Anonymity is essential in employee surveys. That’s why Dialog prioritizes employee anonymity. As a result, some data may be hidden in the platform. If this happens, you will find an explanation in the platform.
This article explains how anonymity is ensured in Dialog and provides examples of different cases.
Anonymity rules
Survey results can be analyzed based on different segments that the organization selects. The following segments are available:
- Teams
- Job roles
- Gender
- Age
- Employment duration
To ensure anonymity, three key rules must be met for results to be displayed:
- Minimum of 5 respondents – Results are only shown when at least 5 employees in a segment have completed the survey.
- Protecting smaller segments – Even if a segment has more than 5 respondents, results may be hidden if they could reveal the responses of a smaller overlapping segment.
- Protecting overlapping segments – Results may be hidden if a segment overlaps too much with another, making it possible to deduce individual responses.
Below are examples of how these rules are applied.
Rule 1 - Minimum of 5 Respondents
If fewer than 5 employees in a segment complete the survey, the results for that segment are hidden. If a segment has fewer than 5 employees, its results will never be shown. The number of responses from that segment will also be hidden.
In the platform, this is indicated with the following tooltip.
Rule 2 - Protecting Smaller Segments
Even if a segment has more than 5 respondents, results may be hidden to protect a smaller segment. See the example below.
The Inbound Sales team results are hidden because there are not enough employees to fill in the survey.
The results of the Marketing team are also hidden. Not due to a lack of responses, but to protect the responses of the single employee from Inbound Sales and the single employee from Marketing & Sales
If the Marketing Team's results were visible, it would be possible to deduce the responses from the employees from Inbound Sales and Marketing & Sales.
Be aware: More access can lead to fewer visible results
- If you have access to multiple teams, some results may be hidden to protect smaller segments.
- If you only had access to the Marketing Team, its results would be visible, since there would be no other teams to compare with.
Rule 3 - Protecting Overlapping Segments
If a segment has more than 5 respondents but overlaps too much with another segment, its results may be hidden. See the following example. When this rule applies, the 'overlap-icon' is shown.
Customer Support results are hidden because they overlap with the results of Team Customer Support. The results of Teamlead Customers Support include
-
- 10 Customer Support employees
- 1 Team Lead
- Total: 11 employees
If both sets of results were shown, it would be possible to identify the Team Leader's responses by comparing the two groups. When you click on the overlap-icon, you will see the results of the overlapping segment, because those are roughly the same.