A new survey of tech workers places the highest optimism at Apple, where employees believe their company will continue to have a bright future ahead of it under the leadership of Tim Cook.

UBS Evidence Lab polled employees at major tech firms and had them evaluate their workplace. The survey found that Apple was far and away the leader among companies surveyed, taking first place in all categories assessed.

As part of the poll, employees were asked about business outlook, culture, values, management, and their corporation's CEO. Analyst Steven Milunovich said he believes these "soft" factors are important, since financial reports indicate what's already been done.

Coming out particularly strong in the UBS ratings was Cook, Apple's CEO, who rated higher among employees than the rest of the company's management team.

To Milunovich, the strong assessment of Apple by its own employees bodes well for the Mac maker's future. The analyst said he was not surprised that Apple took first place among the companies polled, beating out second-place finisher EMC.

Other companies surveyed, in the order they placed, were NetApp, Cognizant, Accenture, HP, and IBM. Only HP and IBM finished below the industry average, according to UBS.

IBM, in particular, came in last in each category, with employee confidence in management especially low. Milunovich said cultural change is needed at IBM, which will take time, but he believes recent reorganization attempts may start to turn things around.