How to get honest answers from your employee feedback survey

As an HR professional or a manager, collecting feedback from employees is an essential part of your job. Whether you want to know employee satisfaction level or gather input on a specific decision, you are seeking genuine feedback. If employees lie in the surveys, the data generated reflects a distorted view of reality, and the whole research loses its meaning.

Unfortunately, employees often don't trust company surveys. It is understandable, as many organizations have a track record of asking for feedback but failing to act on it. Others promise anonymity they don't actually deliver.

Once that trust is broken (even if not by your company), it becomes increasingly difficult to gather honest opinions from employee feedback surveys.

We’ve studied this issue in depth and are ready to share practical, proven strategies to help you encourage honest, open responses from your employees.

Why employees don’t tell the truth in feedback surveys?

Surveys often don’t feel like a safe or useful place to share honest feedback. Here are top reasons why this is the case:

People think their answers are traceable

The most common reason for lying in the employee engagement surveys is fear that they are actually not anonymous. According to Visier's recent research, 37% of respondents fear that their responses, even when labeled "confidential," can be traced back to them through metadata, writing style, or small team sizes. This fear is amplified when past feedback has somehow resurfaced in meetings or got linked back to specific teams.

To further confirm this, we went through hundreds of comments from employees on various forums, and fake anonymity indeed seems to be a primary reason why people are reluctant to answer honestly or to provide any feedback in general.

Takeaway: if you collect feedback anonymously, make sure you stick to your promises. This is a way to establish trust, and get meaningful data from employee surveys over time.

They don’t believe change will happen

Employees fill surveys out, leadership skims the results, and then nothing really happens. No follow-up, no visible changes. This one of the top reasons why employees feel reluctant to share honest opinions -- 27% of respondents in a study run by Visier stated they don't believe their employer will act on their feedback in a meaningful way.

Takeaway: easier said than done, but it is an absolute must to act on feedback, in the best way possible. Big cultural changes take time, but fixing one or two smaller issues fast demonstrates that feedback drives action. It both increases the level of trust and establishes positive workplace culture.

"Being honest in these types of surveys takes too long"

Some employees aren’t holding back because of fear or distrust, they’re just busy. In fact, a study by Visier showed that 11% of employees admitted it took too much time to give thoughtful answers. When honesty feels like extra work, people default to the quickest, safest responses.

Takeaway: Keep surveys short, focused, and simple to answer. Mix in quick scales with one or two thoughtful prompts, and give employees the option to skip questions

How to encourage honest feedback from employees?

1. Explain why you are collecting feedback and how the data will be used

Employees need to understand why you’re asking for feedback, how their responses will be used, who might see their responses, and what guarantees their anonymity. For instance, research from the Journal of Business and Psychology found that when organizations provide truly anonymous feedback options, employee participation rate can increase by about 20%!

Although many HR representatives dislike anonymous feedback because they see it as “not actionable", anonymous doesn't necessarily mean vague. It just means you have to design surveys carefully, asking specific questions that produce concrete insights without requiring people to give away their personal information.

Proper anonymity: more than just “no names”

True anonymity isn’t just about leaving a name field blank. In small teams, it can be surprisingly easy to trace responses based on how someone phrases feedback or through demographic questions like department, gender, or years at the company.

Best practices to maintain anonymity of your survey:

• Avoid collecting demographic data unless absolutely necessary.
• Use an external survey platform (or anonymous link) instead of company email logins.
• Aggregate results so individual responses can’t be singled out, especially in small groups.
• Share results at a high enough level (team, department, or company-wide) to preserve confidentiality.
• Limit access to raw data. Only a small, trusted team should handle the responses.

2. Ask better questions, get realer answers

It turns out, the way you phrase a question can make or break the honesty of the answer.

Take this real finding from a behavioral study by Time: participants were asked to sell a faulty device. When the buyer asked directly, “What problems does it have?”, most people disclosed the issue. But when the question was softened to “It doesn’t have any problems, does it?”, honest answers dropped. And when it was vague like “What can you tell me about it?”, the truth disappeared at all.

