high stress might result from workload or management style. The key takeaway: measuring only one aspect can lead to addressing symptoms rather than underlying issues.

Use regular surveys, not one-off snapshots

Annual surveys are useful for benchmarking, but they are too slow to catch risks. Stress, burnout, and disengagement can rise in just weeks, not years.

Best-practice organisations use a mixed approach:

Annual or bi-annual surveys to establish baseline trends
Quarterly or monthly pulse surveys to monitor pressure points
Thematic surveys during periods of change (restructuring, growth, return-to-office shifts)

Short, frequent check-ins help you spot patterns early, before they show up as sickness absence, turnover, or lower performance.

Ask the right questions (and fewer of them)

More questions do not always lead to better insight. What matters is that questions are relevant, clear, and actionable.

Effective wellbeing questions are:

Specific (“My workload is manageable”) rather than vague (“I feel okay at work”)
Experience-based, not judgemental
Balanced, capturing both positive and negative signals
Consistent over time, so trends can be tracked

It is also important to include open-ended questions. Quantitative scores show where issues exist, but qualitative feedback explains why. Some of the best insights about culture, workload, and leadership come when employees can share their answers in their own words.

Protect anonymity and psychological safety

If employees don’t feel safe, they won’t tell the truth. And inaccurate data is worse than no data at all.

To encourage honest feedback:

Ensure anonymity is genuine, not just promised
Avoid breaking down results into groups so small they feel identifiable
Be transparent about how data will be used
Clearly separate wellbeing surveys from performance evaluation

Trust is especially important when measuring sensitive topics like mental stability, burnout, stress, or workload pressure. Employees must believe that raising concerns will not harm their careers or be ignored.

Segment data to uncover hidden risks

Headline averages can hide serious problems. Effective wellbeing measurement looks beneath the surface.

Segmenting data by role, team, tenure, location, or working pattern can reveal:

Teams at higher risk of burnout
Disparities between office-based and remote workers
Differences in wellbeing between managers and individual contributors
Pressure points linked to specific roles or functions

This helps HR leaders shift from broad wellbeing initiatives to more targeted, fairerinterventions that address specific employee needs and ensure equity.

Combine data with operational insights

Wellbeing data becomes far more powerful when combined with other people's metrics, such as:

Absence and sickness data
Turnover and retention trends
Engagement survey results
Productivity or performance indicators

Patterns often appear when these data sources are reviewed together. For example, teams with high workload stress may also have higher absence rates or lower engagement, which strengthens the case for intervention.

Close the loop: communicate, act, and measure again

One of the quickest ways to lose trust is to ask employees how they feel and then take no action.

Effective measurement follows a clear loop:

Listen – collect data through surveys
Share – communicate key findings transparently
Act – prioritise and implement changes
Review – measure again to track progress

Employees want effort, honesty, and action—not instant solutions. Even small changes, such as manager training or boundary-setting, build trust when feedback loops are closed. The takeaway: action and communication foster trust and engagement.

Treat wellbeing measurement as an ongoing strategy, not a project

The organisations that see the strongest results treat wellbeing measurement as a core business process, not a one-off initiative owned solely by HR.

That means:

Embedding wellbeing metrics into leadership dashboards
Holding managers accountable for team wellbeing trends
Using wellbeing data to inform workforce planning and job design
Reviewing wellbeing impact alongside financial performance

When wellbeing is measured regularly and followed by action, it becomes a business driver rather than a 'soft' issue. Key takeaway: consistent measurement and action establish wellbeing as vital to performance.

What is an employee wellbeing survey?

An employee wellbeing survey is a structured questionnaire that assesses how employees feel about their health, happiness, engagement, support, workload, and overall experience at work. Unlike engagement surveys, which focus on motivation and commitment, wellbeing surveys look deeper into the factors that affect an employee’s ability to perform over time.

Which sections should your survey have?

