Employee satisfaction is a metric every business must measure. But how do you measure employee satisfaction? With an employee satisfaction survey!

Contents:

1. What Is An Employee Satisfaction Survey?
2. 10 Employee Satisfaction Survey Examples and Questions
3. Employee Satisfaction Survey Tips

What Is An Employee Satisfaction Survey?

Just like other surveys that collect specific information, an employee satisfaction survey collects information on how satisfied employees are at work, how appreciated they feel, their feelings on work-life balance, growth opportunities, and relationships with colleagues and leaders.

There are multiple ways to collect these pieces of information. Some companies conduct frequent, short pulse surveys while others go for an elaborate one yearly. We’ll explore different employee satisfaction survey examples, but up first, let’s see what makes up this survey?

10 Employee Satisfaction Survey Examples

$550 billion a year. That’s the cost American companies pay for their disengaged and dissatisfied employees. This figure is from 2017, and we’re in 2021 – the post-pandemic world. Despite emphasizing employee well-being last year, this figure won’t have come down. It might have even gone up!

Why are we talking about this? Because the future of business success lies purely in the hands of satisfied employees. Gone are the days when employees weren’t empowered by their employers, still they worked for their growth and success. Now, without satisfied employees, there can be no business success.

We’ve given the narrative for the need for employee satisfaction. It’s time now to see how your HR team can achieve that using 10 employee satisfaction survey examples. Let nothing distract you from this for the sake of your business’ growth!

#1 The Quick Fix

From our experience, this is one of the most used employee satisfaction survey examples. So, it’s befitting to mention it right at the start. As the name suggests, this employee satisfaction survey directly aims to find the parameter or change that’ll make employees satisfied.

This survey is not over 3 questions long, and in most cases, the HR team finds what keeps employees engaged and focused for long. Let’s look at one such survey example:

Here’s an employee satisfaction survey created using SurveySparrow…

This quick survey could be easily sent to your employees, and analyzing its results won’t take much time, too. Try, it works.

Sign up to get started for FREE!

#2 Let Them Express

Employees at the workplace want leaders to give a chance of expressing themselves. They don’t just want to pick an option or give a rating in satisfaction surveys. They want to express, as openly as they can. And as a leader or manager, you ought to give them this chance.

We are advocating the use of such employee satisfaction survey examples, as they’re a win-win for both parties. The employer, who gets to know about his employees on a deeper level, and the employees, who get to express their engagement levels and suggest ways to improve that. Let’s look at an example for this type of satisfaction survey:

This survey would comprise only of open-ended questions. So, keeping the questions to a maximum of 5 would be great, as you don’t want the respondents to get bored, and write random things or single-worded answers just to get done with the survey.

#3 Recent Experiences

Employee satisfaction is not something that’s fixed for life. It keeps changing with new employee experiences, good or bad. Hence, it makes complete sense to conduct an employee satisfaction survey just a day or 2 after a mega-event, seminar, training, or some celebration. This way, your HR team gets an idea of whether the event had a positive impact on employees, and what could’ve been done to improve the engagement.

This survey would again be short and private, as all employee satisfaction survey questions will be related to the recent event. All this being said, let’s look at an example of this type:

#4 Likert Scale Survey

Using likert scale is one of the best employee satisfaction survey examples we can give. The way likert scale questions are structured gives an understanding of what employees think about a topic without asking them to express themselves. Giving open-ended questions to seek honest expression is integral to any employee satisfaction survey, but not all questions can be open-ended. This is the case where likert scale questions come into the picture.

Let’s say your organization conducted a new training program. Now you wish to know if your employees were satisfied with it or not. The best way to do that in the least possible time is to conduct a likert scale survey. Here’s how it works:

Statement 1: Satisfied with the new employee training program.

Statement 2: Dissatisfied with the new employee training program.

Here are the options your employees can choose from;

• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

See, this is how likert scale works. Let’s see an employee satisfaction survey example consisting of this question type.

For all these questions, 2 differing statements, like the ones given in the example, can be used along with 5 options to choose from. Our clients who used likert scale satisfaction surveys had only good things to say about it. We’re pretty sure you’ll be the same!

#5 Use Number Scale

Just like likert scale, scale-based questions are also used for employee satisfaction surveys. The reason is the simplicity and fast completion using this question type. The scales used can be from 1 to 5, or 10, or 20, depending upon your question and the importance of each scale’s value.

