Reassure Employees About Engagement Survey Anonymity

Learn how to reassure your employees that the engagement survey is anonymous, so more of them feel safe taking it.

You may hear that employees are hesitant to take the engagement survey because they don't believe it's really anonymous. It is. Here's how to put that worry to rest.

Why employees worry

Employees reach the survey through a QR code or link tied to their employee profile, so it's natural for them to wonder whether their answers are tied to their name too. They aren't.

What makes it anonymous

You can tell your team this plainly and mean it. Retain uses their contact info only to send the survey and track who has taken it — never to link answers to a name.

• The results and comment reports show no names.
• You can filter results by location, department, and generation, but never by person.
• If a department has fewer than five responses, Retain hides that department's results so no one can be singled out.

The one exception is comments: if an employee names a manager or coworker, that name shows. Encourage comments, and let employees know they can leave specific names out if they'd rather.

The engagement survey labels that it's anonymous, right in the header.

Keep in mind: the semi-annual, organization-wide engagement survey is anonymous. The new-hire surveys employees take in their first 90 days are not — and Retain labels each one clearly so employees can always tell the difference. For a short, employee-facing answer, point them to are the surveys anonymous?

Tell your team what you'll do with the feedback

Participation goes up when employees trust that their feedback won't be used to single anyone out. Before the survey opens, share a clear plan for how you'll use what you learn to improve their work.

Once the survey closes, turn the feedback into goals with your management team. A few questions to work through: Is the concern valid, or is it an opinion? How can we use it to improve? What are we doing well that we should keep doing?

For example, pay comes up often. Instead of letting it sit, reach out to that department and explain how pay is set: Is there room to grow it? How does it compare to other facilities nearby? Could you reward people another way, like a day off after a stretch of on-time shifts?

For more on using what you learn, see best practices for engagement survey results.