25 Employee Satisfaction Survey Questions You Need to Ask

Updated April 5, 2022

Encouraging your workforce to share their innermost concerns and ideas about your company can be particularly tricky. However, there is a lot to be said for asking the right questions.

Surveying your employees for valuable feedback involves approaching them with some understanding of both their interests and their current responsibilities within your organization. With this in mind, you can carefully craft questions that capture their attention and encourage constructive honesty in their responses.

What are Employee Satisfaction Surveys?

Employee satisfaction surveys are similar to customer satisfaction surveys. Rather than focusing on the customer, employee satisfaction surveys focus on your employees. Employee satisfaction surveys gauge each employee’s overall satisfaction with their role in your company and the company itself. The idea is to gain insight into your workforce’s general attitude, motivation within your organization and business performance metrics.

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Factors That Determine Employee Satisfaction

There are myriad factors that contribute to an individual employee’s overall sense of satisfaction with their job. Among these, the following tend to rank relatively high:

Feeling Their Contributions are Appreciated

Although it might not be feasible to constantly remind your employees of their value to your company on a personal level, it pays to incorporate this concept into your business’s culture. Encourage employees to show appreciation for their fellow coworkers as much as possible and reward your best performers on a regular basis to show that each person’s work is valued.

Feeling Their Position is Relatively Secure

Uncertainty breeds discontent. Your workforce will have a hard time feeling particularly satisfied with their jobs if they are constantly in fear of losing them.

Feeling They Have a Good Work-Life Balance

Balancing both life and labor can prove to be a stressful task for many. Ensuring your employees are getting enough downtime to stay motivated can significantly improve their outlooks on their jobs overall.

Employee satisfaction has a significant impact on customer satisfaction. Happy employees are more loyal employees who are invested in the success of the company. As a result, satisfied employees provide better customer service, resolve more customer issues on the first contact, and go the extra mile to ensure that every customer feels valued. In other words, happy employees = happy customers.

Employee Satisfaction Survey Questions

Below we’ve gathered some of the best questions you should add to your employee satisfaction survey to learn more about your workforce from human resources professionals, workplace satisfaction experts, and thought leaders. The employee satisfaction survey questions listed below are grouped into two categories: standard yes/no or multiple choice questions, and statements that employees are asked to rate on a sliding scale (such as a scale of 1 to 5, representing how much the employee agrees with the statement).

Standard Employee Satisfaction Survey Questions

1. Ask about growth opportunities.

“Do you believe that there is an opportunity for individual career growth and development within the company?” – Adi Bhat, 30 Employee Satisfaction Survey Questions That You Can’t Afford To Miss, QuestionPro; Twitter: @questionpro

2. Consider asking about management.

“Does management seem invested in the success of the team?” – Justin Reynolds, 15 Questions You Need to Ask in Employee Satisfaction Surveys, TinyPulse; Twitter: @TINYpulse

3. Take available tools into account.

“Do you have the tools and resources needed to perform your job well?” – Lindsay Liedke, Top 8 Questions to Ask on an Employee Satisfaction Survey, WPforms; Twitter: @easywpforms

4. Ask about how inviting the office feels.

“Are you satisfied with the level of comfort in your physical workplace?” – Sophie Choukah, 29 Simple Employee Survey Questions To Engage Your Team, OfficeVibe; Twitter: @Officevibe

5. Try open-ended questions for more insight.

“If you could change one thing about your job/workplace, what would it be?” – 24 insightful employee engagement survey questions, Slack; Twitter: @slackhq

6. Consider company culture as well.

“What do you think about our company culture?”– Jeremy Ellens, 10 Employee Satisfaction Survey Questions You Need to Be Asking, Careermetis; Twitter: @careermetis

7. Check up on your employees’ understanding of the company’s direction.

“When the organization makes changes, do you understand why?” – Natalie Wickham, 12 Essential Questions to Ask in Your Employee Survey, QuantumWork; Twitter: @QuantumWork

