SE2: Employee Satisfaction Survey
Maximum Score
1 point
Input Method
Assessment Portal
Prefill
Eligible
Scoring method
Static
Validation
Evidence and Other answer are manually validated
2026 Updates
None
Has the entity undertaken an employee satisfaction survey within the last three years?
Assessment Instructions
Intent: What is the purpose of this indicator?
This indicator examines whether and to what extent the entity engages with employees regarding their satisfaction. Employee satisfaction surveys help entities understand critical issues within the business, engage with their staff and increase employee satisfaction, which may contribute to improving retention rates and overall productivity.
Using widely applied employee satisfaction surveys should be translated into easily interpretable metrics that can help analyze and compare outcomes, despite the many variations between departments and teams.
Input: How do I complete this indicator?
Select yes or no. If yes, select all applicable sub-options.
Percentage of employees covered = Number of employees who received the satisfaction survey / Total number of employees at the time of survey administration x 100%
Survey response rate = Number of individual survey responses / Number of employees who received the satisfaction survey x 100%
Terminology
Employee(s)
The entity’s employees whose primary responsibilities include the operation or support of the entity.
Employee satisfaction survey
Survey measuring overall and work-specific employee satisfaction at the individual and entity levels. The survey should directly address employee concerns and include the opportunity to provide recommendations for improvement.
Independent third party (survey-specific)
In the context of survey administration, an independent third party is an external organization that is financially and structurally independent from the reporting entity and is responsible for administering the survey in a matter that safeguards the impartiality, integrity, and quality of survey results. For a survey to be considered third-party administered:
The organization administering the survey must be a separate legal entity from the fund manager or reporting entity.
The administrator must ensure that the reporting entity cannot access, edit, or influence individual responses or aggregated survey results once the survey is launched.
Participant anonymity must be preserved, and the survey process must protect the integrity of the data and the resulting quantitative metrics.
The use of survey development tools, such as SurveyMonkey and SurveyGizmo, may not qualify as an independent third party unless the tool’s service explicitly includes independent creation and administration. This must be clearly specified in the evidence provided.
Net promoter score
The Net Promoter Score ® (NPS) is a customer loyalty metric developed by Bain & Company, Fred Reichheld, and Satmetrix. It divides customers, tenants or employees into three segments: passives, detractors and promoters, using the following question “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely would you be to recommend this company (or this product) to friends and colleagues?” The Net Promoter Score ® (NPS) ratings of 9 or 10 indicate promoters; 7 and 8, passives; and 0 through 6, detractors. The NPS is the percentage of promoters minus the percentage detractors. NPS can be represented in surveys as a question asking a survey respondent about their likelihood to recommend the company.
Overall employee satisfaction score
An overarching metric in a satisfaction survey, with no prescribed scale, that measures how happy an employee is with the entity. The industry best practice is a 1-5 scale - very poor, poor, average, good, and excellent, respectively. Overall engagement score is a separate metric from overall satisfaction score and can be reported as an other answer. While satisfied employees are happy with their current situation, engaged employees proactively help to improve the company and their working environment.
Quantitative metric
Any measure or parameter in employee or tenant satisfaction that can be represented numerically.
Validation: What evidence is required?
Evidence
The evidence provided will be subject to manual validation.
The evidence must :
Confirm that the survey was conducted.
Specify whether it was undertaken internally, by an *independent third party, or both.
If both options are selected, the evidence must demonstrate that at least one of the surveys was conducted by an independent third party.
The relationship between the entity and the independent third party must be clearly explained either within the evidence itself or in the accompanying open text box.
*Third-party Independence: Beginning in 2026, GRESB will request additional documentation from a random sample of participants to confirm the third-party independence of their survey provider (as defined in the Terminology section above). GRESB may reject an entity's evidence if it cannot confirm third-party independence. Please note that this will not apply to participants who select 'Internally' as their survey administration method.
Confirm that the data collected through the survey corresponds to one of the last three reporting years (2025, 2024, or 2023).
The survey must have been distributed no later than the last day of the reporting year to ensure alignment with the reporting period. The aggregation and analysis of the survey data must be completed before the GRESB submission deadline.
If the survey results report is dated after the reporting year, the entity must provide the survey results report and the sample survey with dates that confirm the survey was conducted within the last three reporting years.
Appropriate evidence includes:
A sample survey (completed questionnaire)
Survey results reports containing aggregated feedback
Blank survey template containing aggregated feedback
Blank survey templates unaccompanied by aggregated results are not acceptable as evidence. If applicable, the evidence must also include the quantitative metrics selected for the analysis.
Other Answer
The other answer(s) provided will be subject to manual validation.
State the other quantitative metric included in the employee satisfaction survey. The other answer must be a measure or parameter in employee satisfaction that can be represented numerically. This can include, but is not limited to, the overall satisfaction with the working conditions. A metric about the survey itself (i.e., user-friendliness) is not appropriate. It is possible to report multiple other answers. If multiple other answers are acceptable, only one will be counted towards scoring.
Scoring
Scoring: How does GRESB score this indicator?
The scoring of this indicator is equal to the sum of the fractions assigned to the selected options and respective sub-options, multiplied by the total score of the indicator.
Percentage number: The coverage percentage reported is used as a multiplier to determine the assigned score. The survey response rate is not factored into the scoring and is only used for reporting purposes
Evidence: The evidence is manually validated and assigned a multiplier, according to the table below. The evidence must support the validation requirements.
If any requirements are not met, the evidence may be partially accepted or not accepted depending on the level of alignment with the requirements.
Accepted
2/2
Partially Accepted
1/2
Not Accepted
0
Other: The 'Other' answer is manually validated and assigned a score which is used as a multiplying factor, as per the table below:
Accepted
1/1
Not Accepted
0
Duplicate
0
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I conduct my employee satisfaction survey after the reporting year ends?
You can analyze survey data after the reporting year, but the survey must have been distributed before the end of the reporting year. The analysis must be finalized before the GRESB submission deadline.
Can GRESB recommend any reliable third-party company for the employee satisfaction survey?
Participants have historically used many different third parties to conduct the satisfaction survey. GRESB does not have a particular recommendation for a third-party company. However, it is important to note that the third party is overseeing the creation of the content and the analysis of the results of the survey independently from the participant. Therefore, survey development tools, such as SurveyMonkey, are not accepted as third parties.
References
GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards, 2016: 102-43, Approach to stakeholder engagement
Bain & Company, Introducing: The Net Promoter System®
Get Support: Solution Providers
GRESB Solution Providers are independent, third-party organizations within the GRESB Partner network that offer specialized products, tools, and services to support sustainability performance outside the GRESB Assessment process.
The organizations below deliver commercially available solutions designed to help drive improvement for this indicator. Engagement is managed directly between the reporting entity and the Solution Provider.
GRESB will continue to update this section as the GRESB Solution Provider network grows. Please check back regularly to find GRESB Solution Providers who can support your sustainability performance.
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