Microsoft has overtaken Apple in employee happiness for the first time since 2012.
Market analyst UBS used data from recruitment website Glassdoor to track approval, opportunities for career advancement and overall business outlook from 9000 Microsoft employees and 1000 LinkedIn employees.
"The overall results are supportive of our thesis that [Microsoft] has once again become a destination for top tech talent, with annual ratings consistently improving and ahead of peers," UBS analyst Brent Thill said.
Microsoft's approval rating so far for 2016 was 10 percent above the industry average, beating out Apple for the first time since UBS began tracking employee sentiment in 2012.
Business Insider reported that Microsoft had seen a massive improvement in chief executive approval since Satya Nadella took over in 2014. By the end of 2013, former chief executive Steve Ballmer had just 51 percent approval, compared to 88 percent for Nadella by the end of 2015.
Approval for LinkedIn's chief executive Jeff Weiner has dropped from 95 percent to 85 percent since Microsoft announced it would acquire the social media network for US$26.6 billion (A$35 billion).
Microsoft threw out its controversial "stack ranking" system, which forced managers to rank each of their employees from top to bottom. Microsoft's new performance review system allows managers to allocate rewards based on teamwork and engagement.
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