8. Ask about clarity of your company’s management structure.

“When something unexpected comes up in your work, do you usually know who to ask for help?” – Jackie Wiles, 9 Questions That Should Be in Every Employee Engagement Survey, Gartner; Twitter: @Gartner_inc

9. Determine the degree to which employees feel challenged at work.

“Is your work challenging enough?” – Employee Satisfaction Surveys: Sample Questions and 4 Ready-to-Use Templates, SurveyMethods; Twitter: @surveymethods

10. Gauge the apparent ease of upward mobility in your company.

“How easy is it to get promoted?” – Example Employee Satisfaction Survey Questions, CustomerThermometer; Twitter: @custThermometer

11. Ask about personal growth.

“Do you feel you are learning new skills and growing personally?” – Easily measure employee satisfaction to build a happier, more productive workplace, Typeform; Twitter: @typeform

12. Consider including a question about team cohesion.

“Does your team support you and do you work together towards a common goal?” – Rachael Down, Employee satisfaction survey: 10 questions you need to ask, Breathe; Twitter: @breatheHR

13. Try asking a “premortem” question.

“If you were to quit your job tomorrow, what would your reason be for leaving?” – Sara Staffaroni, 10 key questions for gauging employee satisfaction, Ragan; Twitter: @RaganComms

14. Keep fairness front and center in compensation questions.

“Do you feel as though you are fairly compensated for the work you currently do?” – Lauren Pope, Employee Satisfaction Survey: 35 Example Questions, G2; Twitter: @G2dotcom

15. Take time management seriously.

“Do you get enough time to do your job well?”

– Employee Satisfaction Questionnaire: What should you ask and How?, Vantage Circle; Twitter: @VantageCircle

16. Give your employees the microphone.

“Is there something else you think we should have asked you in this survey?” – 12 Questions You Should Be Asking Your Employees In A Satisfaction Survey, Benbria; Twitter: @benbria

Sliding Scale Employee Satisfaction Survey Questions

17. Check for issues with work/life balance.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your work-life balance?” – Caroline Forsey, 9 Employee Satisfaction Survey Questions That Will Reveal a Lot, Hubspot; Twitter: @cforsey1, @HubSpot

 18. Try “true or false” questions for emotional input.

“My fellow workers treat me respectfully.” – Liz Millikin, Get the Truth of Employee Satisfaction in 15 Questions or Less, SurveyGizmo; Twitter: @SurveyGizmo

19. Ask them to rate accountability in the workplace.

“At this company, people are held accountable for their performance.” – Scott Smith, Ph.D., Employee Satisfaction Surveys: Best practices and sample questions, Qualtrics; Twitter: @Qualtrics

20. Take temptation from other job opportunities into account by asking them how often they think about pursuing other employment opportunities.

“I rarely think about looking for a job at another company.” – Alexis Croswell, 20 simple Employee Engagement survey questions you should ask, CultureAmp; Twitter: @cultureamp

21. Make sure employees feel acknowledged.

“This company encourages different points of view.” – 10 Employee Satisfaction Survey Questions 2019, Energage; Twitter: @teamenergage

22. Ask about rewards and incentives.

“I feel like I get rewarded for good work.” – Sample of Employee satisfaction survey questions, TalentLyft; Twitter: @TalentLyft

23. Check for issues with open communication.

“Information and knowledge are shared openly within this organization.” – Employee Engagement Survey – Sample Survey Questions, CustomInsight; Twitter: @custominsight

24. Ask about direct relationships with management.

“My manager communicates clearly and frequently with me.” – Employee Satisfaction Surveys – The Ultimate Guide, PeoplePulse; Twitter: @People_Pulse

25. Compare company connection to family connection.

“I would refer a friend or a family member to this company.” – 28 employee engagement survey questions you need to ask, Lattice; Twitter: @LatticeHQ

What questions do you find most effective in gauging employee satisfaction?