Run an anonymous survey

Before you start

• A role with the permission to manage employee surveys. It shows HR & TalentManage Surveys in the sidebar. The built-in HR manager role has it.
• At least 5 active people in the group you want to ask. A survey that would reach fewer cannot be opened.
• Email set up, so people are told when the survey opens. See Set up email.

Know the two screens

1. 1

   Step 1: Manage Surveys is where you run them

   HR & TalentManage Surveys holds “New survey”, the “All surveys” list and, once a survey has been closed, “Trends”. Only people with the permission see this entry.

2. 2

   Step 2: Surveys is where everyone answers

   My WorkSurveys shows each person the open surveys “For you to answer”, and nothing else. If you have the permission, this page also has a “Manage surveys” button that takes you to the other screen.

Create the survey

1. 3

   Step 3: Start a new survey

   Go to HR & TalentManage Surveys and click “New survey”. Enter a “Title”. Optionally set “Closes (optional)”, which cannot be a date that has passed, and write an “Introduction shown to people (optional)”.

   Your instance also starts with two draft surveys, “Team pulse” and “New joiner check-in”. You can click “Edit” on one of those instead of starting a new one.

2. 4

   Step 4: Choose who is asked

   To ask one department only, pick it under “Only this department”. Leave it empty for everyone.

3. 5

   Step 5: Write the questions

   Under “Questions”, a new survey starts with four questions you can reword or remove. Click “Add a question” for more, up to 20. A survey needs at least one. For each question choose the “Answer”:

   • “Agree, 1 to 5”: from strongly disagree to strongly agree.
   • “Recommend, 0 to 10”: from not at all likely to extremely likely. The results give this as an eNPS figure.
   • “Written answer”: free text, up to 1,000 characters.

   Click “Save”. The survey is a “Draft”. Nobody is asked until you open it. A draft you do not want can be removed with “Delete”.

Open it and let people answer

1. 6

   Step 6: Open the survey

   On the survey’s row, click “Open” and confirm with “Open survey”. Every active person in the audience is asked by email, and a message tells you how many people were asked.

   After opening, the questions and who is asked cannot change. Only the title, the introduction and the closing date can. People who join the company after the survey was opened are not asked.
2. 7

   Step 7: How people answer

   Each person opens My WorkSurveys, finds the survey under “For you to answer” marked “Waiting for you”, and clicks “Answer”. They can skip any question but must answer at least one, then click “Send my answers”. The row then shows “Answered”.

   A person answers once. There is no draft, and an answer cannot be changed afterwards. “Not now” closes the dialog without sending anything.

   The same steps, written for the person answering, are in Answer a staff survey.

3. 8

   Step 8: Watch the response count

   While the survey is open, its row in “All surveys” shows how many of the people asked have answered. That count is all you can see until you close it.

   If the closing date passes, the row is marked “Closing date passed” and nobody can answer any more. The survey is not closed for you. Close it to read the results, or click “Edit” and set a later date to let people answer again.

How the anonymity works

1. 9

   Step 9: What is stored, and what is not

   • An answer sheet is stored with no name and no time.
   • Separately, the invitation records only that the person has answered, with no time. This is what stops a second answer.
   • Sending answers is not written to the audit log. Your own actions are: creating, opening, closing, deleting, and opening the results or trends.
   • You see combined results only. There is no breakdown by department or person, and written answers come back in a mixed order.

   Written answers are shown word for word. The answer dialog tells people to avoid writing anything that would identify them. Because no sheet is linked to a person, one person’s answers cannot be exported or deleted on their own.

Close it and read the results

1. 10

   Step 10: Close the survey

   Click “Close” on the row and confirm with “Close survey”. Nobody can answer any more, and a closed survey cannot be reopened or edited.

2. 11

   Step 11: Read the results

   Click “Results” on the closed survey. Results appear only after the survey is closed, and only if at least 5 people answered. With fewer, nothing is shown except how many answered.

   For each question you see how many answered, the average, the spread of answers and, for a “Recommend, 0 to 10” question, the eNPS: the share who answered 9 or 10 minus the share who answered 0 to 6. Written answers are listed as text. Opening the results is recorded in the audit log.

Run it again and compare

1. 12

   Step 12: Run again

   On a closed survey, click “Run again”. It makes a new draft with the same title, introduction, questions and audience. No answers and no closing date are carried over. Check the draft, then open it as in step 6.

2. 13

   Step 13: Read Trends

   “Trends”, lower on HR & TalentManage Surveys, follows each numbered question across your closed surveys, with the latest figure, the change since the last one, and a table of every survey it was asked in. Written answers have no trend.

   Only closed surveys with at least 5 answers are included. The others are counted in a chip that says how many were left out.

   Trends match a question by its wording. If you reword a question in a draft, the form says “New wording: Trends will follow this as a new question.” Use “Run again” and leave the wording alone to keep one line. Surveys asked of different groups are not like for like.

What you should see

If something goes wrong

Opening is refused with "An anonymous survey needs at least 5 people."

Fewer than 5 active people would be asked. Widen the audience: clear Only this department, or pick a larger department.

The Open button is greyed out, or opening says the closing date has passed.

The draft has a closing date in the past. Click Edit, set a later date or clear it, save, then open it.

Results says "Fewer than 5 people answered, so the results are not shown."

That is the anonymity rule and it cannot be lowered. A closed survey cannot be reopened; use Run again and give people longer to answer.

There is no Results button.

Results is on closed surveys only. Close the survey first.

A question needs changing after the survey was opened.

Questions and the audience are fixed once it is open. Close it, click Run again, change the draft and open the new one.

Someone sent the wrong answer and wants to change it.

They cannot, and nor can you: nothing records which answer sheet is theirs.

A person says the survey is not on their Surveys page.

They were not active, or not in the chosen department, when it was opened; or it has closed or its closing date has passed.

There is no Trends card.

It appears once at least one survey has been closed. A question shows a line once two closed surveys with at least 5 answers each have asked it.

There is no Manage Surveys in the sidebar.

It needs the permission to manage employee surveys and a plan with HR records.

Still stuck? See When something goes wrong, or Contact Zonitix support.

Where next

• Set goals
• Run a review cycle
• Set up email
• Roles, groups and permissions