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Onboarding Survey Questions for New Hires

Fourteen questions for a new hire a month in. Take it, copy any block, or open it in the editor.

  • 14questions
  • About 4 minto complete
  • Day 30when to send it
  • New hiresanswer it
Use this template Take the survey first
Onboarding Survey · answer to move through it
Use this template
Question 1 of 14 What the job is
I could describe what my job is for by the end of my first week.
1
2
3
4
5
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Question 2 of 14 What the job is
Somebody has told me what a good first three months looks like.
1
2
3
4
5
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Question 3 of 14 What the job is
The job so far matches how it was described to me when I was hired.
1
2
3
4
5
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Question 4 of 14 Whether you can do it
I am confident about the parts of the job I have done so far.
1
2
3
4
5
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Question 5 of 14 Whether you can do it
The training I have had prepared me for the work I am actually doing.
1
2
3
4
5
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Question 6 of 14 Whether you can do it
I know who to ask when I get stuck.
1
2
3
4
5
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Question 7 of 14 Whether the team has taken you in
My team has made room for me.
1
2
3
4
5
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Question 8 of 14 Whether the team has taken you in
I have had a conversation here that was not about a task.
1
2
3
4
5
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Question 9 of 14 Whether the team has taken you in
I know what the people around me are working on.
1
2
3
4
5
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree
Question 10 of 14 The first days
When did your accounts, logins and equipment first all work?
Before my first day
On my first day
During my first week
Later than my first week
Something still does not work
Question 11 of 14 The first days
Who did you turn to most in your first two weeks?
My manager
A buddy or mentor I was given
Someone else on my team
Someone in another team
The people who hired me
I worked it out on my own
Question 12 of 14 In your own words
What would have made your first week easier?
Question 13 of 14 In your own words
What did you have to work out for yourself that somebody could have simply told you?
Question 14 of 14 The closing rating
So far, joining here has gone the way I expected it to.
1
2
3
4
5
Strongly disagreeStrongly agree

The 14 onboarding survey questions, block by block

An onboarding survey asks a new hire how the first weeks of a job went: what the job is, whether they can do it and whether the team has taken them in. This one is for day 30, when all three can be answered. It has fourteen questions and takes about 4 minutes.

Plain text, one question per line, with the answer scale.

What the job is

Three statements a new hire can judge by day 30.

  1. I could describe what my job is for by the end of my first week.5-point agree, 1 to 5
  2. Somebody has told me what a good first three months looks like.5-point agree, 1 to 5A disagree here is fixed by somebody saying it out loud.
  3. The job so far matches how it was described to me when I was hired.5-point agree, 1 to 5Compares the job with its description, not the recruiter.

Whether you can do it

Confidence in work already done, not work still to come.

  1. I am confident about the parts of the job I have done so far.5-point agree, 1 to 5
  2. The training I have had prepared me for the work I am actually doing.5-point agree, 1 to 5
  3. I know who to ask when I get stuck.5-point agree, 1 to 5A disagree is a missing name, not a missing course.

Whether the team has taken you in

The slowest of the three to become answerable.

  1. My team has made room for me.5-point agree, 1 to 5
  2. I have had a conversation here that was not about a task.5-point agree, 1 to 5An event, not a feeling, so the answer can be checked.
  3. I know what the people around me are working on.5-point agree, 1 to 5

The first days

Two facts about a window they have only just left.

  1. When did your accounts, logins and equipment first all work?Choose one of fiveAsks when it worked, not whether. A yes hides the waiting.
  2. Who did you turn to most in your first two weeks?Choose one of sixA routing fact. The last option is the one to count.

In their own words, then one rating

Both boxes are optional and sit before the closing rating.

  1. What would have made your first week easier?Open text, optional
  2. What did you have to work out for yourself that somebody could have simply told you?Open text, optionalEvery answer is a line missing from your checklist.
  3. So far, joining here has gone the way I expected it to.5-point agree, 1 to 5

Swap set: sending on day 1 instead

Replaces the first three blocks. Nothing about the job has happened yet.

