Surveys are a powerful tool for gathering insights, whether you’re an HR professional, recruiter, or researcher. One key piece of information often sought is a respondent’s current job position.
However, asking about job roles, responsibilities, and employment details can quickly bloat a survey with unnecessary questions, leading to respondent fatigue and lower completion rates. So when you wonder how to ask for a current job position in a survey, you need to make sure you collect meaningful data efficiently while keeping the survey concise.
Why Asking About Job Position Matters
Understanding a respondent’s job position provides critical context for interpreting their answers. Whether you’re assessing employee satisfaction, refining recruitment processes, or researching workforce trends, knowing someone’s role, job functions, or work responsibilities shapes your insights.
A well-crafted job position question can reveal patterns in task assignments, role expectations, or even work-life balance challenges specific to certain positions.
Common Use Cases (HR Surveys, Recruitment, Research)
- HR Surveys: Companies use employee responsibilities and position duties to measure engagement or workload distribution across departments.
- Recruitment: A recruitment questionnaire might ask about a candidate’s current job description to assess their fit for a role.
- Research: Analysts studying occupational roles or industry trends rely on job position data to segment responses and draw conclusions.
When to Include Job Role Questions
Include job role questions when the data directly informs your goals. For instance, a basic candidate experience survey might ask job title details to tailor follow-up questions, while a work-life balance survey could use position duties to explore stress factors.
However, avoid asking if the information is redundant or available elsewhere—like through an applicant tracking system (ATS) or human resource information system (HRIS/HRMS).
How to Ask a Current Job Position in a Survey
Crafting the right question is a balancing act: it must be clear, concise, and purposeful. Here’s how to structure it effectively.
Open-Ended vs. Multiple Choice Approaches
- Open-Ended: “What is your current job title and primary responsibilities?” This allows respondents to provide detailed answers but may result in inconsistent or vague data (e.g., “Manager” vs. “Senior Marketing Manager”).
- Multiple Choice: “Which of these best describes your current role? (a) Executive, (b) Manager, (c) Specialist, (d) Other.” This standardizes responses, making analysis easier, but risks oversimplification.
For brevity, lean toward multiple-choice unless nuanced job functions or unique task assignments are critical to your survey. While this may defeat the goal of brevity, you can ask a multiple choice question and include an open ended question to provide more detail.
Best Practices for Job Role Questions
- Keep It Simple: Limit questions to one or two focused prompts. Avoid overloading respondents with separate queries for job title, department, and work tasks unless essential.
- Be Specific: Use clear language (e.g., “What is your current job title?” instead of “What do you do?”).
- Offer an ‘Other’ Option: For multiple-choice questions, include “Other” with a text box to capture outliers.
- Minimize Jargon: Avoid industry-specific terms that might confuse respondents outside your field.
- Test for Clarity: Pilot your survey to ensure questions about position duties or role expectations are universally understood.
Phrasing Examples (Job Title, Department, Job Level)
- Job Title: “What is your current job title? (e.g., Software Engineer, Sales Associate)”
- Department: “In which department do you currently work? (e.g., HR, IT, Marketing)”
- Job Level: “What best describes your current level? (a) Entry-Level, (b) Mid-Level, (c) Senior-Level, (d) Executive)”
Example Survey Questions to Use
Here are practical examples to adapt for your needs, keeping the focus on brevity and relevance.
Asking for Job Title or Role
- “What is your current job title?”
- “Which of these best matches your current role? (a) Analyst, (b) Coordinator, (c) Director, (d) Other)”
Questions about Job Duties & Responsibilities
- “Which of these best describes your primary work responsibilities? (Select all that apply: a) Project Management, b) Customer Support, c) Data Analysis, d) Other)”
- “In a few words, what is your main job function?”
Role Expectations & Task Assignments
- “How much of your time is spent on strategic planning? (a) 0-25%, (b) 26-50%, (c) 51-75%, (d) 76-100%)”
- “Which task assignment takes up most of your workday? (e.g., Meetings, Administrative Work, Creative Tasks)”
Work Location or Department Classification
- “Where do you primarily work? (a) Office, (b) Remote, (c) Hybrid)”
- “Which department do you report to? (Dropdown: Sales, Operations, Finance, etc.)”
Asking About Employment Status or Type
Employment status—full-time, part-time, or freelance—often ties to job position and influences survey responses. Here’s how to ask efficiently.