Any question can be asked using these numeric scales. Here’s one of the employee satisfaction survey examples you can use for it:

#6 Ask Indirectly

A lot of times, asking if the employees are satisfied isn’t enough. Ask questions about their work, working space, colleagues, office culture, manager, and more. Why? Because these factors decide the satisfaction level of every employee, and that’s where you need to get it right.

One positive of such employee satisfaction survey examples is that you understand employees on a much deeper level. Their motivation levels, what makes them happy, what frustrates them, part of the daily routine they like the most, and so on. This helps in doing better employee management going forward, and one of the prime qualities of a supreme leader is their man-management skills.

Since this survey type has a lot to ask, the questions also can be of different types from likert scale to open-ended questions. Plus, there’s no restriction on the length of the survey, too. Have a look at this survey example. You can use this as it is. It’ll get the job done.

#7 Recognition Is Crucial

One of the best employee satisfaction survey examples is based on this. Recognition. Every employee wants to get recognized and appreciated for their work. However small their work is, they wish to get appreciated for it. Microsoft’s “The New Future of Work” highlighted that even more.

The questions around recognition and appreciation would give you a clear picture of how satisfied and engaged your employees are. That’s the goal, right? Let’s give you an example:

#8 The Test!

The leadership group in any organization has got to do a lot with employees being satisfied or not. Be it the managers, team leaders, or the management team, their decisions and attitude play a massive role in the overall engagement levels of employees. Hence, it makes complete sense to put the leadership group to a test by asking employees how satisfied they are with them?

We would recommend keeping this survey short, as too many questions on a single topic might just bore employees off. With that said, let’s look at an example of this employee satisfaction survey type:

#9 The WFH Survey

One thing employees have learned from the global pandemic is that it’s possible to work, and work productively, from home. Yes, continuous meetings on Zoom can get tiresome, but overall, employees can focus on the comfort of their living room. After doing that for over a year, 87% of employees don’t want to go back to their offices. They would prefer working from home over working from the office all day long. But what about the hybrid working model? Would employees be willing to work from the office 2-days a week, while working from home for the remaining days?

These are the questions that are currently affecting the employee satisfaction level. So, one of the best employee satisfaction survey examples is to talk about this topic and understand how satisfied employees are with the present working conditions and model. Here’s a survey example you can use:

#10 Address The Future

This is one of the few employee satisfaction survey examples that talks about the future of an employee rather than about their present or the past. See, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your employee’s satisfaction levels are no different (wow, what a comparison!). But knowing what they expect from the employer makes it easy for any organization to deliver on those expectations.

Since the conversation here is about the future, open-ended questions would work great. Why? As they’ll let employees freely express what they wish or expect, without restricting them to choose from given options. C’mon, we’ll look at an example for it:

You can include a variety of other open-ended questions depending on business needs, but make sure to not make the survey too long. As open-ended questions, coupled with a long survey won’t go down well with the employees. Try it and thank us later!

What Makes Up An Employee Satisfaction Survey?

“What’s exactly included in an employee satisfaction survey?”

That’s our clients’ first question about such surveys. The general notion is that questions and answer options make up these surveys, but there are other crucial constituents, too. Let’s talk about them one by one:

1) Survey theme: Before writing even a single question, figuring out the survey theme is important. Recognition, office culture, training experiences, and other more things affect the satisfaction levels of employees daily. The one you choose for a particular employee satisfaction survey becomes its theme.

2) Background & Fonts: Often the ignored side of an employee satisfaction survey, the background and fonts play a vital role in attracting employees to take up the survey. Not just take up, but do it with full seriousness without giving random answers.

3) Introduction: This is a constituent that many would suggest skipping, but not us. Giving a crisp survey introduction sets the right tone for the survey.  It leaves the employees with a hint of what to expect from the questions. Talk about the survey theme, the length of the survey, or the upcoming holiday season! Tell them why each response is important for you as well as the employees while collecting basic employee information like name and designation.

4) Questions: This is where the survey starts, and this is where you need to get it absolutely right. Ask relevant questions using the right question type. Don’t dig in for more information, or tire them up with a barrage of open-ended questions. Keeping the right balance and overall length is of umpteen importance here.

