--- title: "Employee Satisfaction Survey Questions: 24 Examples | Formswrite Blog" description: "24 employee satisfaction survey questions on pay, workload, management and work environment, with answer scales, anonymity tips and a free survey generator." canonical: https://formswrite.com/blog/employee-satisfaction-survey-questions last-updated: 2026-10-08 --- # Employee Satisfaction Survey Questions: 24 Examples In short An employee satisfaction survey asks how content people are with the conditions of their job: pay, hours, workload, tools, management and the workplace. Use 15 to 20 agreement statements on a 5-point scale, one overall rating and two or three open questions. The 24 questions below are grouped so you can choose the areas that matter for your team. Satisfaction is not the same as engagement. Satisfaction asks "are the conditions of this job acceptable?". Engagement asks "do people care about the work and want to stay?". If you want the second, see our [employee engagement survey questions](/blog/employee-engagement-survey-questions). ## The scale Use this agreement scale for every statement, and keep it the same in every section: - 1 = Strongly disagree - 2 = Disagree - 3 = Neither agree nor disagree - 4 = Agree - 5 = Strongly agree ## Pay and benefits 1. I am paid fairly for the work I do. 2. My benefits meet my needs. 3. I understand how my pay is decided. 4. I believe I would be paid similarly at other organizations for this role. ## Workload and hours 1. My workload is manageable. 2. I can take time off when I need it. 3. My schedule allows a good balance between work and the rest of my life. 4. I rarely have to work outside my agreed hours. ## Management 1. My manager treats me with respect. 2. My manager gives me feedback that helps me improve. 3. I can raise a problem with my manager without worrying about the consequences. 4. Decisions that affect my work are explained to me. ## Tools and environment 1. I have the equipment and software I need to do my job well. 2. My workspace, in the office or at home, is suited to my work. 3. I feel physically and emotionally safe at work. 4. The people on my team work well together. ## Growth and recognition 1. My work is recognised. 2. I have chances to learn new skills. 3. I can see a path for my career here. ## Overall and open questions 1. Overall, how satisfied are you with your job? (Very dissatisfied, Dissatisfied, Neutral, Satisfied, Very satisfied) 2. How likely are you to still be working here in 12 months? (Very unlikely, Unlikely, Not sure, Likely, Very likely) 3. What is the one thing that would most improve your day-to-day work? 4. What do you value most about working here? 5. Is there anything else you would like leadership to know? ## Choosing and ordering questions | Survey length | Questions | Time | | --- | --- | --- | | Pulse check | 1, 5, 9, 13, 20, 22 | 2 minutes | | Standard | Two from each section plus 20 to 22 | 5 to 7 minutes | | Full annual survey | All 24 | 10 minutes | Put the overall rating (question 20) after the specific sections if you want considered answers, or first if you want a quick, unprompted gut reaction. Keep the same position every time so you can compare years. ## Make people feel safe answering - Say who will see the results, and report groups of five or more people only, so nobody can be identified. - Do not ask for a name. Add demographic questions such as department only if you need them, and make them optional. - Run it at a time when the team is not in a crunch. - Share the results within a few weeks, along with one or two actions you will take. A survey with no visible follow-up lowers trust and response rates in the next round. ## Example: what the generator writes for school staff For the brief "anonymous employee engagement survey for a 40-person school staff", the generator's sample asks for role and years at the school, then rates Recognition ("My work is appreciated here"), Workload ("My workload is sustainable", "I can switch off from work at home"), Communication ("Leadership communicates decisions clearly") and Growth and intent ("I see myself working here in two years"). It is a good starting point for a satisfaction survey too: swap the growth block for the pay and benefits statements above. Limits worth knowing: three runs a day per visitor, an upload of up to 10 MB (PDF, Word, PowerPoint or text) or up to 20,000 pasted characters as source material, and an anonymous result is kept for 24 hours unless you save it to a free account. The questionnaire can be written in another language, including Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi and Arabic. ## Build the survey You can write it by hand, or describe your team to the free [employee survey generator](/tools/survey-generator/employee-engagement-survey) and edit the result. It writes agreement statements in blocks with one reverse-worded item per block, plus optional demographics and open questions. Read the survey on the page, download it as Word or print it to PDF without an account, with three runs a day. To collect responses online, host it on Formswrite with a free account. Creating it as a Google Form is a paid export. For help writing the rating items, read our [Likert scale questionnaire examples](/blog/likert-scale-questionnaire-examples), and for a manual build, see [how to create a survey in Google Forms](/blog/how-to-create-a-survey-in-google-forms). [Generate an employee survey free](/tools/survey-generator/employee-engagement-survey) ## FAQ How often should you run an employee satisfaction survey? Once or twice a year for the full survey, and a short pulse of five or six questions every quarter if you want to track change. Running it more often than that tends to tire people unless they see action between rounds. Should an employee satisfaction survey be anonymous? Yes, unless you have a strong reason not to. Anonymity makes answers about pay, managers and workload far more honest. Report results by group and hide any group smaller than five people. What is a good score on an employee satisfaction survey? There is no universal number, because it depends on the scale and the organization. Compare your results with your own last survey and between teams. As a rule of thumb, treat any statement where fewer than half agree as a problem to look at first. What is the difference between employee satisfaction and engagement? Satisfaction measures how acceptable the conditions of the job are, such as pay, hours and tools. Engagement measures how motivated and committed people are to the work. An employee can be satisfied but not engaged, for example someone who is paid fairly but bored.