Full-Time, Part-Time, Freelance – How to Structure the Question
Use a single multiple-choice question: “What is your current employment status? (a) Full-Time, (b) Part-Time, (c) Freelance/Contract, (d) Unemployed).” This keeps it concise while capturing key data.
Sample Questions for Employment Status in Candidate Surveys
- “Are you currently employed full-time, part-time, or freelance?”
- “If employed, how many hours per week do you work? (a) <20, (b) 20-30, (c) 31-40, (d) 41+)”
How Employment Status Affects Survey Logic
Use survey logic to tailor follow-ups. For example, if a respondent selects “Freelance,” skip questions about departmental roles and ask about project-based work tasks instead. This reduces unnecessary questions, enhancing the respondent experience.
Using Surveys for Recruitment & Feedback
Job position questions aren’t just data points—they’re tools for improving recruitment and employee engagement.
Including Job Position Questions in a Candidate Experience Survey
In a candidate experience survey, ask: “What is your current job title?” or “What industry do you currently work in?” This helps recruiters understand the candidate’s background without duplicating data already in their ATS.
Using Job Role Data in Work-Life Balance & Engagement Surveys
For a work-life balance survey, tie job roles to workload questions: “As a [Job Title], how often do you work overtime? (a) Never, (b) Sometimes, (c) Often).” This connects position duties to well-being insights.
How to Map Job Roles to Survey Segments for Analysis
Segment responses by job level or department (e.g., “Managers” vs. “Specialists”) to identify trends. For instance, task assignments might overburden mid-level staff, a pattern only visible with role-specific data.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Even well-intentioned questions can backfire if poorly designed. Here’s what to watch out for.
Asking Ambiguous or Overly Broad Questions
Avoid vague prompts like “What do you do at work?” Respondents may over-explain or skip it entirely. Instead, ask, “What is your primary job function?”
Not Providing Clear Role Definitions or Options
If options like “Manager” or “Specialist” lack context, respondents may misclassify themselves. Define terms or provide examples (e.g., “Manager: Oversees a team”).
Ignoring Departmental Differences
A “Sales Manager” and “IT Manager” have vastly different work responsibilities. If department matters, include it as a separate question or filter.
Streamline Surveys with Smart Integration
Asking about a current job position in a survey doesn’t have to mean a long list of questions. By following best practices—using concise phrasing, leveraging multiple-choice options, and applying survey logic—you can gather essential data on job descriptions, employee responsibilities, and occupational roles without overwhelming respondents. However, the real key to minimizing survey length lies in technology. Using a survey platform integrated with your ATS can automatically map responses back to candidate details like work history, job titles, and employment status, reducing the need to ask redundant questions. This not only improves the respondent experience but also ensures you’re collecting actionable insights efficiently. Keep it short, keep it smart, and let your tools do the heavy lifting.
FAQs
How do you ask employment status in a survey?
It’s best to use a multiple choice format with choices like Full-Time, Part-Time, Freelance/Contract, Unemployed.
How do you ask someone about their current job?
In a survey, you can ask a multiple choice question or an open ended question. Open ended usually provides more detail but its unstructured nature makes it more difficult to quantify over entire populations. Multiple choice questions can be effective if you keep the options broad and focus on the category of job type (customer service), while providing an open ended question for the exact title. In any case, limit questions to one or two focused prompts, use clear language, minimize jargon and try out your survey on others to ensure questions about position duties or role expectations are universally understood.
What are three types of questions you can use in a survey?
Surveys typically include multiple choice questions, which provide respondents with preconfigured answers to make responding simple. There are also Likert Scale questions that measure attitudes or feelings about prompts with an agree to disagree scale. multiple choice questions. Finally, there are open ended questions which allow respondents to freely provide unstructured information. These can be useful in gathering information like name and contact info, or in augmenting more structured data from multiple choice or Likert questions with more qualitative information that might shed light on that data.
What’s the difference between job title and job function in surveys?
Job title is the title someone would use on a resume, LinkedIn profile or would be reflected in an employment record. Job function is the type of work an employee does. For example, a sales associate might be a job title and the job function they serve might be customer service.
Should you use open-text or dropdown for job roles?
There are pluses and minuses to each approach and it depends on what the goal is. When using surveys to understand broad populations, using a drop down, or multiple choice question allows you to analyze responses in a statistical way. But the level of detail about actual title and duties will be limited. For surveys where you are more focused on responses at the individual level, an open ended question would be more appropriate. It will give you more detail and specificity, however it will be difficult to glean quantitative data at the population level.
