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Text analytics in comments reporting

Using Text analytics in Culture Amp reports: Unlock deeper insights from written feedback with advanced sentiment and topic analysis.

Jared Ellis avatar
Written by Jared Ellis
Updated this week

Who can use this feature?

Available on:

  • All Culture Amp subscriptions that include Engagement and Effectiveness (Team and Manager Effectiveness surveys only).

Text Analytics is a powerful tool that uses intelligent algorithms to extract valuable insights from written feedback via your surveys comments report. It helps you quickly analyze survey comments by breaking them down into sentiments, topics, and trends.

Key features:

  • Sentiment analysis: Categorizes feedback as Positive, Negative, or Neutral.

  • Topic & sentiment filters: Filter comments by topic, sentiment, question, or rating to focus on the most relevant data.

  • Bubble chart visualization: A dynamic chart that provides a visual overview of what people are saying and how they feel.

  • Export options: Easily export your analysis in CSV or Excel formats for further review.

Topic Sentiment Chart


The Topic Sentiment Chart (also known as the bubble graph or word cloud) is found in the Topics section of the Comments report. This chart combines sentiment and topic analysis, giving you a high-level view of your survey comments.

What you’ll see:

  • Each bubble represents a topic.

  • The size of the bubble indicates the volume of comments associated with that topic.

  • Bubbles on the right show more positive sentiments, while those on the left lean negative. Neutral or polarized topics sit in the middle.

Average sentiment:

The average number underneath the sentiment line indicates whether the overall comments in your survey are more positive or negative. For example, a score of +0.8 means the the overall average (AVG) sentiment of the comments is slightly positive.

Tip: Hover over any bubble to see the sentiment breakdown and the total number of comments associated with that topic.

Using comment filters


Filter comments by:

  • Question: View comments related to a specific survey question.

  • Topic: Focus on comments about a particular topic (e.g., “Customer Service”).

  • Sentiment: Narrow down comments by sentiment (Positive, Negative, Neutral).

  • Rating: Filter by survey rating to examine comments related to specific scores.

Demographic filters: Apply filters to view comments from specific demographic groups (e.g., age, location).

Combine filters: You can combine filters for even more refined results. For example, view negative comments left on positively-rated questions.

Exporting comments data


You can export the Comments report in CSV or Excel format for further analysis. The excel export includes a summary sheet plus a detailed sheet with all comments and their classifications. Check out our survey export options article for more information.

How to edit a sentiment or topic tag


You can modify the sentiment or topic tags of any comment. Just click on the drop-down to make changes.

  • Sentiment tags: You can select from four preset options – positive, negative, neutral, or no sentiment. It is only possible to assign 1 sentiment tag.

  • Topic tags: Choose from 28 predefined topics to categorize feedback. You can tag comments with multiple topics, with no limit on the number of tags per comment.

Saving comments for later


To save a comment, simply click Save next to it in the Comments report.

  • Personalized saved list: Under the Saved comments, each user has a unique list of saved comments that are visible only to them.

Using keyword search


Open the Comments report

Use the search bar located on the right side of the report.

Type in a keyword and it will return all comments containing exact word matches.

For example: when searching: "Hot desk" you might see: "my desk gets hot being near the window" or "I really like the idea of hot desk".

Important notes:

  • Special characters (e.g., $!@) are ignored in searches.

  • The search is case-sensitive and matches whole words (e.g., “on” will not match “only”).

  • Some languages that use picture characters (such as Chinese or Japanese) can be searched, but require a space between the picture characters to find a match.

Comment statistics


The Commenter statistics section available under All comments provides valuable insights into the engagement of survey participants who left comments.

  • Commenters: See the percentage of respondents who commented.

  • Median comments: View the median number of comments per respondent.

  • Commenters' Engagement score: Compare the Engagement score of commenters against the overall participant score.

Commenters' Engagement score

  • Overall percentage: If the Commenter' Engagement score is 53%, it means that those who left comments are 53% as engaged as the entire survey population.

  • Compared to score: This score is compared to the overall Engagement score, which includes all survey participants — even those who did not provide comments. In other words, it reflects the level of engagement among commenters relative to the full group of participants.

  • Sentiment breakdown: The breakdown shows the distribution of sentiments (e.g., positive, neutral, or negative) within the comments.

Note: At least 5 comments for one question must be present for "Commenter Statistics" to appear.

FAQs


Who can see text analytics in the comments report?

The access to the Text analytics report is the same as for the Comments report. If you allow comments access, then Text analytics will be enabled as well.

