Best questions for employee survey about job satisfaction

Here are some of the best questions for an employee survey about job satisfaction, plus tips for crafting them to get honest feedback and drive engagement. We regularly build these types of surveys in seconds—if you're ready to generate your own, you can build a job satisfaction survey with AI using Specific.

The best open-ended questions for job satisfaction surveys

Open-ended questions invite employees to express their unique perspectives and feelings—key for understanding what really drives satisfaction or frustration at work. These questions give space for nuance and context, which is critical when only 32% of US employees feel passionate or engaged with their job, a low point in the last decade. [1] Use open-ended questions when you want genuine stories, constructive criticism, or fresh ideas, instead of just numbers or checkboxes.

1. What aspects of your job do you enjoy the most and why?

2. Are there any tasks or responsibilities you find particularly challenging? Please explain.

3. How do you feel about the communication within your team and with management?

4. In your opinion, what could be improved to make your work more meaningful?

5. Can you describe a recent experience at work that made you feel valued—or undervalued?

6. What motivates you to stay with the company?

7. What could we do to help you grow your skills or advance your career?

8. Is there anything making your daily work unnecessarily difficult?

9. When you think about our company culture, what stands out to you?

10. What advice would you give to leadership to improve job satisfaction?

Single-select multiple-choice questions for clarity and analysis

Single-select multiple-choice questions are perfect when you need clear, quantifiable answers, or want an easy starting point for deeper conversations. Sometimes it’s less intimidating for employees to pick from a shortlist—once they do, you can follow up to gather richer detail. They're also essential if you plan on tracking trends over time or visualizing results for senior management.

Here are a few examples with choices:

Question: How satisfied are you with your current role?

• Very satisfied

• Satisfied

• Neutral

• Dissatisfied

• Very dissatisfied

Question: How often do you feel recognized for your work?

• Always

• Often

• Sometimes

• Rarely

• Never

Question: Which factor affects your job satisfaction the most?

• Work-life balance

• Compensation and benefits

• Opportunities for growth

• Management/leadership

• Other

When to follow up with "why?" Adding a "why?" or "please elaborate" followup is powerful when a multiple-choice or even open-ended response prompts curiosity or needs clarification. For instance, if someone selects "dissatisfied" when asked about their current role, immediately following up with "Can you tell us what makes you feel dissatisfied?" leads to actionable insights.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? The "Other" option is critical when you know you can’t predict every possible answer. This lets employees voice issues or factors not on your radar. Smart followup questions on “Other” responses often reveal insights you’d never get from standard options.

NPS survey question for job satisfaction

Net Promoter Score (NPS) isn’t just for customers—it’s a proven way to measure how likely your employees are to recommend your company as a place to work. It simplifies overall job satisfaction into a single, quantifiable question and can highlight shifts in culture or morale before they become bigger problems. Given that companies with highly engaged employees can boost productivity by 17% and profitability by 22% [2], knowing your internal NPS is invaluable.

You can instantly generate a tailored NPS survey for employees to capture this vital metric with Specific.

The power of follow-up questions

Specific’s AI-powered surveys make every response feel like a two-way conversation by instantly generating real-time follow-up questions based on context. This lets you probe for missing details and surface context you might otherwise miss—saving time you’d spend chasing people down with emails. That makes your survey feel more like a thoughtful chat than a static form, which is why AI-driven interviews often see response rates of 70–90% (compared to the 10–30% average for traditional surveys). [3]

• Employee: "I’m not satisfied with the recognition at work."

• AI follow-up: "Can you share an example where you felt your efforts went unnoticed? What kind of recognition would have made a difference?"

How many followups to ask? Two to three targeted follow-up questions per response are usually enough to extract depth without overwhelming employees. Set a limit, or allow the AI to auto-skip to the next question when enough detail is reached. Specific provides a setting for fine-tuning this balance.

This makes it a conversational survey—the experience mirrors a natural discussion, which unlocks more candid and detailed feedback.

AI survey analysis is easy, even with piles of open-ended responses. Our advanced analysis tools (learn how to analyze responses with AI) summarize, categorize, and extract themes from unstructured text, revealing what's really driving job satisfaction—no spreadsheets needed.

This automated, conversational approach is new to many teams: try generating a survey with Specific and see how it changes your feedback process.

Prompts for using ChatGPT or AI to generate survey questions

Want to use AI (like ChatGPT or Specific’s prompt-based survey builder) to come up with more job satisfaction questions? Start simple, and iterate for better results. Copy or adapt these prompt examples:

If you want a quick brainstorm:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for an employee survey about job satisfaction.

But you’ll get more relevant, insightful results by setting the scene for the AI. For example:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for an employee survey about job satisfaction, focusing on employees in a fast-growing tech startup where remote work and team collaboration are major priorities. The goal is to understand what keeps employees motivated and what could be improved.

Refine your question set by categorizing them. Try this prompt:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

After reviewing categories, you might want more depth on one area. For example:

Generate 10 questions for categories Work-life Balance and Leadership Communication.

What is a conversational survey?

Conversational surveys use AI to adapt to the flow of each respondent’s answers, turning a rigid form into a chat-like exchange. The difference from manual survey creation is dramatic: AI can generate questions, customize followups, and analyze responses—all while the respondent feels heard, not just processed.

Why use AI for employee surveys? AI-powered survey builders like Specific make the process dramatically faster and less biased, and unlock higher response rates and richer detail. Plus, AI easily processes all answers—even text-heavy ones—spotting patterns that would be impossible to find manually. That’s why AI-generated survey examples are setting new standards for feedback in workplaces everywhere.

Our conversational surveys offer a top-tier experience for both creators and employees—frictionless to fill out, with instant followups and easy analysis. Want step-by-step help? Read our guide to creating a job satisfaction survey with AI.

See this job satisfaction survey example now

Jumpstart meaningful feedback and see tangible improvements in employee engagement—generate a conversational job satisfaction survey now and discover insights that drive impact!