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Manager Effectiveness Survey

An upward-feedback survey for direct reports to rate manager communication, support, fairness, and development across rating and open-text questions.

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Every employee gets a seat — priced per employee in Communications & Intranet, quoted with this template ready.

Rolled out to every employee at AutoZone (125,000), PetSmart (50,000+), A.S. Watson and Raley's (20,000) — and at larger retailers we are not permitted to name.

Built for: Healthcare · Manufacturing · Logistics

Overview

The Manager Effectiveness Survey is an upward feedback template for understanding how employees experience their direct manager. It covers four connected engagement-driver areas: Support, Communication, and Trust; Feedback, Coaching, and Recognition; Psychological Safety, Inclusion, and Workload Support; and Growth, Engagement, and Intent to Stay. Each area uses clear agreement statements and a follow-up asking for the primary reason behind any Disagree or Strongly disagree rating, so teams can investigate causes rather than rely on scores alone.

Use this template for a quarterly or semiannual manager review, leadership-development program, team health check, or post-reorganization listening cycle. It is especially useful when an organization wants comparable feedback across managers while preserving room for concrete examples. The open-feedback section asks what behavior strengthens effectiveness or engagement, what change would help the team, and Anything else employees want to share.

This is not a replacement for a formal performance investigation, grievance process, 360-degree review, or individual mental-health or safety report. Route allegations of harassment, retaliation, discrimination, or immediate risk through the appropriate confidential channel instead of relying on an anonymous survey. For small teams, suppress or aggregate results to protect anonymity, and do not interpret a low score without reviewing the associated reason and context.

Standards & compliance context

  • Use an anonymity guarantee that matches actual data access, retention, aggregation, and reporting practices, particularly when feedback concerns psychological safety or intent to stay.
  • Apply data-minimization and purpose-limitation principles when collecting optional demographic information, and place those questions after the substantive survey content.
  • Restrict access to raw responses and open comments to authorized reviewers, retain records only as long as needed, and follow applicable privacy and employment laws.
  • Do not use this survey as the sole channel for legally protected complaints, harassment reports, discrimination concerns, retaliation claims, or urgent workplace-safety issues.

General regulatory context for orientation only — verify current requirements with counsel or the relevant agency before relying on this template for compliance.

What's inside this template

Communication & support

  • My manager communicates clearly and keeps me informed. (required)
  • My manager is available when I need help. (required)
  • My manager treats team members fairly and consistently. (required)

Development & feedback

  • My manager gives me useful, actionable feedback. (required)
  • My manager supports my growth and career development. (required)
  • What is one thing your manager could do more of?

How to use this template

  1. Set the survey to anonymous, confirm the response-visibility and aggregation rules, and decide whether the cadence is quarterly, semiannual, or part of an annual engagement cycle.
  2. Review the four sections and adjust organization-specific language without removing the neutral five-point agreement anchors or the low-rating reason prompts.
  3. Assign the survey to employees who work closely enough with the manager to provide informed upward feedback, and explain the purpose, deadline, anonymity guarantee, and escalation route before launch.
  4. Run the survey during a defined response window, send limited reminders, and monitor response rate without identifying nonrespondents or pressuring employees to participate.
  5. Review section-level patterns, promoter, passive, and detractor distributions where applicable, open comments, and intent-to-stay signals while suppressing results that could identify individuals.
  6. Share a small number of prioritized actions with the team, assign owners and dates, and repeat the survey using stable questions so progress can be evaluated.

Best practices

  • Use a five-point Likert scale with clearly labeled anchors from Strongly disagree to Strongly agree rather than displaying raw numbers alone.
  • Keep every statement behavior-based and neutral, avoiding leading wording such as asking whether the manager is great or effective before presenting evidence.
  • Require or strongly encourage a short explanation whenever a respondent selects Disagree or Strongly disagree so detractor feedback can guide action.
  • Protect anonymity by aggregating small groups, limiting raw-comment access, and placing optional demographic questions last to reduce collection-bias and re-identification risk.
  • Keep this pulse-style survey to its four focused sections and use a separate annual engagement instrument if you need broader topics such as compensation or organizational strategy.
  • Review response rate alongside findings because low participation can signal weak trust, unclear communication, survey fatigue, or an inconvenient collection window.
  • Pair manager scores with open comments and follow-up conversations instead of ranking managers solely by a composite number.
  • Close the loop by publishing what will change, what cannot change yet, and when employees will be asked whether the action improved their experience.

What this template typically catches

Issues teams running this template most often surface in practice:

Employees report that priorities and changes are communicated inconsistently, leaving them unsure which work should take precedence.
Low ratings on manager availability and follow-through reveal support gaps that may be mistaken for individual performance problems.
Feedback is described as irregular, vague, or focused on correction without coaching, recognition, or a clear path to improvement.
Employees hesitate to raise concerns or alternative views because they expect negative consequences or believe decisions are already fixed.
Workload-support ratings expose unclear prioritization when demands rise or team capacity changes.
Growth and intent-to-stay responses show that employees do not understand how their work contributes to organizational goals or how development is supported.
Low response rate can indicate survey fatigue, weak trust in anonymity, poor timing, or a belief that prior feedback produced no action.
Open comments may surface leading assumptions, unclear question wording, or overly broad interpretations that require a manager follow-up rather than an immediate conclusion.

Common use cases

People Operations quarterly manager review
People Operations can send this survey each quarter to compare section-level trends in communication, coaching, psychological safety, and workload support. Stable questions make it easier to evaluate whether each manager's action plan improves employee experience over time.
Engineering manager transition
After a new engineering manager takes over a team, use the template as a baseline and repeat it after the first operating cycle. Pay particular attention to clarity of priorities, follow-through, psychological safety, and intent to stay while protecting the small team's anonymity.
Healthcare department workload check
A healthcare department can use the survey after staffing or scheduling changes to identify whether managers are helping employees prioritize work and raise concerns safely. Route patient-safety or harassment reports through the designated confidential process rather than treating survey comments as an incident channel.
Professional services retention review
A professional services team can combine manager-effectiveness findings with intent-to-stay responses to identify coaching, recognition, and workload-support actions. Review detractor reasons and open comments before deciding whether a retention intervention is appropriate.

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Ready to use this template?

Every employee gets a seat. Request pricing for Communications & Intranet and we quote into a workspace with Manager Effectiveness Survey ready.

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Rolled out to every employee at AutoZone (125,000), PetSmart (50,000+), A.S. Watson and Raley's (20,000) — and at larger retailers we are not permitted to name.