Employee Satisfaction Survey Template
Four questions give you one satisfaction score. The other twelve show which part of the job to fix first.
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The 16 employee satisfaction survey questions
An employee satisfaction survey asks employees how content they are with their job, their pay, their manager and their organization. An employee engagement survey asks something else: how committed they are. Here, questions 1 to 4 give your score and 5 to 16 show what moves it. You can reword any of them in the online survey creator.
The satisfaction score
The four U.S. federal satisfaction questions, word for word. Their average is your score.[1]
- Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your job?69% of U.S. federal staff were satisfied in 2024.
- Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your organization?64% of U.S. federal staff were satisfied in 2024.
- Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your pay?59% of federal staff were satisfied in 2024, lowest of the four.
- I recommend my organization as a good place to work.69% of U.S. federal staff agreed in 2024.
Work, manager and colleagues
Seven everyday conditions behind the score. Manager support and fairness can fail separately.
- How satisfied are you with the tools and systems you rely on every day?
- How satisfied are you with the support you get from your manager when you need it?
- How satisfied are you with how fairly your manager treats the people on your team?
- How satisfied are you with your chances of promotion here?
- How satisfied are you with the amount of work you are given?
- How satisfied are you with the balance between your work and the rest of your life?
- How satisfied are you with the people you work with every day?
Pay, benefits and recognition
When question 3 scores low, questions 12 and 13 show whether to improve the package or explain pay better.
- How satisfied are you with the benefits you get here?
- How satisfied are you with the way pay decisions are explained to you?fixable without a budget: explain how pay is decided.
- How satisfied are you with the recognition you get for doing a good job?
In their words, then the close
One optional open answer, then a closing rating on whether speaking up changes anything.
- What one change would make you more satisfied at work?each answer names one fix, easy to count and group.
- How satisfied are you with how your organization responds when you raise a concern?
How to conduct an employee satisfaction survey
Send it to every employee in the same month each year, away from pay reviews, and keep the wording so each score compares with the last. Post the link where staff read messages: 73.9% of responses on SuperSurvey come from a phone.[2] For results by team, give each team its own link.
Percent positive is the share of answers at 4 or 5. Average it across questions 1 to 4 and you have your satisfaction score. U.S. federal staff scored 65% on the same four in 2024.[1]
Then rank questions 5 to 16 by percent positive and start with the lowest two. If they are the manager questions, a manager effectiveness survey asks each manager's own team what that manager does. If question 1 trails question 2, the job satisfaction survey looks closer at the work itself.
Employee satisfaction survey FAQ
Should an employee satisfaction survey be anonymous?
Yes, so people can rate their pay and their manager freely. This template asks for no name, email or team, and its closing screen says results are only reported for groups of five or more.
How often should companies run employee satisfaction surveys?
Once a year, in the same month and with the same wording, so each score compares with the one before it. Between annual runs, recheck only the one or two areas you chose to improve.
How do you improve employee satisfaction survey results?
Share the score and the two lowest questions with everyone within a month, then fix those two first and say which answers prompted each change. When pay is one of them, compensation survey questions show whether people see their pay as fair.
Michael Hodge, survey methodology · Updated 26 September 2026 · How templates are reviewed
Sources (2)
- U.S. Office of Personnel Management. 2024 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey: Governmentwide Management Report, revised April 2025, pp. 7-8. opm.gov (PDF)
- SuperSurvey Response Benchmark, 16 September 2023 to 25 August 2026: 25,112 analysed surveys with 998,864 completed responses, out of 2,274,520 responses platform-wide. Method note.
Get a satisfaction score you can act on
Sixteen questions that take each employee about three minutes on a phone.
Use this template