To get meaningful insights, your employee wellbeing survey should have clear, logical sections. Based on best practice, the most effective surveys include these areas:

Overall wellbeing and energy: High-level questions that capture how employees are feeling right now.
Mental and emotional health: Questions that explore stress, anxiety, emotional resilience, and psychological safety.
Workload and job demands: Understanding pressure, pace, expectations and capacity.
Work-life balance and recovery: How well employees can disconnect, rest, and manage personal commitments.
Physical health and habits: Energy levels, movement, sleep, and work-related physical strain.
Manager and leadership support: The role of managers in supporting wellbeing.
Culture, inclusion, and belonging: Whether people feel valued, respected, and safe at work.
Benefits, resources, and support: Awareness, accessibility, and perceived usefulness of wellbeing offerings.
Autonomy and flexibility: Control over work, schedules, and ways of working.
Open feedback: Space for employees to share concerns, ideas, and suggestions in their own words.

This structure helps you collect both quantitative data and qualitative insights, which together lead to real change.

120 questions your employee wellbeing survey can include

A good employee wellbeing survey does more than ask general engagement questions. To truly understand how your people feel, you need to ask focused, experience-based questions about mental, physical, emotional, and social wellbeing, as well as the workplace factors that affect them.

Here are 120 carefully designed wellbeing questions you can use to create a full survey or choose a smaller set for regular check-ins. These questions help you find wellbeing risks, discover root causes, and gather insights that lead to real, practical change.

Overall wellbeing and energy

How would you rate your overall wellbeing at work right now?
How energised do you feel during a typical workday?
How positive do you generally feel about coming to work?
To what extent does your job support your overall quality of life?
How mentally refreshed do you feel at the start of your workday?
How well do you feel able to cope with your day-to-day responsibilities?
How supportive is the work environment of your wellbeing?
How satisfied are you with your current level of wellbeing at work?
How has your wellbeing at work changed over the past six months?
How motivated do you feel in your role?
How emotionally balanced do you feel during the working week?
To what extent does your job support your long-term health?

Mental and emotional wellbeing

How often do you feel stressed at work?
How often do you feel anxious because of your job?
How supported do you feel emotionally at work?
How comfortable do you feel talking about mental health at work?
To what extent does your job negatively affect your mental health?
How often do you feel overwhelmed by your workload?
How psychologically safe do you feel within your team?
How comfortable do you feel asking for help when you need it?
To what extent does your organisation take mental health seriously?
How supported do you feel during challenging or stressful periods?
How clear are you on where to find mental health support at work?
How well does your manager understand the impact of stress on your role?
To what extent do you feel your emotional wellbeing is valued?
How well are you able to manage your stress levels at work?
How do you feel when you raise concerns about wellbeing?
To what extent does your workplace culture support mental wellbeing?

Workload and job demands

How manageable is your current workload?
How often do you complete your work within normal working hours?
How often do you feel under constant pressure at work?
How clear are the expectations of your role?
How sufficient are the resources available to help you do your job well?
How realistic do you find your deadlines?
How often do you feel stretched too thin at work?
How well do you prioritise your workload?
How much has your workload increased over the past year?
How comfortable do you feel saying no or pushing back when needed?
How sustainable do you feel your workload is in the long term?
How often do you feel you have enough time to do quality work?
How supported do you feel when workloads increase?
How well does your role allow for adequate recovery time?
How often do you experience symptoms of burnout?
To what extent does your workload impact your overall wellbeing?

Work-life balance and recovery

How easy do you find it to switch off from work outside working hours?
How would you rate your current work-life balance?
To what extent does your role allow time for rest and recovery?
How often do you feel pressure to be available outside working hours?
How easy is it for you to take breaks when you need them?
How rested do you feel when you return to work after time off?
How well are you able to manage personal commitments alongside work?
To what extent does your organisation respect personal boundaries?
How often do you feel guilty about taking time off?
How comfortable do you feel taking annual leave?
How well does your workload allow for proper recovery?
How supported do you feel when you need flexibility?
How easy is it for you to disconnect from work during the holidays?
How much does work interfere with your personal life?

