Top Employee Satisfaction Survey Questions
Ensuring your employees are engaged at work is one of the best ways to keep your business running smoothly. If employees hate their working conditions, you’ll notice a decline in revenue and performance. And that might just be the first of many problems.
In this article, we’ll tackle designing an effective employee satisfaction survey. Designing the best employee satisfaction survey may seem like a daunting task, and without the right experience, it is. This brief guide should help you understand the types of survey statements that will generate the most valuable feedback.
The first step is to measure your company’s current engagement level to find out what you’re doing right — and where you can improve. The survey must contain specific questions to generate feedback you can use to design an action plan.
Employee Satisfaction Survey Questions
When it comes to choosing a survey, it’s important to select one that asks the right questions. With our experience collecting surveys for over 60,000 organizations spanning over 20 million employee voices, we have found that the best employee survey insights actually come from statements. These are the top ten employee survey statements we believe produce the best quality data. Keep in mind: You don’t need to limit your survey to just these statements. In fact, the Energage employee survey includes the 24 statements based on 14+ years of workplace culture research as the company behind the Top Workplaces survey.
1. I believe this company is going in the right direction.
The most satisfied employees are those who believe in the direction set by senior leadership. But getting the direction right, and communicating it in a compelling way, can be challenging to many leadership teams. That’s because it requires an authentic belief, a smart strategy, and open communication. When done right, employees who believe in the direction of your company will invest more of themselves in their work.
2. I feel genuinely appreciated at this company.
Want to improve job satisfaction, self-esteem, and employee retention? Everyone from kindergarten teachers to neuroscientists agree that giving — and receiving — appreciation helps us be and feel better. In the workplace, it’s a performance and positivity boost. When frequent and genuine employee appreciation is modeled every day from the top down, you’ll create a workplace culture that people want to be a part of and contribute to in every way.
3. My job makes me feel like I am part of something meaningful.
Work without meaning is drudgery, but meaningful work feels effortless. It’s the difference between employee disengagement and employee satisfaction. Since most people spend the majority of their waking hours at work, they need to know how their individual contributions benefit the organization and the people it serves. And when they do, they’re motivated by a whole lot more than a paycheck or set of perks.
4. I feel well-informed about important decisions at this company.
When employees feel included in important decisions, they’ll feel like a true partner in the business. They’re more likely to align with the organization even if they don’t totally agree with the methods. When this communication is done right, you’ll notice most employees are receptive to changes in the workplace. And this is especially true if these were inspired by employee feedback.
5. Senior managers understand what is really going on at this company.
Do your employees truly feel heard? That’s what this statement is really about. Employees need to know senior leaders understand what the day to day looks like. If senior leaders seem out of the loop, it’s more difficult for employees to connect with the organization’s strategy and mission, and employee satisfaction suffers.
6. This company operates by strong values.
A solid foundation of values helps to hold a workplace together. They create a powerful declaration of your intentions for your organization’s culture. Answers to this statement can also surface examples of ethical or unethical behavior that your employees see day-to-day. Values keep your organization moving forward, but issues with values can become very visible very fast. The best employee satisfaction surveys include a specific question around organizational values.
7. My manager makes it easier to do my job well.
For employees to reach their full potential, they need managers who remove barriers to their success. Empowering employees to take full ownership of their work with minimal obstacles gives them a bigger feeling of accomplishment with each completed task. This means they take more initiative, freeing managers to focus on improving team processes and reaching organizational goals.
8. There is good interdepartmental cooperation at this company.
The best organizations are greater than the sum of their parts, and that’s usually a matter of various departments working together well. When everybody in the organization is working toward a common goal, each department becomes more effective and driven. And when departments work well together, employees feel a real sense of belonging.
9. This company encourages different points of view.
The power of any organization is in its diversity of people, skills, and perspectives. If you want to enable better decision making, improve problem-solving, and power innovative thinking, your culture must welcome input from all sources, regardless of internal politics. When you have many people and perspectives united toward one mission, that’s when the real magic happens. This improves employee satisfaction for sure, and it’s also a major imperative for a successful business in today’s environment.
10. My manager cares about my concerns.
It’s essential to employee well-being that managers care about their employees as people and show real interest in their goals and concerns. When they do, they create an environment of trust and mutual respect that helps employees feel safe to innovate and take ownership. This helps the employee, the manager, and the whole organization work better together.
Satisfied employees want to stay with your organization. They also produce higher quality work and provide better customer service. An employee satisfaction survey is an excellent way to measure what really matters to your employees. It gives employees the opportunity to be heard, and it’s the first step in building a successful culture that produces bottom-line results.
How to Conduct an Employee Engagement Survey
Energage’s Workplace Survey measures 15 culture drivers organized in four themes or “imperatives,” as well as what we call The Basics, The Leader, and Engagement. Culture Drivers are statements that are the most important part of the survey because they show you your path to better outcomes. Each of the statements are measured using a sevenpoint Likert scale, from “Strongly Disagree” to “Neutral” and “Strongly Agree.” The survey is simple to administer and quick and easy to take.
One of our survey experts will help you get started with administering your employee engagement survey. Or, if you want to learn more, please visit our Workplace Survey page to help answer any questions you may have.