Now let’s bring that into the work environment. Imagine asking your team, “How do you feel about leadership right now?”. Chances are, you’ll get vague responses. Polite but not necessarily honest.

But if you ask, “What’s one decision leadership made recently that frustrated you, and why?” This can actually get you true insights.

3. Don't focus on internal issues only

Too often, employee surveys focus on internal mechanics (policies, workload, tools) but ignore external factors that have a big impact on employee experience. Things like market shifts, customer frustrations, pay pressures, or even remote work dynamics can largely influence employee morale and wellbeing.

Research from Korn Ferry highlights that factors such as automation, hybrid work, and rising cost of living are clear drivers of how employees feel, something that internal surveys often miss.

For example, consider broadening the lens by asking questions like:

• Are there external factors outside of work, such as cost of living, commute, work-from-home setup that are influencing your performance or morale?
• What’s one change we could make internally that would help balance outside pressures?
• What challenges from other departments or partners are making your role more difficult?

4. Diversify the types of questions

To make surveys actually effective use a variety of question types, like scale ratings, multiple choice, open ended questions, and more. It is easier to avoid survey fatigue this way and leads to higher completion rates. Start with simpler scale questions, but make sure to follow up with open-ended format where needed, to let employees elaborate on the issues they find important.

At the same time, it is best to keep open-ended questions optional. Sometimes a respondent has nothing to add on the topic, or sometimes would just prefer not to, which is also fine. Providing freedom of control helps establish trust.

How to create an employee feedback survey?

Weavely is an AI form builder that offers a free employee feedback generator. Thanks to its AI functionality, Weavely generates smart relevant questions based on your prompt. The more details you provide, the more accurate survey you will generate. This way, you don't need to spend hours on coming up with employee survey questions. With Weavely, you can also apply your company's branding to a survey in a matter of click!

Final thoughts on employee engagement surveys:

The success of an employee engagement survey largely comes down to survey design, communication, company culture, and follow-up.

Most importantly, companies run surveys to listen, but listening is only the beginning. The real impact comes from turning those responses into action, and making sure employees see the results of their honesty reflected in the workplace around them.

Frequently asked questions

Should I run employee engagement survey in a small team?

If your team doesn't have enough people for the survey results to have any statistical significance, it is best to just have one on one conversations with your team members. Surveying employees in a small organization makes it hard to maintain anonymity. At the same time, the data set is often not enough to provide measurable data.

How to improve employee satisfaction?

Employees feel valued when workloads are fair, workplace conditions are comfortable, the tools provided actually make work easier, and contributions are recognized in meaningful ways. Career growth opportunities also strengthen trust, which is the foundation of engagement. And if you want to measure how satisfied employees truly are, especially in a larger organization, surveys are a reliable way to track it over time.

How often should we run employee surveys?

There’s no universal rule, because frequency depends on your company’s pace of change. As McKinsey notes, the most effective people strategies are now “more personal, more tech, more human”, with priority given to continuous insight rather than static snapshots. In dynamic environments, a once-a-year survey risks missing shifts happening on a monthly or even weekly basis.

At the same time, over-surveying can cause fatigue and reduce honesty. A balanced approach could be to combine quarterly pulse surveys with a more in-depth annual survey. Just as importantly, don’t rely on surveys alone. Sometimes the most valuable insights come from a candid chat, not a form.

What tools are best for creating employee surveys?

AI-powered tools like Weavely’s Employee Feedback Generator save time by producing relevant, well-phrased questions based on your needs. Unlike generic templates, these surveys can be tailored quickly and even branded to match your company’s identity.

Are anonymous surveys really better?

Yes, research shows response rates can be up to 20% higher when surveys are truly anonymous. Anonymity encourages honesty, but it must be genuine. Avoid collecting unnecessary demographic data, and make sure employees know exactly how their privacy is protected.

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