Describe what you want to learn about your team, from skills and development goals to events and volunteering. Makeform turns your brief into an editable employee interest survey.
Send responses to Slack, Google Sheets, and Zapier.
Sample prompts for the survey builder
Choose a prompt, adapt it to your workforce, or send it to the builder. Each example shows a practical survey structure.
Audience
Employees choosing learning and mentoring opportunities
Format
Confidential survey with ranked learning priorities
Prompt size
295 chars
Example survey structure
Confidential survey with ranked learning priorities
Which skills would you like to develop?
Rank your top three learning priorities
Which learning formats work for you?
Would you mentor or be mentored?
What support would help you participate?
Suggested routing tags
Development interests
Event preferences
Employee-led skills
Separate willingness from availability: interest does not always mean someone can attend.
Step 1
Ask
skills, interests, formats, and availability
Step 2
Segment
group responses by topic without losing context
Step 3
Prioritize
compare enthusiasm with realistic participation
Step 4
Act
invite employees to relevant next steps
Better interest signals
Capture priority, availability, and willingness to participate so promising ideas can become realistic programs.
Let employees select several interests, then rank their favorites so mild interest does not distort priorities.
Ask office location after an in-person choice or topics after a mentoring opt-in, keeping each path relevant.
Pair topics with timing, format, frequency, and participation questions to reveal who can realistically join.
Four planning uses
Choose the closest goal, then adapt options to your organization and schedules.
Map development topics, learning formats, mentoring, and available time.
Rank activities by format, location, timing, and accessibility.
Find members and organizers without treating interest as commitment.
Discover expertise to share and projects employees want to explore.
Survey workflow
Build around one decision, test the paths, then share the result and next action.
Describe whether you are choosing training, planning events, finding club leaders, or mapping expertise. Add known choices.
Use real programs, offices, times, and formats. Add write-in choices and conditional follow-ups.
Preview paths for different roles. Let everyone choose none, suggest an idea, or explain a barrier.
Group responses by priority, availability, and format. Share what moves forward and how to receive updates.
Question design
Combine selection, priority, constraints, and open context instead of one long list.
Field guide
Use these sections to separate curiosity from commitment and uncover useful skills without making the survey an evaluation.
Survey purpose
Explain the planning decision, response setting, deadline, and follow-up. Make clear that interest is not a commitment.
Useful segments
Department, location, timezone, schedule, or role level may explain preferences. Include only fields tied to a real analysis need.
Interest inventory
Use categorized checkboxes plus none and other options, so employees are not pushed into a false preference.
Priority & intent
Ask employees to rank selected choices, then distinguish learning, attending, organizing, teaching, or leading. Each signals different intent.
Practical fit
Availability, location, format, accessibility, and support determine whether preferences are workable. Ask these only after relevant interests.
Follow-up permission
Interest does not imply permission for a directory or mailing list. Add separate opt-ins for updates, contact, matches, and skill visibility.
Related tools
Pair interest discovery with focused engagement, development, training, and event forms.
Explore connection, motivation, communication, and workplace experience.
Open toolGo deeper on goals, growth areas, learning formats, and support.
Open toolCreate a structured self-assessment for skills worth mapping further.
Open toolTranslate learning interests into role-specific training priorities.
Open toolFAQ
Practical answers for HR, people operations, and engagement teams designing a useful survey.
An employee interest survey asks what people want to learn, attend, contribute to, or lead. It can uncover skills, development topics, events, volunteering, and project preferences. Useful surveys also ask about priority, format, availability, and participation intent.
List relevant interests with other and none options. Ask respondents to rank favorites, choose a participation role, select realistic timing and formats, describe barriers, and opt into follow-up. Collect department or location only for a planning need.
Use anonymous responses for candid group preferences without individual follow-up. Use optional names for mentoring, skill directories, or invitations. Explain the setting and request separate permission to publish a skill or contact someone.
Say responses inform planning rather than guarantee a program. Ask about schedules, format, and willingness to organize. Later, share which ideas are feasible, which need exploration, and when the next update arrives.
Send it before learning plans, engagement calendars, or program launches. Repeat when choices or workforce conditions change. Keep questions stable when trends matter and label new options.
Focus on one goal, use conditional follow-ups, group options, and rank only a few interests. Preview on mobile, state the purpose and deadline, and remove fields that do not affect decisions or follow-up.
Yes. Makeform offers unlimited free forms and responses, so you can generate, edit, publish, and collect employee survey responses without a volume cap. The paid tier removes the Makeform badge.
Group responses by topic, priority, format, availability, and participation role. Find combinations you can act on, report back in aggregate, invite only people who opted in, and retain ideas not selected yet.
Plan with employees, not around them.
