--- title: "Free Manager Effectiveness Survey Template | formformform" description: "Free Manager Effectiveness Survey template. Collect upward feedback from a manager's own reports on clarity, feedback quality, coaching, fairness, safety and…" url: "https://www.formformform.com/templates/manager-effectiveness-survey" type: static generatedAt: "2026-08-23T18:56:58.727Z" --- [Templates](https://www.formformform.com/form-templates)/[Human Resources Forms](https://www.formformform.com/form-templates/human-resources-forms) # Manager Effectiveness Survey Template A survey answered by the people who report to a manager, about that manager. Ten scored statements cover the things a manager is actually responsible for — clear direction, feedback that is frequent and specific, development, consistency, safety, unblocking and recognition — and three open boxes ask what they should start, stop and continue. No name is asked, and a required question asks how the respondent wants their written answers handled before anything is passed on. [Use this template](https://app.formformform.com/templates/manager-effectiveness-survey/use) Last updated 21 August 2026 ## Fields in this template - Manager Being Reviewed - How long have you worked for this manager? Less than 3 months · 3 to 6 months · 6 to 12 months · 1 to 2 years · More than 2 years · I would rather not say - My manager gives me a clear sense of what I am expected to deliver. · required 5 — Strongly agree · 4 — Agree · 3 — Neutral · 2 — Disagree · 1 — Strongly disagree - My manager explains how our work connects to what the wider organisation is trying to do. · required 5 — Strongly agree · 4 — Agree · 3 — Neutral · 2 — Disagree · 1 — Strongly disagree - I hear from my manager often enough to know where I stand. · required 5 — Strongly agree · 4 — Agree · 3 — Neutral · 2 — Disagree · 1 — Strongly disagree - The feedback I get from my manager is specific enough to act on. · required 5 — Strongly agree · 4 — Agree · 3 — Neutral · 2 — Disagree · 1 — Strongly disagree - My manager takes an active interest in my development and where my career is going. · required 5 — Strongly agree · 4 — Agree · 3 — Neutral · 2 — Disagree · 1 — Strongly disagree - My manager applies expectations, rules and opportunities consistently across the team. · required 5 — Strongly agree · 4 — Agree · 3 — Neutral · 2 — Disagree · 1 — Strongly disagree - I can raise a problem, a mistake or a disagreement with my manager without it being held against me. · required 5 — Strongly agree · 4 — Agree · 3 — Neutral · 2 — Disagree · 1 — Strongly disagree - When something blocks my work, my manager helps clear it. · required 5 — Strongly agree · 4 — Agree · 3 — Neutral · 2 — Disagree · 1 — Strongly disagree - My manager notices and acknowledges good work. · required 5 — Strongly agree · 4 — Agree · 3 — Neutral · 2 — Disagree · 1 — Strongly disagree - Overall, how effective is this manager in the job of managing people? · required Highly effective · Effective · Mixed — strong in some areas, weak in others · Not very effective · Not effective - What should this manager START doing? · required - What should this manager STOP doing? - What should this manager CONTINUE doing? - Anything else you want to say about how this manager leads? - How would you like your written answers handled? · required Share my exact wording with the manager · Only as part of a summary combined with other responses · Do not share my written answers with the manager at all ## Who uses this template HR and people teams running an upward-feedback cycle · Heads of department gathering input on their line managers · New managers who want a baseline in their first six months · Leadership development and coaching programmes · Companies introducing management standards for the first time · Remote and hybrid teams where a manager's habits are harder to observe · Internal coaches preparing a manager development plan · Small companies without a formal performance system ## About this template A manager effectiveness survey is upward feedback: the people who report to a manager say how well that manager manages. It is not a performance review, which a manager writes about someone else, and it is not a 360, which mixes peers, reports and a supervisor into one blended picture of a named colleague. The respondent group here is fixed — everyone answering reports to the person being rated — and that is what makes the results interpretable without any relationship field to slice by. The ten scored statements are the parts of the job a manager is genuinely accountable for. Direction and context come first. Then feedback, split deliberately into two questions: whether you hear from them often enough to know where you stand, and whether what they say is specific enough to act on. A manager who gives constant vague encouragement and a manager who gives one excellent review a year both score badly, but on different items, and a single combined question would hide that. After that: development, consistency and fairness, whether it is safe to raise a mistake with them, whether they clear blockers, and whether they notice good work. Three open boxes close it out — start, stop, continue — with only start required, because a required stop box produces invented complaints. Anonymity here needs stating plainly rather than promising. The form never asks who you are. But formformform records the IP address and browser of every submission, the form owner can see both, and IP address is a column in every CSV export, encrypted forms included — so anonymous means the questions do not