Operational efficiency survey for one team, site or department
Fifteen questions for the people inside one team, on where work waits and where the week goes. About six minutes.
- 15questions
- about 6 minto answer
- 1 teamper survey
- staffanswer it
The 15 operational efficiency survey questions
An operational efficiency survey is a short questionnaire the people in one team, site or department answer about their own week: whether work arrives ready, whether tools and approvals let it move, how often it waits, and how often it comes back. These fifteen questions are ready to send, or open them in the free online survey creator.
Who is answering
Role and tenure, both required, so every answer below can be split.
- Which of these is closest to what you do in this team?read every rating by this answer before the team total.
- How long have you worked in this team?new joiners see friction that long-timers have routed around.
What the work needs
Capacity, readiness and visibility, on one 1 to 5 line.
- In a normal week I have enough capacity to finish my work without routine overtime.
- The work that reaches me arrives with everything I need to start it.a low score points upstream, at whoever hands the work over.
- I can see the status of work in progress without having to ask anyone.chasing a status is unlogged work.
What gets in the way
Four things that can each be changed on their own.
- The tools I use let me finish a task without a workaround.the spreadsheet kept beside the system counts as a workaround.
- Approvals in my work happen quickly enough to keep the work moving.the cheapest fix here: changing an approval is a decision.
- When something unusual comes up, I know who can decide it.
- If I am away, someone else can pick up my work without a delay.scores low long before anybody is off sick.
On time, and how often it stalls
The outcome rating, then two counts and one forced choice.
- We finish work by the date we told people we would.the outcome; questions 3 to 9 explain it.
- In a normal week, how often does your work sit waiting on someone else?keep the five options identical between runs.
- In a normal week, how often do you redo work because something was wrong, missing or late?
- Which one of these costs this team the most time?one choice gives a count per category.
In your words
Two optional open answers, last.
- Describe one thing that slows this team down most weeks.
- What one change would give the team back the most time next month?one change, one month: small enough to try.
One team, a normal week: sending it and reading it
Send it to everyone in the unit, the people who feed work in included, in an ordinary week instead of at quarter end. Put the team and the period in the survey title, and say above question 1 who reads the answers and whether names stay attached.
Read question 10 first, then split the waiting and rework counts at questions 11 and 12 by the role given at question 1. Question 13 names where the time goes, and the lowest of the seven ratings at questions 3 to 9 names what to change first.
When one workflow is the subject, use the process improvement survey questions. When the tools item scores lowest, the technology survey goes deeper. How the group works together belongs to the team survey.
Operational efficiency survey FAQ
What questions should an operational efficiency survey ask?
Questions that ask about one concept at a time, as survey best practice sets out,[1] and whose answer names something to change. "How often does your work sit waiting on someone else?" comes back as a count a manager can act on.
How do surveys improve efficiency?
They show where the hours go. The people doing the work name the queue, the approval or the tool that holds it up, and question 15 collects the change they would make first. Make that change, then tell the team.
How often should you run an operational efficiency survey?
Twice a year, with the wording and the options unchanged so two runs compare. Between runs, a short employee pulse survey shows whether a change held.
Michael Hodge, survey methodology · Updated 2 October 2026 · How templates are reviewed
Sources (1)
- American Association for Public Opinion Research. "Best Practices for Survey Research." aapor.org
Ask about the week, not about efficiency
Fifteen questions, about six minutes, and every answer readable by role.
Use this template