What should a good employee engagement survey measure, and how can you ensure the results lead to meaningful action?
The best employee engagement survey should be based on a rigorously researched psychological model that combines both the proven drivers of employee engagement and the characteristics of an employee who is fully engaged. At Protostar, we base our employee engagement surveys on the MOVIE Model of Employee Engagement Drivers — a research-informed framework designed from analysis of over 50,000 survey and focus group responses. This model helps ensure that surveys capture both what engagement looks like and the factors that drive it.
What Should Your Staff Survey Cover?
1. Whether Employees Are Truly Engaged
A great staff survey should directly assess employee engagement, not just satisfaction:
- Do employees feel motivated and enthusiastic about their work?
- Do they feel part of the organisation’s goals and values?
- Are they likely to speak positively about their employer to others?
These kinds of questions help determine whether engagement exists, rather than just whether people are comfortable or satisfied.
2. The Drivers of Engagement — Using the MOVIE Model
The heart of a meaningful engagement survey lies in evaluating the conditions that cause engagement. The MOVIE Model organises these drivers into clear, research-backed categories that surveys should measure:
M — Management
How employees perceive their managers — for example, support, communication quality and leadership behaviour.
O — Organisational Conditions
Whether the broader organisational environment supports engagement — including fairness in pay, meaningful work, and clarity around goals and strategy.
V — Voice & Participation
Whether employees feel psychologically safe to speak up, share ideas, raise issues and contribute to decisions that affect their work.
I — Intrinsic Motivation
Elements that make work itself rewarding: autonomy, skill use, growth opportunities, and meaningful tasks.
E — Extrinsic Factors
External aspects such as pay, benefits, working conditions, flexible working arrangements, wellbeing and work-life balance.
By including questions under each of these headings, a survey can surface which areas enable engagement and which areas may be holding it back. That makes action planning far more focused and effective.
3. Organisation-Specific Context & Tailored Insights
The very best employee surveys don’t use generic question banks. They tailor questions to your organisation’s values, culture, known priorities and challenges — while still anchoring them to a robust model like MOVIE. That means you capture what matters most to your people and your strategy.
For example:
- Onboarding experience for new starters
- Feelings about internal communication
- Experiences of inclusion and respect
- Attitudes toward career progression and development
These organisational specifics give contextual richness to the data and help leaders pinpoint where to focus improvements.
4. Actionable Metrics, Not Just Numbers
A strong survey should translate responses into meaningful metrics that aid interpretation and benchmarking — for example:
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Employee Engagement Index (EEI)— a composite score reflecting overall engagement.
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Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)— a measure of advocacy and loyalty.
Both of these go beyond simple percentages and offer comparable insights over time and across teams.
5. Clear, Behaviour-oriented Feedback
Finally, avoid generic satisfaction statements like “I like my job” without context. Instead, good surveys use positively-worded statements tied to specific behaviours and conditions, for instance, “Most days I feel motivated at work”. This makes feedback easier to interpret and link to action plans.
While you could run your staff survey in-house, this is not recommended for a range of reasons, particularly around anonymity. Feel free to contact Protostar for a no-obligation discussion about your employee survey requirements and the best way to roll it out.