ask your identity, not that the submission has no trace. Encrypting the form does not change that: encryption keeps the answers from the platform, while the form owner holds the key and the IP address sits outside the encrypted payload. On a team of three or four, free text identifies people on its own, whatever the record says, which is why the last question asks how the respondent wants their written answers handled and why the tenure question carries a warning to delete it on small teams. This template ships flat, with no conditional logic, so it cannot hide that field for small teams by itself — you delete it, or you accept what it reveals. ## 10 form ideas you can build with this template ### New Manager Baseline Survey Give a first-time manager a six-month baseline from their own team, before habits set and before any formal review cycle involves them. ### Upward Feedback Cycle Form Run the same ten statements across every manager in the company twice a year and compare each manager against their own previous round rather than against each other. ### Leadership Development Programme Intake Collect team input at the start of a management development programme so the coaching plan starts from evidence rather than from the manager's self-assessment. ### Skip-Level Preparation Form Gather written input from a team before a skip-level meeting, so the conversation starts from what the team already said rather than from whoever speaks first. ### Remote Team Manager Check Ask a distributed team whether direction, feedback frequency and recognition are actually reaching them, when none of it is visible in an office. ### Post-Reorganisation Manager Feedback Check how a manager is doing with a team they inherited rather than built, three months after the reporting lines moved. ### Team Lead Coaching Input Form Give an internal or external coach a structured picture of a team lead's blockers and blind spots before the first coaching session. ### Management Standards Audit Test whether the management standards your company published are recognisable to the people they are supposed to protect, by rewording the ten statements to match them. ### Departmental Manager Comparison Run one copy per manager across a department, then compare the aggregate patterns to find whether a weakness is one manager's or the whole department's. ### Exit-Risk Early Warning Survey Use low scores on recognition, development and safety as an early signal within a team, months before anyone reaches an exit interview. ## What's included Ten scored statements written as manager behaviours, not general competencies Feedback frequency and feedback quality are asked as two separate questions Separate start, stop and continue boxes rather than one combined comment field Upward only — every respondent is someone the manager manages, so there is no relationship field to interpret The manager's name ships optional, because the intended pattern is one copy of the form per manager No name or email field; the one background question — how long you have worked for this manager — is optional and flagged for deletion on small teams, where it identifies the newest joiner A required question on how written answers may be shared, answered before the feedback is passed on 1 to 5 scales ship as radios with labelled options, so answers are readable without a key Free to use with unlimited responses ## How to create a manager effectiveness survey 1. 1 Click Use this template to load the manager effectiveness survey into your free formformform account. 2. 2 Make one copy per manager and put the manager's name in the form title, then delete the Manager Being Reviewed field — that keeps each set of results clean without asking respondents to type a name. 3. 3 Decide about the tenure question before you send it. On a team of fewer than about eight people it identifies the newest joiner; delete it rather than trying to hide it, because generated templates ship without conditional logic. 4. 4 Edit the intro paragraph to say who reads the raw responses, when the manager sees anything, and what the minimum number of responses is before results are shared at all. 5. 5 Adjust the ten statements to your own management expectations if you have written any — the wording should match the standard managers are actually held to. 6. 6 Add an optional email field and a conditional rule in the editor if you want to offer a follow-up conversation; the rule lives in the editor, not in the template. 7. 7 Publish, then send the link through a channel the manager does not control, and set a closing date so responses arrive as a batch rather than one at a time. ## Best practices for your manager effectiveness survey Set a minimum response count before anyone sees results five is a common floor. On a team of three, publishing a breakdown is the same as publishing names. Do not run this alongside a performance or pay decision for the same manager. Upward feedback that lands in the same week as a promotion round gets answered strategically. Give the manager the scores and the summary before the raw text, and only pass on raw text where the respondent said it could be shared that is what the final question is for. Ask about the last six months, not about the current mood. The intro paragraph says so; keep it, or the results track whatever happened last week. Keep the frequency and quality feedback questions separate. Merging them into one feedback score is the single most common way this instrument stops being useful. Repeat it on a fixed cadence twice a year is enough — and export each round to CSV so you