QuestionPunkQuestionPunk
Start free
All templates

Manager Effectiveness & Upward Feedback Survey

Captures how direct reports experience their manager's communication, feedback, recognition, and support — with a rating battery, a prioritization exercise on where to improve, and an AI follow-up that digs into the specific moment behind their satisfaction score. Built for HR teams and leaders running 360 or upward-feedback cycles.

Use this templateBrowse more templates

Sample questions

A preview of what’s in the template. Every question is editable before you launch.

11 questions · ~6 min
Q01
Message

Thanks for taking a few minutes to share honest feedback about your manager. Your responses help them grow and help us support leaders better — this is anonymous where possible and takes about 5 minutes.

Q02
MatrixRequired

How much do you agree with each statement about your manager?

6 rows × 5 columns
  • Communicates expectations clearly
  • Provides constructive feedback
  • Recognizes my contributions
  • Supports my professional growth
  • Makes fair and timely decisions
  • +1 more
Columns: Strongly disagree · Disagree · Neutral · Agree · Strongly agree
Q03
Opinion ScaleRequired

How likely are you to recommend your manager's leadership style to a peer joining your team?

Scale: 0 – 10
Min:Not at all likelyMax:Extremely likely
Q04
Rating ScaleRequired

Overall, how satisfied are you with your manager?

Range: 1 – 5
Min:Very dissatisfiedMax:Very satisfied
Q05
Multiple ChoiceRequired

In the last 3 months, how often has your manager given you feedback on your work?

  • Never
  • Rarely
  • Sometimes
  • Often
  • Every week or more
Q06
Best–Worst Trade-off (MaxDiff)Required

If your manager focused on improving one of these, which would most improve your experience at work — and which would matter least?

  • Clearer goal-setting
  • More frequent feedback
  • Recognizing achievements
  • Supporting career growth
  • Better delegation
  • Fair conflict resolution
  • Being more available
  • Stronger technical or domain guidance
Pick best & worst per setBest:Would improve my experience mostWorst:Would improve my experience least
Q07
AI Interview

Anchor on the respondent's satisfaction score and recommendation likelihood: ask them to describe a specific recent interaction with their manager that best explains that rating. If the score was low, probe what happened, what they wished the manager had done differently, and whether it's a one-off or a pattern. If the score was high, probe what specifically the manager does that works well so it can be reinforced or shared with other leaders. Avoid letting them stay abstract — push for a concrete example.

Q08
Long Text

Is there anything else about your experience working with this manager that you'd like HR or the manager to know?

Q09
Multiple Choice

How long have you been working under this manager?

  • Less than 6 months
  • 6 months to 1 year
  • 1-2 years
  • More than 2 years
  • Prefer not to say
Q10
Multiple Choice

Which department or team do you work in? (Template note: replace with your own department list before launching.)

  • (Replace with Department A)
  • (Replace with Department B)
  • (Replace with Department C)
  • Prefer not to say
Q11
Message

Thank you for your candid feedback! Your answers will be combined with your team's responses to identify patterns and coach managers — individual comments are never shared with your manager verbatim.

What’s included

  • AI follow-ups

    Adaptive probes on open-ended answers that pull out detail a static form would miss.

  • Attention checks

    Built-in safeguards against rushed answers and low-quality respondents.

  • AI-drafted copy

    Wording, ordering, and branching written by the AI — tuned to your research goal.

  • Auto report

    Themes, quotes, and a plain-English summary write themselves once responses come in.

How it compares

We reviewed the closest templates from other survey tools. Here’s what they do well — and where this template goes further.

Why this template

  • Combines a structured agreement matrix and satisfaction rating with a max-diff prioritization exercise, so HR gets both scored data and a clear signal on what to fix first.
  • An AI follow-up interview anchors on each respondent's specific satisfaction score and recommendation likelihood, probing for the concrete moment behind the number instead of leaving it as a flat rating.
  • Includes an open-ended catch-all question plus tenure and department fields, so reports can be segmented and read alongside qualitative context.
  • Built specifically for upward-feedback/360 cycles run by HR teams and leaders, with transparent prompts and automated reporting rather than a manual write-up of open comments.

Jotform

Annual Manager Self-Evaluation Form Template

This is a manager self-evaluation form, filled out by the manager about their own performance, not an upward-feedback survey from direct reports — a meaningfully different audience than what this template targets. It's a fielding-ready static form on Jotform's builder, useful for annual self-review cycles rather than 360/upward feedback. Worth including only as a reference point for the adjacent self-eval use case.

What it does well

  • Ready-to-use form builder with drag-and-drop customization
  • Fits annual self-review workflows out of the box
  • Part of a broad forms ecosystem (payments, notifications, integrations)

Where it falls short

  • Captures self-assessment, not direct-report perception, so it doesn't answer the upward-feedback question this template is built for
  • No adaptive follow-up questioning — answers are collected as submitted with no probing for specifics
  • No built-in quality scoring or automated synthesis across the manager's team

QuestionPro

Manager Effectiveness Evaluation Survey Template

A directly comparable, fielding-ready manager effectiveness template on a mainstream survey platform, likely covering communication, feedback, and support dimensions similar to this template's matrix. It relies on standard closed- and open-ended question types without adaptive interviewing. Good for benchmarking question coverage but not for uncovering the story behind a given score.

What it does well

  • Established survey platform with logic, piping, and reporting dashboards
  • Template pre-built specifically around manager effectiveness rather than generic feedback
  • Supports typical 360-style distribution and analytics

Where it falls short

  • No adaptive AI follow-up to dig into a specific low or high score — respondents answer static items only
  • No published prompt-level methodology, so how any qualitative analysis is done isn't transparent
  • No voice-based interview option for respondents who prefer speaking over typing

SurveyMonkey

40+ Manager Feedback Questions (+ Editable Survey Template)

This page is largely a question-bank/guide listing 40+ candidate questions, with an editable template attached rather than a single ready-to-field instrument — useful for inspiration but requiring assembly work before launch. It covers similar themes (communication, recognition, support) as a checklist. It doesn't include any dynamic follow-up mechanism.

What it does well

  • Large question library to draw from when building a custom survey
  • Backed by a well-known survey platform with strong distribution and analysis tools
  • Editable template lowers the barrier to getting something fielded quickly

Where it falls short

  • Primarily a question guide, not a single pre-configured fielding-ready survey — teams must pick and assemble questions themselves
  • No adaptive AI interviewing or voice interview option to explore individual responses in depth
  • No automated per-response quality scoring or auto-generated synthesis report

SurveySparrow

30+ Manager Feedback Survey Questions With Customizable Template

Similar to SurveyMonkey's offering, this is presented as a question list/guide (30+ questions) with a customizable template attached, rather than a single finished survey ready to deploy. It shares thematic overlap — feedback, communication, support — with this template's rating battery. No mention of adaptive or voice-based interviewing.

What it does well

  • Sizable question bank covering multiple facets of manager feedback
  • Customizable template can be adapted to different team structures
  • Platform supports conversational-style survey chat UI for higher completion

Where it falls short

  • Framed as a guide/question list rather than a single ready-to-field survey instrument
  • No adaptive AI follow-up that probes the specific reason behind a satisfaction or recommendation score
  • No transparent prompt methodology or automated quality scoring of open responses

Ready to launch?

Open this template in the editor. Every part is yours to change before the first respondent sees it.

Use this templateStart free