How to Ensure Confidentiality in Employee Surveys

Running an employee survey? Use AI to draft your consent language, and then use my checklist to show employees that you value their privacy and feedback. At Berkeley, I teach a three-hour data ethics lecture on the value of informed consent for data collection, but you don’t need all that; this checklist will do the trick: 𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝘃𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘆  • Don’t force people to answer questions. You’d rather have blank answers than trash data. 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗿𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝘃𝗲𝘆 (Bonus points for relating them to the mission of your company)  • “We want your feedback on the kind of workplace we are building and how we are executing on our mission to be the very best provider of healthcare to our community…” 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸  • “Thanks to your feedback in the last survey, we started the ‘Lunch and Learn’ career workshops, provided more information on career tracks, and asked each manager to have a career convo with their reports.”  • “Thanks to your feedback at our all-hands in January, we have tried to prioritize clearer communication through formalizing our OKRs. We hope that the feedback you provide in this survey will help us make similar improvements to how we work together.” 𝗪𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗲’𝘀 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺  • “We will only share aggregated analyses where at least 3 respondents have answered a question.” 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝘄 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗲𝘀  • “The data will be analyzed by {name of analyst or team} and final analyses will be available to leaders and managers who may share them with their teams.” 𝗗𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮  • “The survey is run on the Qualtrics/Google Forms/SurveyMonkey platform.” 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 for the right person/team to contact if they have questions or want to revoke consent (and your Data Privacy Officer, if you have one) (EU friends, you have a few more requirements for GDPR compliance that didn’t make my list) 👩💻 Hi, I'm Mary Kate Stimmler, PhD and I write tips about using social science to build great workplaces and careers.

On a recent kickoff call with one of my new customers the topic of anonymous vs. confidential surveys came up. There's key difference between the two that is important to consider when thinking of your employee experience program. ~99% of the projects I've been involved in are run as confidential. This means that responses provided are identifiable in the platform but the data is only reported in aggregate and usually requires at least 5+ responses. This allows you get deeper analytics by any demographic you want, more targeted action planning, and you can track your progress over time. Anonymous there is no identifying info collected. To bypass this you can ask demographic questions but whether or not your employees selected or input the right demographics will never be known. Run these types of projects if you are in a low-trust or sensitive environment (hopefully not the case). In the long run confidential surveys are definitely the way to go, but make sure you have a clear communication strategy especially around how the data will be reported back. The reality is you have to build that trust with your employees and the best way is to share the results back, clearly highlight what actions you are going to take and complete them. Would love to hear from any other HR or EX leaders on their experience!

Staff surveys suck, amiright?! Surveys should be welcomed opportunities for people to share their experiences honestly, they should be welcome invitations. But too often, they are just one more frustration to employees who feel disengaged and checked out already. Leaders - If you want #RealDeal feedback on workplace conditions and experiences, you need to understand how your staff views you and your leadership team(s). More likely than not, the staff with the richest feedback know the risk in sharing that feedback transparently - and they understand the power dynamic in a work setting is not automatically (or ever) in their favor. They will not share the truth if they (a) don't trust your leadership team (b) don't trust the feedback channel is anonymous or confidential (two different things) (c) don't trust you will do something meaningful about it Silent disengagers are not going to risk retaliation (conscious or subconscious) to tell you the truth. The burden of proof is on leadership. How? ✔️ Invest in readiness and accountability coaching for your positional leaders and champions - let your staff know that you are all prepping to hear the truth and act on it. ✔️ Offer anonymous feedback channels and confidential processes via a third party with (explicit and explained) accountability to do what they say they'll do with staff data, e.g. not turn it over to the org/business after the fact. ✔️ Develop and communicate an implementation and integration plan for how you will integrate the results into your ongoing work - not as a new thing but as a baked-in part of your existing priorities! Things are often way more complex than this starting point but you can't skip these steps. And yet, many leadership teams skip these basics (over and over) and then wonder why they keep hearing that staff don't trust you, your internal-led surveys, or that you'll ever do anything about getting the truth. The invitation is to earn their trust by doing things honestly, transparently, and consistently. 👀 Want more behind-the-scenes reflections, tools, and client-tested practices? Follow me & join my email list 👇🏽☝🏽. 📌 Need to assess your culture for engagement and belonging - or know someone who does? 👉🏽 DM me or reach out: mosaic4equity(dot)com/contact #OrganizationalStrategy #CultureMatters #LeadershipTools #DatatizeCulture #DatatizeEngagement -- Hi, I'm O. 👋🏾 I help nonprofit and social impact leaders cultivate #equitable and #inclusive organizations where a #mosaic of talent are thriving (and stay) as evidenced by holistic #people and #culture data. I provide #strategic #advisory, #survey services, #fractional support, and select #consulting engagements. psst. "double-bell" follow me 🔔 🔔 to outsmart the algo 😎