5) Answer options: Imagine this. You’ve asked the right question, but given irrelevant options to select from. How do you think the survey responders will react? They’ll just hit the first option they see, as none of them are making sense to them. Please, don’t make this mistake. Choose the right answer options depending on the questions asked. Don’t unnecessarily include more options or scale numbers just for the sake of it.

6) “Thank you” Note: Every employee who’s taking up such surveys deserves a “thank you” from your side. The reason is it’s not a part of their job, yet they’re giving their time to help you and your organization get better. So their appreciation should start from right here, from this show of gratitude.

The “Holy” Tips For Creating A Relevant Employee Satisfaction Survey

Before the pandemic, only 24% of businesses felt employee engagement was important. In the post-pandemic world, this number is already at 36%! It’s still low, considering how easy creating surveys to gauge employee satisfaction is. To make it easier, here are some time-tested “holy” tips we and our clients use to create highly relevant employee satisfaction surveys.

Know Your “Why?”

Why are you conducting an employee satisfaction survey?

You and the HR team need to answer this before starting with such a survey. Otherwise, it’ll serve no purpose. As questions that are included with no end goal would be answered in the same manner. So, if relevant employee satisfaction surveys are the aim, this is how things should start.

Spread Its Importance

Once the why is figured out, letting employees know about the survey’s importance comes second. Employee satisfaction surveys shouldn’t come as a surprise to them. They should know about it and its importance right from the start. Only then would they be willing to spare their time. So, don’t miss out on being vocal about these surveys.

Ace The Timing

We talked about one example where an employee satisfaction survey was conducted right after a training session. This timing is important because the experience from such events is still fresh in your employees’ memories, and they’re able to express what they liked and what they didn’t better. This eventually gives your HR team better data to wrap their heads around.

Don’t Go Insignificant

Once you’ve drafted all the questions for the survey, ask yourself these before hitting the send button:

• Will we act on the results of this question?
• Are we prepared to have an open discussion about this question?
• Is a question repeating itself in one way or the other?
• Will this question help us in finding something useful?
• Are we asking personal questions that might make employees uncomfortable?
• Is asking this question important for the organization’s growth?

These 6 questions are what we ask every time before sending an employee satisfaction survey. The result of this detailed pre-survey analysis is just mind-blowing in terms of the quality of response we get. Use, and you’ll see the same.

Respect Privacy

A lot of times, you’ll seek opinions from employees about their team leaders, colleagues, and even about you. So, it’s your responsibility to keep all their responses private. Data security is of prime importance here, otherwise, no employee would reveal their true opinions and satisfaction levels for the risk of getting someone’s ire.

Stick With A Format

We support making necessary changes but changing the survey structure every time you conduct a survey is not right. This is a mistake we, at SurveySparrow, also made when conducting employee satisfaction surveys. Things worked out when we patiently stuck to a set format, and we’ll recommend the same to you.

Use The Right Scale

Always include a midpoint in your scale, especially when you’re using a Likert scale to get answers. This is because it helps those employees who felt neutral on a question. If you exclude this midpoint, you would receive a lot of positive answers, as people take a positive side, even when they don’t feel that way. Similarly, while using scales with numbers, like when you’re using a scale from 1 to 10, each number should hold a significance, otherwise, it just creates confusion because of more options.

Don’t Become Boring

We’ve said this before, and we’ll say it again to not go too long with the survey length. It does more harm than good. Similarly, don’t include too many open-ended questions. It’s not gonna bring rich data, as employees would just look to finish the survey, and not take it up honestly. You don’t want that, do you?

Show Gratitude

The tone of your entire survey, no matter what employee satisfaction survey examples you’re using, should be of gratitude. This is because taking such surveys ain’t a part of any employee’s job description. Despite that, if they’re doing it with full commitment, they deserve gratitude and a big “thank you”. Don’t forget to put that in your surveys.

Ending Thoughts

“To win in the marketplace you must first win the workplace.”

This quote from Doug Conant, former CEO of Campbell Soup, says a lot about employee satisfaction and engagement. A satisfied employee would do wonders for your organization, and the exact opposite will happen if that’s not the case. There’s no middle ground here. Employees are either satisfied, or they aren’t.

It’s up to you to get them aligned and work on a common goal with motivation. And the best place to start is by conducting employee satisfaction surveys. We’ve given you 10 examples for it, but which one will work depends on your business goals and needs. We can help with this from start to finish. Just leave a message here, and let’s get started.

Kate Williams

Content Marketer at SurveySparrow