can compare. There is no built-in trend chart, so joining rounds is a spreadsheet job. Do not add a department field. Every respondent already reports to the same manager, so the field adds nothing and narrows the pool further. Say what happens next before you send it. Upward feedback that produces no visible action once teaches people not to answer honestly the second time. ## Frequently asked questions Is this manager effectiveness survey free? Yes. Use it, customise it, and collect unlimited responses at no cost, with no per-response fees. How is this different from a 360-degree feedback form? A 360 gathers feedback from several directions — peers, reports, a supervisor — about a named colleague, and records each reviewer's relationship to them so you can compare directions. This survey is upward only: everyone answering reports to the person being rated, the statements are written about managing people rather than about general competencies, and the closing prompt is start, stop and continue rather than strengths and one area to improve. Are the responses anonymous? The form never asks who you are — there is no name or email field, and the one background question, how long you have worked for this manager, is optional and should be deleted on a team small enough for it to identify the newest joiner. But formformform records the IP address and browser of every submission, the form owner sees both, and IP address is a column in every CSV export, encrypted forms included — encryption seals the answers from the platform, not from the form owner, who holds the key. Treat anonymous as meaning the questions do not ask your identity, not that the record has no trace. On a small team, free text identifies people regardless. How many responses do I need before sharing results? Set a floor and publish it in advance — five is a common choice. Below that, an average is a thin disguise for an individual answer, and people can tell. Should I name the manager on the form? Usually not as a question. Make one copy of the form per manager, put the name in the title, and delete the Manager Being Reviewed field. Keep the field only if one form has to cover several managers at once. Can I show a follow-up question only to people who scored something low? Not from the template — generated templates ship flat, with every field visible. The form editor supports conditional rules, so you can add that after cloning. Can respondents attach a document or an example? This template does not ship an upload field, so it asks for examples as text. If you want people to attach something, add an Upload field to your copy in the editor — formformform supports file uploads on any form, just not by default on this template. Can I use this as part of a formal performance review of the manager? You can, but tell people that before they answer. Feedback given on the understanding that it is developmental, then used in a pay or promotion decision, is the fastest way to lose honest answers in the next round. ## Related templates [Human Resources Forms 360-Degree Feedback Form Gather multi-rater feedback on communication, leadership, and performance.](https://www.formformform.com/templates/360-degree-feedback-form)[Human Resources Forms Team Psychological Safety Survey Seven scored statements on blame, speaking up, difference, risk, asking for help and how strengths get used, run at team level.](https://www.formformform.com/templates/team-psychological-safety-survey)[Human Resources Forms Employee Feedback Survey Run pulse surveys to gauge employee satisfaction and gather suggestions.](https://www.formformform.com/templates/employee-feedback-form)[Surveys & Feedback Forms Satisfaction Pulse Poll A quick recurring check-in on satisfaction, workload, and psychological safety.](https://www.formformform.com/templates/satisfaction-pulse-poll-form)[Human Resources Forms Employee Performance Review Run consistent, structured performance reviews for your entire team.](https://www.formformform.com/templates/employee-performance-review)[Human Resources Forms Change Readiness Pulse Survey Readiness for one named change — understanding, rationale, impact, information, training and support.](https://www.formformform.com/templates/change-readiness-pulse-survey) ## More Human Resources form templates - [Job Application Form template](https://www.formformform.com/templates/job-application-form) - [Job Requisition Form template](https://www.formformform.com/templates/job-requisition-form) - [Termination Checklist template](https://www.formformform.com/templates/termination-checklist) - [Tuition Reimbursement Form template](https://www.formformform.com/templates/tuition-reimbursement-form) - [Staffing Agency Candidate Registration template](https://www.formformform.com/templates/staffing-candidate-intake-form) - [Worker Availability Submission template](https://www.formformform.com/templates/worker-availability-form) - [Timesheet Submission Form template](https://www.formformform.com/templates/timesheet-submission-form) - [Temp-to-Hire Evaluation Form template](https://www.formformform.com/templates/temp-to-hire-evaluation-form) - [Staffing Agency Client Inquiry template](https://www.formformform.com/templates/staffing-client-inquiry-form) - [Contractor Skills Assessment template](https://www.formformform.com/templates/contractor-skills-assessment-form) [View all Human Resources form templates →](https://www.formformform.com/form-templates/human-resources-forms) Start with the Manager Effectiveness Survey template Free forever. 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