How to Create an Employee Satisfaction Survey

The benefits that engaged management, strong communication and an overall focus on employee experience can bring to a business are already well established. But with the latest research showing that up to 70% of UK workers are planning to leave their current roles this year, it’s evident that many business leaders are failing to realise the importance of an effective employee satisfaction survey.

Leading a team of satisfied employees doesn’t just contribute towards enhanced company culture and a positive workplace - it produces tangible results that will benefit your organisation right down to the bottom line. In this article, we’ll explain everything you need to know about creating a successful employee satisfaction survey.

Get in touch today to find out how Red Letter Days Corporate can help to improve employee happiness and maximise your company’s performance.

What is an employee satisfaction survey?

An employee satisfaction survey is a questionnaire which assesses the levels of contentment among staff in a workplace. These surveys are essential tools in today’s job market, and are used by businesses across the globe to improve employee engagement and maximise organisational performance.

A well-conducted survey should measure employee attitudes towards every aspect of their working life. From workloads to progression prospects, managerial relationships to salaries and benefits - anything which might have an impact on employee satisfaction should be discussed in an honest and authentic manner.

Why is employee satisfaction important?

When you start to look at the statistics, there’s little wonder as to why an engaged and satisfied workforce is a high priority for top-performing firms. Research has found that employees who feel engaged in a positive company culture are 87% less likely to seek out a new role, illustrating the staggering benefits that increased employee contentment can bring about.

Employee satisfaction is a critical component of the modern working world, and can benefit your business in a multitude of meaningful ways, like:

Boosting employee effort, performance and productivity levels.

Reducing employee disengagement and churn.

Improving performance among customer-facing departments, leading to heightened customer satisfaction.

Fostering a positive workplace culture.

Tangibly impacting growth, profitability and other top-level business outcomes.

How to measure employee satisfaction

Investigating the levels of contentment among your workforce should not begin and end with monthly meetings or an annual report. Keeping your finger to the pulse of how your employees are feeling about work on a day-to-day basis is pivotal, and can provide you with valuable insights that will benefit your business’ performance.

There are numerous methods by which you can gain an accurate understanding of your employees’ contentment, many of which are easy to incorporate on a regular and ongoing basis. If you’re looking to maximise your company’s approach to employee satisfaction, try implementing:

Employee satisfaction surveys.

Regular one-on-one meetings between employees and line managers.

A record of absenteeism to document irregularities.

Anonymous employee suggestion boxes or message boards.

A record of workforce turnover rates.

Focus groups centred around employee contentment.

A record of ex-employee reviews from sources like Glassdoor and Indeed.

The best employee satisfaction survey questions for maximising organisational performance

While all of the methods listed above can be valuable in gauging contentment among your workforce, it’s important to underpin your efforts with a strong foundation of frequent employee satisfaction surveys. Often referred to as pulse surveys - these short and regularly-conducted questionnaires tend to produce a much higher response rate, and quickly provide you with actionable feedback regarding every facet of your employees’ satisfaction.

The importance of employee satisfaction surveys is clear, but knowing exactly which questions to ask and which areas to focus on can be tricky. We’ve broken down some of the most effective employee satisfaction survey questions that will keep your workforce feeling positive and your business performing at peak levels.

1. Agree/disagree/neither questions

Ensuring that your employees can provide simple, quantifiable feedback is instrumental in conducting a successful employee contentment survey. Too many complicated , open-ended questions will not only leave you with data that lacks clarity - they will increase the chances of employees not giving the questionnaire their full attention, or failing to answer it entirely.

Allow your staff members to answer questions on a simple scale of one to three. Provide them with a statement, and ask whether they agree, disagree, or feel neutral towards it. Some general examples to include might be:

I feel engaged and challenged in my day-to-day work.

My workload is achievable within my contracted hours.

I feel that my role is valued within the workplace.

I feel comfortable expressing my feelings at work.

2. Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)

The Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) is a key employee satisfaction metric that compiles clear data from one simple question: On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend your company as a place to work? If this question feels familiar, that’s because it’s been a core element of customer satisfaction strategies for years.

To calculate the eNPS of your business, start by recording the number of employees who have responded with either a 9 or 10 score - these are known as promoters. Next, record the number of employees who have submitted a score between 1 and 6 - otherwise known as detractors. Responses of 7 and 8 are seen as passive, and should be excluded from the final calculation:

%Promoters – %Detractors = eNPS.

An eNPS of between 10-30 is considered good, while any score above 30 indicates excellent levels of employee satisfaction.

3. Rating scale questions

The ePNS is a great way to set a solid foundation for your employee satisfaction survey, but there are lots of other scale-based questions which can provide further clarity around levels of staff contentment. Using a similar formula across other areas of the employee experience provides you with clear, standardised data and broader insights into how your workforce is feeling.

Using the same 1-10 scale, try asking your employees some of the following questions:

What level of accomplishment do you feel in your day-to-day work?

How well do you understand the overall goal of the organisation?

To what extent do you feel comfortable sharing your ideas at work?

How well does your department work together as a team?

4. Company culture questions

When it comes to gauging employee satisfaction, attitudes around company culture are far more crucial than you might think. The atmosphere of a workplace is something that your employees encounter every day, and naturally produces a significant impact on their levels of contentment.

The values, attitudes, standards and beliefs of your organisation all factor into company culture. Each of these areas should be touched upon throughout your employee satisfaction survey, and organised in questions like:

The company’s core values are laid out transparently and understood clearly by employees (Agree/Disagree)

How satisfied are you with the communication of important company information to employees? (Rating Scale)

The company endeavours to foster a positive culture of diversity and inclusion within the workplace (Agree/Disagree)

To what extent do you feel that the company respects your personal time? (Rating Scale)

5. Open-ended questions

While they can take a bit more time to answer and provide less quantifiable data than scale-based questions, it’s always wise to include some open-ended questions throughout your employee satisfaction survey.

Open-ended questions offer employees the time and space to communicate their unique ideas, while allowing you to deep-dive into specific areas and gather detailed feedback from individual employee experiences. Some examples of effective open-ended questions include:

What is one thing that you would change about your job?

What are some areas in which the company could improve its performance?

How could the business better support your wellbeing?

What motivates you to perform your best at work?

6. Salary and Benefits Questions

Feelings of discomfort can often lead to a lack of discussion around salary and benefits in the workplace, but an employee satisfaction survey provides the perfect avenue through which to explore these areas. Research has shown that 35% of workers view salary as the most important factor influencing their decision to stay in a company, so it’s certainly not a subject you want to avoid.

Allowing your employees to remain anonymous will encourage them to provide honest feedback regarding their current compensation and benefits package. Here are just a few examples of the questions you might want to include:

How satisfied are you with your current compensation and benefits package? (Rating Scale)

Which company benefits do you find most valuable and why? (Open-ended)

The company’s performance and salary review policy aligns with my expectations (Agree/Disagree)

How could the company improve its current salary and benefits offering? (Open-ended)

How Red Letter Days Corporate Can Boost Employee Satisfaction Levels

Now that you know how to construct an effective employee satisfaction survey, why not find out more about how Red Letter Days Corporate can help to further improve employee engagement and happiness within your business?

In today’s competitive business landscape, it’s more important than ever that your staff feels valued, appreciated and positive about their workplace. Browse our tailored selection of employee incentives and experiences to maximise loyalty and contentment among your workforce.

Get in touch with a member of our friendly team today, and start learning more about how we can maximise employee satisfaction across all levels of your business.