Why do my old surveys show a reduced list of topics?

Engagement comments have a new classification model for enhanced analysis of comments. This model is 25% more precise, has 56% more topics than the previous model and makes 30% fewer mistakes. This model has been applied to new surveys from August 31st 2023. If you have launched a survey prior to this date you will see a reduced list of topics. You can speak with a Product Support Specialist by replying with “Ask a Person” in a Support conversation to discuss adding the new topics model to surveys launched prior to this date.

Which topics does the classifier recognize?

Our algorithm is trained on over half a million pieces of employee feedback to recognize this set of common topics.

  • Autonomy: Individual or team's ability to make independent decisions

  • Benefits: Non-monetary remuneration including perks, insurance, and parental leave

  • Career: Career opportunities, development plans, and growth support

  • Collaboration: Collaboration within a team or across 2 or more teams

  • Communication: Communication from leadership, between teams, or between employees

  • Company Culture: The sense of belonging in a workplace

  • Company Strategy and Goals: The company's strategic direction, vision, and overall goals

  • Compensation: Monetary remuneration including bonuses, equity, 401k and superannuation, or the need to increase compensation

  • Diversity and Inclusion: Demographic diversity and representation in key roles and a sense of belonging for employees of diverse backgrounds

  • Environmental and Social Responsibility: The company's impact on environmental sustainability and social responsibility, including risk mitigation and public perception

  • Facilities: The physical working environment, break rooms and office spaces

  • Performance Feedback: Feedback on an employee's execution of their role or the feedback process

  • Flexible Working: Remote and flexible working arrangements

  • Hiring: The process or need for hiring

  • Innovation: The company's willingness to adopt new ideas or create new processes and products

  • Leadership: Senior and executive leadership who drive company strategy

  • Learning and Development: Employee learning and development programs and material

  • Manager: The employee's own or another employee's line manager

  • Motivation: The drive to complete tasks at work or go above and beyond

  • Physical Safety: Physical safety concerns and standards, and risk mitigation

  • Product and Services: The company's main offering to customers

  • Recognition: Reward and praise for good work or how recognition is given/isn’t given

  • Resources and Information: Information, resources, and support needed to perform their role

  • Systems and Equipment: Internal systems, processes, tooling, and technology or equipment

  • Turnover: Employees voluntarily or involuntarily leaving the company

  • Wellbeing: Issues impacting the employee's ability to achieve work/life balance including burnout, mental health, and stress

  • Workload: The amount of work or number of responsibilities assigned

  • No Comment: Comments that do not provide further context to a rating response (e.g. "N/A", "all good")

    If you have launched a survey prior to the end of August 2023 you will see a reduced list of topics as below:

  • Career: Career progress and development

  • Salary: Compensation and benefits

  • Learning & Development: Learning and development

  • Collaboration: Inter and intra team collaboration

  • Autonomy: Autonomy as individuals or team in making decisions

  • Company Performance: General company performance

  • Products & Services: Related to products and services offered by the company

  • Innovation: Innovation / general improvements in products/services

  • Communication: Management and general organizational communication

  • Systems & Resources: Internal systems. processes and resources

  • Environment: Aspects related to the workplace environment and facilities

  • Feedback: Performance reviews and general feedback

  • Recognition: Role and work recognition

  • Leadership: Related to senior leaders and management in general

  • Manager: Manager-specific comments

  • Work Life: Work life balance

  • Feeling Good: Short comments expressing positive sentiment

  • No comment: Comments that are synonyms for ‘no comment’.

  • Unclassified: Comments that are unable to be classified.

Can I create my own custom topics?

Not at this time.

Are there benchmarks to help me understand whether my results are 'normal'?

We don't have benchmarks in the platform yet, but this article documents some of our findings including which topics are popular in which industries and regions, which topics people talk most negatively about, and which topics people talk most positively about, in general.

Can Text analytics be disabled?

Yes! By default, your Comments report will show the topic sentiment bubble chart and topic and sentiment tags for each comment, but you can ask Support to disable this functionality at an account or survey level. Just reply with "Ask a Person" in a Support Conversation to speak with a Product Support Specialist. Eventually we'll put this power in your hands, but for now you'll need to ask one of our team to do it for you.

Who can adjust the comment sentiment and topics?

Only those with admin permissions can adjust comment sentiment and topics.


💬 Need help? Just reply with "Ask a Person" in a Support Conversation to speak with a Product Support Specialist.

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