Trust in Senior Leadership Survey

This template measures employee confidence in senior leaders' integrity, transparency, consistency, and decision-making. It also includes an eNPS-style trust question and a follow-up asking for the primary reason behind the score. That combination helps you identify the specific engagement driver behind trust, rather than only capturing a headline rating.

Use it after major announcements, reorganizations, leadership changes, policy shifts, or other moments that can affect employee confidence. It also works as a quarterly or semiannual pulse if you want to track trust trends over time. If you need a broad annual engagement survey, this template is narrower than a full engagement instrument and should be paired with other sections.

HR, People Ops, or an internal communications team typically runs it, often with senior leadership alignment on how results will be reviewed and acted on. If anonymity is important, the survey should be administered with an anonymity guarantee and clear communication about who can see results. Managers should not be asked to collect responses directly.

Anonymity should be the default for this template because trust questions are sensitive and employees are more likely to answer honestly when they feel protected. If you choose to identify respondents, do so only when there is a clear business reason and a transparent explanation of how data will be used. Avoid collecting demographics before the trust questions, since that can reduce response quality.

For a pulse survey, monthly or quarterly cadence is usually easier for employees to sustain than weekly repetition, which can create fatigue. If you are tracking the impact of a specific leadership event, send it shortly after the event and then again after action has been taken. Keep the cadence consistent so changes in trust are easier to interpret.

A common mistake is asking only for a score without the open-ended reason, which leaves you with no explanation for low trust. Another is using leading or loaded wording that pushes employees toward a positive answer. It is also a mistake to bury the trust questions under unrelated sections or to ask demographics first, because that can signal that anonymity is not real.

Yes, but keep the core trust dimensions intact so you can compare results over time. You can tailor the wording to match your leadership structure, add a question about communication during change, or adjust the open feedback prompt to fit a specific event. Avoid changing the scale format or turning the survey into a general satisfaction form, since that weakens trend tracking.

An ad-hoc form can collect comments, but it usually lacks a consistent scale and follow-up structure, which makes it hard to track trust over time. This template gives you a repeatable measure, a reason-for-score prompt, and open feedback that can be compared across launches or leadership events. That makes it more useful for identifying whether trust is improving, holding steady, or eroding.

Look for patterns in the open-ended reasons behind low or mixed scores, especially around transparency, consistency, and decision rationale. Then translate those findings into a short action plan senior leaders can communicate back to employees. If the survey is repeated, use the same questions so you can see whether actions changed the trust signal.