Guidance for Survey Participants

One of our aims with Culture Amp is to create a straightforward survey experience. Here we'll answer some general queries about responding to a survey on the Culture Amp platform.

If you are looking for more specific advice based on the type of survey, make sure you check out the guidance below:

Most organizations care about getting honest feedback from their employees, whether it's good or bad, so they can use the data to help create better places to work. With that said, we know some people may feel nervous about providing honest feedback. While we encourage you to answer every question there may be valid reasons not to answer a question. You may feel the question is not relevant to you. Or you may simply feel uncomfortable with the question for personal reasons. If this is the case for any of the questions, you can skip them. Or, if you feel your answers are more nuanced, you can add comments (on a per question basis), if configured in your survey (described more below).

Survey information is used in a variety of ways. At Culture Amp we deal with a lot of organizations conducting surveys of their employees. Almost universally these companies have a genuine desire to connect with their employees and make positive changes. Talking to employees is the quickest and most direct method - that is, someone could just ask you for your opinion. However, surveys provide an opportunity to gather feedback in a different way. First and foremost, surveys allow for the confidential collection of feedback. This isn't always possible in other forums. Surveys also allow for an analytical view of the data. Surveys let organizations see trends over time. A simple conversation is very powerful, but it's very difficult to turn that into a reasonably objective, organization-wide picture. This is where surveys become essential.

The evidence on the effectiveness of more options is mixed at best. We favor having simpler surveys with clear questions that are quicker for you to complete. More options tends to be an issue when people weight questions against each other. Try not to do this. Answer each question on its own merits. If you feel that an answer requires explanation, use the comments feature (where available).

Our general questions follow what is called the "Agree Format". For these questions, we put forward a statement, and you tell us how much you agree or disagree with that statement. In Culture Amp you use our "Heat Bar" to enter your answers. Simply swipe left to right to select from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. Clicking on your response will select that answer. If you're on a laptop or desktop you use your trackpad or mouse pointer to select. If you're on a tablet or smartphone you can simply swipe.

Comments are not enabled on all Culture Amp surveys. If comments are enabled for your survey, you will be informed on the Welcome Screen. You will also see the comment icon for each question. Adding a comment is as simple as clicking the Add Comment button, shown below:

Do not feel you need to add a comment on every question. Use comments to provide directed feedback on the topics you feel deserve additional attention. Many surveys also include free-text questions. Often you have the opportunity to provide feedback in these sections. It may not always be necessary to comment at the question level.

No. There are some mandatory questions in Culture Amp, but these are the exception. While we encourage you to answer every question we accept that there may be valid reasons not to answer particular questions too. You may feel the question is not relevant to you or you may simply feel uncomfortable with the question for personal reasons. If a question does not apply to your situation, simply do not answer that question.

We don't see that a lot. Generally, nobody begrudges doing a survey if they see real, positive change from it. The organizations we see genuinely want to make a positive change from their surveys. It's possible that there may not be any change from your survey. Or there may be, but you're not getting to see or hear about it. Sometimes it just takes time. If you feel that is the case, we'd encourage you to discuss with your manager and HR representatives and let them know. If that's not possible for you, see if you can let them know via the survey. It's possible to have serious issues with your organization. We hope the survey is your opportunity to convey that and get heard. Your engagement in this process is one of the best mechanisms for enabling real change to occur.

Absolutely, in fact we think the experience is better! We support most modern desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile devices. If you're on a mobile device, we support Android version 2.3 or higher and iOS (iPhone or iPad) version 2 or higher. We support most browsers.

It's not trying to bias the survey, in fact quite the opposite. We frame each question as an ideal state that we'd all generally like to be true of how we feel or experience our organizations. This makes the survey consistent - this is easy to understand, leads to less confusion and is quicker to complete. However, the response scale allows you to be neutral or completely disagree with these statements - if you respond negatively the results will reflect this.

Getting surveyed too much is an intrusion and we recognize that. It's important that the contribution you're making is recognized. We see terrific results from surveys. If you think the frequency or content of your surveys is affecting your results, let us know via the comments. Finally, we spend a bit of time trying to make our surveys as quick and easy to complete as possible. At the completion of any Culture Amp survey you get to give us feedback. If there is a way we can make the experience better, please let us know. We're listening.

At Culture Amp, our mission is to help organizations put culture first, and one of the ways we do so is by allowing your organization to run a survey that allows you to share your valuable, and oftentimes vulnerable, feedback. As you complete a survey, you might wonder, “who can see my response and how?” We often get questions like this about confidentiality, anonymity, and the difference between the two.

A confidential (or “attributed”’) survey means that you will receive a unique link to participate in the survey. This survey link connects survey responses to various information in the organization’s employee data system that allows the organization to slice and filter data by demographics such as tenure, department, or location. However, there are permissions set up on the backend of the survey (outlined in your invitation and survey communications) that outline things like reporting group minimums, which prevent the ability to directly or indirectly identify your response.

For example, if your organization has set a reporting group minimum of 5, that means that if your team has not provided at least 5 responses (note: this is not the number of people invited), then results will not be shared in order to protect the confidentiality of any team members who responded.

Confidential surveys provide your managers and leaders the ability to slice and filter data in a way that allows them to understand the various nuances of their organization. By connecting results to data that your organization already has access to, they can take a more targeted approach to improve the employee experience.

Yes. Culture Amp allows you to save your changes every time you use it. This means you can use the original link that was provided to return to where you left off. However, be aware that this link will not function after the survey is closed. For most survey types, you will be sent a reminder to complete the survey if you have not done so before the survey's closing date. You can even switch between devices while completing your survey.

Despite the above, we do recommend actively saving your response as you go as a precaution using the save and exit icon at the bottom of the survey form.

In the event of any technical mishaps such as connection issues, your survey response may be lost if it was not actively saved or submitted prior.

Unfortunately, if this occurs, we are unable to recover the lost data.

As best practice, we recommend saving your response as you go by clicking the save and exit icon at the bottom of the survey form.

You can return to your survey at any stage by clicking the link in your invite or reminder email.

When a report is shared with you, you will receive an email notification which will include a link to the report. If you have never logged into the platform and your company doesn't currently use Single Sign-On, you will be prompted to create a password to access the platform. See our support article for further guidance.

Once you have logged in you will be directed to your home page. From there click Feedback > Surveys > Reports > View report next to the relevant survey.

If multiple reports have been shared with you for the same survey, you can move between these by clicking the select report filter to the left-hand area of the page. The report types displayed depend on how your Survey Admin has set the reports up for your survey.

For more guidance on how to access, filter and export your results, check out our support guide.