Bringing your historical survey data into Culture Amp can provide helpful context and insights. In most cases, the fastest and simplest way to do this is through External Comparisons, which allow you to benchmark current survey results against past scores.
This guide will walk you through factors to consider when bringing data over from an external provider and explain why External Comparisons are usually the best approach for most organizations.
If your team has a specific need to bring across full historical response data, we’ll also cover Full Survey Import considerations.
Why we recommend external comparisons first
For most organizations, External Comparisons are the simplest and quickest way to bring past data into Culture Amp.
Fast turnaround (usually within 2–3 business days)
No need to upload individual responses or participants
External Comparisons can be prepared as soon as the survey has been created and is in active design. Before then, keep the historical data stored securely on your side and ready for preparation.
Useful for comparing current survey results with historical scores in the same survey.
You can always revisit a Full Survey Import later. Starting with External Comparisons means you can start gaining insights sooner, with less effort.
Comparing full survey imports vs external comparisons
Feature | External Comparison (Recommended) | Full Survey Import |
Purpose | Benchmark past scores alongside new results | Migrate every individual response |
Timeline | 2–3 business days | 2–6 weeks |
Effort Required | Low | High |
Import Limit | Unlimited | 1–5 surveys (we recommend starting with 1–2) |
Data Needed | Summary-level scores | Full response-level data |
Requires All Past and Present Users to Be Added to the Platform | No ✖️ | Yes ✔️ (for attributed surveys) |
Supports | Engagement (Snapshot/Attributed), Ad-hoc/Unattributed Exit, and Onboarding surveys | Engagement-style surveys only (Ad-hoc/Unattributed and Snapshot/Attributed) |
Data considerations before you import
Understanding the requirements for each method can help you choose the right path and avoid setup issues later on.
External comparisons
External Comparisons only require summary-level data. You’ll need favorable percentages at the question level, and optionally by factor and/or demographic.
What’s needed:
Favorable % per question (based on Agree/Strongly Agree responses on a 5-point scale)
Optional: Favorable % per factor
Optional: Favorable % per demographic (e.g. department, location)
You’ll need a survey in Culture Amp with questions and factors (how questions are grouped in reports), that match or are equivalent in intent to those in your external data. External comparisons can only be prepared once the survey has been opened and is in active design.
Before the survey reaches active design, keep the historical data stored securely on your side and ready for preparation. Comparisons must be loaded on a per-survey basis.
If you’re including demographic comparisons (optional), ensure those demographics have been created as account demographics in Culture Amp.
External comparisons can include overall and demographic comparisons for both rating questions and factors. Only one demographic level is supported; demographics cannot be stacked.
Things to keep in mind:
No individual response data or participant uploads are required
Trend analysis will not be available between an imported historical comparison and other surveys on Culture Amp.
Works best when your Culture Amp survey questions and structure closely match your external survey.
Culture Amp’s favorable score includes responses of 4 (Agree) and 5 (Strongly Agree) on a 5-point scale.
If comparing factor scores, note that Culture Amp includes only participants who answered all questions within a factor.
Tip:
Full survey imports
Full Survey Imports bring in individual-level response data. This option requires more preparation and a longer lead time.
A full survey import can be used to import a survey run on another platform, import paper survey results, or move a survey from one Culture Amp account or data centre to another where supported.
What’s needed:
Full response file (CSV or XLS), including:
Each respondent
Their answers to each question
Demographic information (if available)
For an Attributed survey, all past and present participants must be available on the Culture Amp account with their email address and an employee record, whether active or inactive. If this is not possible, we recommend an Unattributed survey import.
Rating scale conversion, if your past scale differs from Culture Amp’s 5-point scale.
For an Attributed Snapshot import, the account demographics and the values within them must completely match the demographics in the survey data. If they do not match, the data will be uploaded as self-reporting demographic questions and copying account demographics to the launched survey cannot be applied to the imported survey.
Example file format:
Respondent | Question 1 | Question 2 | Question 3 | Question 4 |
Employee 1 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 5 |
Employee 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Rating scale alignment
If your previous surveys used a different rating scale (e.g. 7-point, 10-point 11-point etc), you’ll need to map your historical scores to Culture Amp’s 5-point scale for each individual response.
Culture Amp 5-Point Scale
Score | Label |
1 | Strongly Disagree |
2 | Disagree |
3 | Neither Agree nor Disagree |
4 | Agree |
5 | Strongly Agree |
Check out the Example conversion below for 11, 10 and 7 point scales:
Additional considerations
Just because you can import the data doesn’t mean you should. Ask yourself whether the historical data will add clarity or create confusion in your analysis.
Watch out for:
Incompatible rating scales: If your previous scale used labels like “Fair to Poor,” as an example it may not map cleanly to Culture Amp’s agreement-based model. This can skew comparisons.
Centrality bias: People often avoid extreme responses on longer or more complex scales. A switch in format can change how people answer, even if their opinions haven’t changed.
Age of the survey: Older data can help show long-term trends, but may not represent your current culture or team makeup.
Australian Data Centre (AUDC): Surveys cannot be transferred into AUDC from any other data centre location.
European Data Centre (EUDC): Surveys hosted in EUDC cannot be transferred out to any other data centre.
Choosing the right import method
External Comparisons
✅ Pros
Fast to set up
Low data requirements
Easy to match with current Culture Amp surveys
Great for benchmarking current survey results against historical scores in the same survey.
Supports question, factor, and demographic comparisons (one level)
🟡 Cons
One level of demographic comparison
Comparisons must be loaded on a per-survey basis.
PowerPoint export in demographic reports does not support these types of comparisons.
Limited compatibility with leader-based reports: Static benchmarks (overall scores only) will display in leader-based reports; dynamic external comparisons (overall only, or overall & demographic level) are not supported and will not be displayed.
Full survey imports
✅ Pros
Includes individual-level data
Supports more detailed demographic slicing and trend analysis
🟡 Cons
Complex to set up
Requires all past and present participants to be available on the account with their email address and an employee record, whether active or inactive, for Attributed surveys.
Takes 2–6 weeks to complete
Often not necessary to meet your goals
Cannot be used for comparison on leader-based reports
What's up next?
Follow the step-by-step guides below to get started:
How to Import External Comparisons – A quick and simple method for benchmarking past scores
Migrating Full Surveys into Culture Amp – A detailed process for importing full historical survey data
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