  1. Everything I had to do before my first day arrived in time to do it.5-point agree, 1 to 5 swap set, not in the template
  2. I knew where to be, and who to find, before my first day.5-point agree, 1 to 5 swap set, not in the template
  3. By the end of today I had met the people I will work with most.5-point agree, 1 to 5 swap set, not in the template
  4. I know what I am doing tomorrow.5-point agree, 1 to 5 swap set, not in the template

Swap set: sending at day 90 instead

Replaces the first-days block, which by day 90 is memory.

  1. The work I am doing now is the work I was hired to do.5-point agree, 1 to 5 swap set, not in the template
  2. Someone has talked with me about how my first three months went.5-point agree, 1 to 5 swap set, not in the template
  3. I could explain to a new starter how decisions get made here.5-point agree, 1 to 5 swap set, not in the templateThe one item worth waiting ninety days for.

How to use the onboarding survey

Open the template in the online survey tool, reword any stem, and send it to each new hire thirty days after their own start date. Someone who joined on the 28th is not asked on day three. The three blocks follow what research on newcomer adjustment measures across 70 samples: role clarity, confidence in the work and acceptance by the team.[1]

A start-date group is small, so name who reads the answers at the top of the form and ask no demographics. It is confidential, not anonymous. Read the two written answers the day they arrive. For the ratings, count the disagrees on each question and fix the highest count first. To send on day 1 or day 90, swap in the sets at the end of the bank.

An empty desk with a laptop and chair beside a flat calendar grid, with three points joined in a line running across it and a marker standing on the last one
A start date, the days after it, and the one this page sends on.

Onboarding survey FAQ

How many onboarding survey questions should you ask?

Fourteen for one send, about 4 minutes. A list of forty or eighty is several sends in one. Choose your moment and ask only the questions that belong to it.

When should you send an onboarding survey?

At day 30 if you send one. By then a new hire can judge the job, their own confidence and the team. Use the day-1 set for a first-day check and the day-90 set for a probation review.

What is the difference between an onboarding survey and an orientation survey?

An orientation survey rates one induction event. An onboarding survey rates the first weeks of the job itself, and is answered long after any event has finished.

Related templates

The manager who made the hire can answer the hiring manager recruitment survey. Candidates get the interview feedback survey. Where the word is induction, use the induction feedback survey template. After the first year, the employee pulse survey questions take over. A leaver gets the exit interview questions. Other moments in a career have their own pages in the employee survey templates.

EmployeeEmployee Engagement SurveyThe whole-organization read: an engagement index, its six drivers and one recommend question.20 questions, 6 min EmployeeInduction Feedback FormThe same job in British and Australian vocabulary, built around a repeating cadence rather than one send.11 questions, 3 min EmployeeCandidate Experience SurveyEverything up to the offer being accepted, asked of people you hired and people you did not.12 questions, 3 min EmployeeEmployee Pulse SurveyThe short check between annual surveys: five to ten questions, weekly to monthly, read as a trend.9 questions, 3 to 4 min EmployeeExit Interview SurveyWhen someone has resigned: the one answer you get from them, read across a quarter rather than on its own.14 questions, 4 min EmployeeMentor Matching QuestionnaireWhen new starters need a mentor and you want the pairs matched on goals and availability.14 questions, 5 min

Michael Hodge, survey methodology · Updated 29 September 2026 · How templates are reviewed

Sources (1)
  1. Bauer, T. N., Bodner, T., Erdogan, B., Truxillo, D. M. and Tucker, J. S. "Newcomer adjustment during organizational socialization: A meta-analytic review of antecedents, outcomes, and methods." Journal of Applied Psychology 92, no. 3 (2007): 707-721. The abstract reports 70 unique samples of newcomers and defines adjustment as role clarity, self-efficacy and social acceptance. PDXScholar

Ask your new hires how it went

Fourteen questions, about 4 minutes, ready to send at day 30.

Use this template