What it is and what it's for#
Launching a survey is the easy part. What decides whether it is worth anything is what happens next: who can look at the answers, in how much detail, and down to what name.
Before looking at a single number there are two things to be clear about, because everything else depends on them.
The survey and the wave are not the same thing. The survey is the questionnaire: its questions and its configuration. The wave is each time you launch it. The same survey run in January and in June is two waves, and comparing those two snapshots is exactly what the distinction exists for. See Surveys, quizzes and climate.
A survey is either anonymous or it isn't, and that changes the screen. It isn't a filter you switch on when looking at the results: it is a property of the survey, the anonymous-answers tick box on its form in Surveys. If it is anonymous, the results only exist in aggregate. If it isn't, on top of the aggregate you can see who answered what.
Anonymity is decided before the first wave is launched: as soon as one exists, the anonymous-answers tick box is locked and can no longer be changed. It is the only decision in the whole programme that admits no correction: if you promised anonymity and the survey was not anonymous, there is no way back.
How to set it up#
Results are not configured: they are calculated on their own from what people answer. What you do decide, and decide beforehand, is what you will be able to read.
- 1
When you create the survey, whether it is anonymous or named
This is the underlying decision. It determines which results screen you will have and what you can promise the people answering.
- 2
When you launch each wave, who it goes to
Locations, organisational units or tribes. The reach of the wave decides who can answer.
- 3
When you look at the results, how you slice the data
The selectors on the screen: survey and wave for anonymous surveys; organisation, tribe and location as well for named ones. Nothing changes here: you only choose which part you look at.
Scale questions are the only ones that produce an average comparable across waves. If you want to be able to say "we have gone from 3.4 to 3.8", that question has to be a scale question from the very first wave.
The two screens#
Results are read under Analyze › Surveys Analysis, on a different screen depending on the type of survey, and they don't work the same way:
- Anonymous Questionnaires opens the Survey analytics screen. It loads on its own, with the first survey and its most recent wave, and has only two selectors: Survey and Wave. It is not sliced by organisation, location or tribe. See Anonymous Questionnaires.
- Nominal Questionnaires starts empty, with a General filters block (if the project has no nominal survey, the survey selector is empty): Filter by Survey (mandatory), Filter by Survey Run, Filter by Organisation, Filter by Tribe and Filter by Location. It fills in with Refresh Data. See Nominal Questionnaires.
On Nominal Questionnaires, combining Filter by Tribe with the organisation or location filters widens the population instead of narrowing it: anyone who meets one criterion or the other is included, not only those who meet both. If you want the exact cross of "this tribe at this site", don't get it from here.
How to read them#
What the respondent sees#
This is the part worth explaining properly, because people decide whether to answer based on what they believe happens to their answer.
- When there is a wave open for them, they see it with the points they get for completing it and the closing date.
- If the survey is anonymous, their answers cannot be attributed to them. It is recorded that they took part, because otherwise there would be no way to credit them the points.
- If the survey is not anonymous, their answers carry their name and their email address, and anyone with access to the results can read them one by one.
- Points are given for completing the survey, not for what is answered. No answer scores more than another.
"Anonymous" does not mean the same thing to you as it does to the person answering: people assume anonymous means that not even their participation is known. Say it plainly before the first wave — "we don't know what you answered, we do know that you answered, and that is only so we can give you the points" — and you save yourself the awkward conversation halfway through the campaign.
Anonymous results#
The screen answers three questions: who has answered (Participation, Completion, the Waves block and When people answer, which shows how many days it took for most answers to come in), where people drop off (Biggest drop-off) and what each question says (Question by question). Above them, What to do now suggests where to start.
In Question by question there is one card per question: scale questions with their average and the split by value; choice questions with the split by answer; free-text ones with a sample of what people wrote, with no author. Every block and how it is calculated is in Anonymous Questionnaires.
There is no more depth than that, and it is deliberate: if the survey is anonymous, there is no per-person view to open.
In an anonymous survey, the free text is the only thing that explains the number. A 2.8 on "workload" doesn't tell you what to do; three comments mentioning the same shift do.
Named results#
When the survey is not anonymous, the Nominal Questionnaires screen offers two modes:
One card per question, with the average out of the top of the scale and the number of answers.
This is the view you always start with. It is for working out where to look.
You pick a person — the selector searches by first name, surname or email — and you see their answers, question by question.
It is for preparing a specific conversation, not for building a ranking.
The By employee view is the reason anonymity is not a decision to take lightly. If a named survey asks about climate, about the direct manager or about the intention to stay, that screen exists and someone is going to open it. Only ask by name what you would be willing to discuss with the person face to face.
The automatic report#
On Nominal Questionnaires, when you open the screen a Survey analysis block offers to analyse the results with AI and generate a report with the Generate report button. It is not generated on its own, and beforehand the screen warns you that the data is shared anonymously with an external provider (OpenAI), that the feature is in beta and that, if the report comes out hard to read, you should generate it again. The anonymous screen has no automatic report.
The report summarises and organises what is already in the answers. It is useful for not having to read three hundred free-text answers by hand, not for replacing the reading of the ones that matter.
Taking it out#
Only Nominal Questionnaires has Download, which exports the results to a spreadsheet with who each answer belongs to. The anonymous screen has no download.
Frequently asked questions#
Can I compare two waves on the same screen?
There is no side-by-side view of results. For anonymous surveys, the Waves block compares each launch's participation; results are read wave by wave and noted down. For named ones, you can export each wave with Download and build the comparison outside.
If I don't select a wave, what am I looking at?
For named surveys, all the answers to that survey together, across every wave. For anonymous ones the screen opens on the most recent wave, and All waves puts them together. Mixing waves is an average of averages that is almost never what you want: if you have launched more than once, look at one wave.
Can I find out who hasn't answered?
In a named survey you can see who has answered, and work it out from there. In an anonymous one you can't, not even indirectly.
I changed a question between waves. Can it still be compared?
Not reliably. The series breaks: they are two different questions even if they look alike. If you need to ask something else, create a new survey and leave the original as it is.
Fewer answers appear than I expected.
Check the reach of the wave first: only the people it was sent to can answer. Then the dates: a wave only accepts answers while it is open.
Who can get into this screen?
Only accounts with admin permissions. A team manager does not see the survey results of their people. See The admin panel.
Limits and warnings#
- Anonymity cannot be changed once the survey has been launched. It is the decision with the most consequences in the whole module and it is taken before there is any data.
- An anonymous survey has no per-person view. It isn't hidden or restricted: it does not exist.
- For named surveys, the tribe filter and the organisation or location filters add up, they do not cross. Used at the same time they widen the population instead of narrowing it.
- Nominal Questionnaires starts empty. If you see it blank, the most likely explanation is that Refresh Data has not been pressed, not that there are no answers. The anonymous one loads on its own.
- With no wave selected, or with All waves, all of them are mixed together. Averages across several waves at once don't mean much.
- A survey with few answers is not representative, and even less so if you slice it by site. With four answers in one shop, the percentage is anecdotal. See Analytics and reports.