Physical wellbeing and energy

How would you rate your physical health at the moment?
To what extent does your job negatively affect your physical health?
How physically energised do you feel during the workday?
How much movement do you get during a typical working day?
How often do you experience physical discomfort related to work?
How supported do you feel to stay physically active?
How well does your work environment support physical wellbeing?
How often do you get enough sleep on workdays?
How frequently do you feel physically fatigued at work?
How accessible are physical wellbeing resources at your organisation?
To what extent does your job support healthy daily habits?
How much priority does your organisation place on physical wellbeing?

Manager and leadership support

How much does your manager care about your wellbeing?
How often does your manager check in on how you’re feeling?
How supported do you feel by your manager overall?
How well does your manager encourage healthy boundaries?
To what extent does leadership demonstrate commitment to wellbeing?
How much do you trust leadership to act on wellbeing feedback?
How well-trained are managers to support employee wellbeing?
How comfortable do you feel discussing wellbeing with your manager?
How effectively does your manager recognise signs of burnout?
How well do leaders role-model healthy behaviours?
How supported do you feel during periods of organisational change?
How supportive is your manager in creating a positive team environment?

Culture, inclusion, and belonging

How strong is your sense of belonging at work?
How respected do you feel at work?
How valued do you feel for who you are?
How comfortable do you feel being yourself at work?
How inclusive do you feel your workplace culture is?
How fairly do you feel you are treated at work?
How safe do you feel expressing your opinions at work?
How well is wellbeing respected across different roles and levels?
How supported do you feel by your colleagues?
To what extent does the workplace culture support wellbeing?
How recognised do you feel for your contributions?
How connected do you feel to your team?

Benefits, resources, and support

How aware are you of the wellbeing benefits available to you?
How easy is it for you to access wellbeing benefits?
How well do existing wellbeing benefits meet your needs?
How encouraged do you feel to use wellbeing benefits?
How relevant are the wellbeing resources offered by your organisation?
How well do wellbeing benefits support your mental health?
How well do wellbeing benefits support your physical health?
How much do you trust the quality of wellbeing providers offered?
How clear are you on how to access support when needed?
How meaningful do you find the wellbeing initiatives provided?
How supported do you feel by current wellbeing programmes?
To what extent do current benefits address your wellbeing needs?

Autonomy, flexibility, and open feedback

How much control do you have over how you do your work?
How much flexibility do you have in your working hours?
How well does flexible working support your wellbeing?
How trusted do you feel to manage your own time?
How much autonomy do you have in your role?
How much does flexibility help you perform at your best?
How empowered do you feel at work?
How heard do you feel when you share feedback or concerns?
How confident are you that the organisation acts on survey results?
How strongly do you believe employee feedback leads to change?
What aspects of your job support your wellbeing the most?
What aspects of your job negatively impact your wellbeing?
What could the organisation do to better support your wellbeing?
Is there anything else you would like to share about your wellbeing at work?

I have data, now what?

Gathering the right data is just the beginning. Real results come from using those insights to take action.

The best organisations do more than measure wellbeing. They invest in solutions that address the root causes of stress, disengagement, and burnout. This means supporting physical activity, mindfulness, recovery, social connection, and healthy habits in ways that are accessible to everyone. Large-scale UK wellbeing research shows that organisations offering holistic, flexible wellbeing support achieve better results in engagement, productivity, and retention. Employees are more likely to feel supported when wellbeing solutions fit into real life, not just work.

This is where wellness programs like Wellhub make a difference.

By giving employees access to a wide range of wellbeing resources—from fitness and meditation to sleep, nutrition, and emotional support—Wellhub helps organisations translate survey insights into everyday action. Crucially, it empowers employees to choose what works for them, increasing adoption and long-term impact.

If your employee wellbeing survey has revealed gaps in energy, stress, recovery, or engagement, the next step is clear: support your people in ways that are inclusive, flexible, and evidence-based.

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