What are good employee satisfaction survey questions?

Employee satisfaction surveys measure how content people are with their jobs. While satisfaction and engagement overlap, satisfaction focuses more on day‑to‑day experiences and basic needs. Here are sample questions:

• Overall satisfaction: “On a scale of 1–10, how satisfied are you with your job overall?”
• Workload: “My workload is appropriate for my role.” (Rate from strongly disagree to strongly agree)
• Compensation: “I am fairly compensated for my work.”
• Recognition: “I receive adequate recognition for my accomplishments.”
• Work–life balance: “I am able to maintain a healthy work–life balance.”
• Open feedback: “What is one thing the company could do to improve your satisfaction?”

Use a consistent rating scale across questions. Make demographic questions optional to preserve anonymity. For more on protecting identities, see Are employee surveys really anonymous?. To explore engagement questions that go beyond satisfaction, read What are good employee engagement survey questions?. Our blog Employee Engagement Surveys explains why combining satisfaction and engagement metrics yields a fuller picture of employee sentiment.