TL;DR — A text survey about wellbeing gets rushed, generic answers because it feels like a form. A short video check-in, asked well and kept optional, tends to get more honest responses. This guide gives a practical question set and a few rules for keeping it light rather than clinical.
- Keep check-ins optional and brief — pressure defeats the purpose.
- Ask specific, low-stakes questions rather than broad ones like "how are you feeling?"
- This is a culture tool, not a clinical one — route anything serious to the right support instead.
On this page
Why a survey often gets shallow answers
A dropdown-and-scale survey is easy to fill in without thinking, which is exactly the problem: people click through it the same way they skip a cookie banner. A short, specific question asked by video tends to get a more honest answer, mostly because answering out loud takes a moment of actual reflection that a 1-to-5 scale never requires.
What this is not
This is a culture and team-health tool, not a clinical screening or a substitute for proper support. It should never ask about diagnoses, symptoms or anything that belongs with a qualified professional. If a response raises a genuine concern, the right move is a private, human conversation and a pointer to whatever support the organisation offers, not a follow-up through the same channel.
A sample question set
- "What's one word for how this week has felt?"
- "What's something that made work easier this week?"
- "What's one thing getting in your way right now?"
- "Do you feel like you have enough time to do your work well?"
- "What's something the team could do more of?"
- "What's something you're looking forward to?"
- "Is there anything you'd want your manager to know that doesn't usually come up?"
Keeping it light-touch
Ask one question at a time rather than a long list, keep responses optional and genuinely anonymous where possible, and make clear that skipping it has no consequence. A monthly cadence works better than weekly for most teams — frequent enough to catch a pattern, infrequent enough that it doesn't start to feel like surveillance.
What to do with the responses
Look for patterns across the team rather than reading too much into any single answer, and share back something simple — "a few people mentioned X, here's what we're doing about it" — so people can see the check-in leads somewhere. A pulse that never visibly changes anything stops getting honest answers within a couple of rounds.
How to do this in Whoosh
Send one question at a time through a short, optional video link, so people can respond in under a minute without logging into a separate survey tool. Keep the cadence light and the questions rotating rather than reusing the same one every time.
Start freeFrequently asked questions
Should responses be anonymous?
Where possible, yes — anonymity tends to produce more honest answers, though a small team may find full anonymity hard to maintain in practice.
How often should we run this?
Monthly works for most teams; more frequent check-ins risk feeling like monitoring rather than genuine interest.
What if someone's answer raises a real concern?
Follow up privately and point them to the organisation's proper support channels — this tool is for culture, not for handling anything serious on its own.
Can this replace a formal engagement survey?
No — treat it as a lighter, more frequent complement to a formal survey, not a replacement for one.