Anonymous Survey 101: Learn How to Collect and Analyze Your People's Feedback

Anonymous surveys promise a judgment-free, consequence-free experience – the ultimate truth serum. If you work in People Operations, they can deliver company-policy-altering truths and insights you've only dreamed of.

But that's the ideal scenario. 

There is a chance that your people use them to push their own agenda, criticize people they don't like, and advocate for people they do because they can say it without consequence.

But that does not mean scrapping anonymous surveys altogether but being more strategic with how you design, communicate and follow up on them. 

Find out how to answer these questions and more in this guide. We'll share:

• Step-by-step instructions on how to create an anonymous survey.
• What to ask in a survey and how to ask it.
• How to assure employees of your methodology.
• The ways you can use your survey to get maximum benefits.
• The pros and cons of anonymous vs. non-anonymous feedback. 

🥸 What is an anonymous survey?

An anonymous survey is a type of questionnaire where the respondents' identities are unknown and undisclosed. If they know their responses can't be traced back to them, they'll likely be more forthcoming, genuine, and honest.

An anonymous survey is like the pulse check of an organization. It helps understand how your employees really perceive their workplace.

For instance, you can use an anonymous survey to: 

• Collect feedback and gauge employee satisfaction. 
• Identify areas for improvement of your people policies.
• Spotlight systemic issues, like a communication gap or toxic leadership.
• Get insights that might not come to light in regular face-to-face feedback sessions.

Take the example of a tech giant like Google; their annual "Googlegeist" anonymous survey has been instrumental in making important policy changes based on employee feedback, thus encouraging a more open and communicative culture. 

A recent anonymous survey revealed pay dissatisfaction, allowing Google to create employee-retaining solutions during high industry-wide turnover.

💪 What is the power of anonymous surveys? 3 Key benefits

An anonymous survey can be a transformative tool for organizations, offering many benefits.

Increased employee engagement

Employees will be more eager to share their concerns anonymously, so you will have a larger sample of employee concerns. 

When employees see their anonymous feedback leading to positive changes, it fosters trust and engagement, encouraging ongoing participation in future surveys and decision-making processes.

Improved decision-making

Anonymity encourages candid feedback as employees can express their true feelings, opinions, and experiences without fear of retribution. This honesty can unearth critical insights that might otherwise remain hidden. 

Leaders can create more effective strategies and initiatives by basing decisions on accurate, unbiased data.

For example, Adobe stopped its traditional performance reviews in favor of a more flexible system based on employee feedback. 

Effective problem-solving

An anonymous survey can shed light on systemic problems that may not be apparent in daily operations, enabling you and your managers to address them proactively.

By using the insights from these surveys, leaders can develop targeted solutions that address the root causes of the problems identified rather than just treating the symptoms. 

Consider an organization dealing with low employee morale. They deploy an anonymous survey and discover a recurring theme of burnout due to overwhelming workloads, an issue employees may have been hesitant to voice openly. 

This feedback allows management to address the problem effectively by reassessing workloads and implementing policies to encourage work-life balance.

Therefore, anonymous surveys unveil underlying issues and guide management toward problem-solving strategies, making them a crucial tool for fostering a healthier and more productive work environment.

🆚 Anonymous vs. non-anonymous employee surveys: Pros & cons

Your company's unique culture and values should dictate the choice between anonymous and non-anonymous feedback. 

For example, for Netflix, known for its radical culture of candor, anonymous feedback did not work, as it did not align with its core values of transparency and open communication.

🎥 Check out our deep dive into Netflix's feedback culture and performance review setup. 

🪜 How to create an anonymous survey in 5 steps

Establish the survey's purpose

What exactly are you trying to measure with your survey?

Is it to understand employee satisfaction levels? 

Is it measuring the impact of recent policy changes? 

Are you trying to collect suggestions for future initiatives?

You should have a clear purpose before designing your survey. 

For instance, if you've launched a new wellness program, your objective might be to assess the program's reception and identify potential areas for improvement. 

Or perhaps you're curious about the overall employee satisfaction within your organization. In that case, the purpose of your survey would be broader, aiming to identify strengths and weaknesses in the company culture, benefits, and workload.

Select the appropriate survey format

The format of your survey can significantly affect the kind of data you collect. 

Usually, you can opt for quantitative questionnaires, where employees rate specific items. These are easy to answer and analyze. 

For example, Likert Scale questions are a popular format for measuring attitudes or opinions. Employees indicate their agreement or disagreement on a symmetrical agree-disagree scale for a series of statements. Thus, the range captures the intensity of their feelings for a given item.

However, they limit the employees' ability to express unique viewpoints.

Alternatively, you could opt for a qualitative approach allowing your people to share more context to their answers. 

Open-ended questions allow employees to answer in their own words. While they can provide deeper insights, they can be more time-consuming to answer and analyze.

💡 Tip: You could also use a combination of these formats to ensure your survey is comprehensive and engaging.

The right format depends on the nature of your survey and the kind of insights you're seeking.

Craft clear and concise questions

Your employee feedback survey questions should be: 

• straightforward and easy to understand;
• free from technical jargon;
• free from industry-specific acronyms that might confuse employees. 

Ambiguous or complex questions can lead to misinterpretations, which can compromise the reliability of your data.

Tip #1: Avoid leading questions that may influence the employees' answers. 

For instance, instead of asking, "Don't you think our new wellness program is beneficial?" you could ask, "How would you rate the effectiveness of our new wellness program?" The latter question is neutral and allows for a more honest response.

Tip #2: Ensure that your questions are concise. Convoluted questions may result in survey fatigue, leading to lower response rates or inaccurate responses.

❓ Check out 56 questions for measuring employee job satisfaction and 50 questions for measuring employee engagement. 

On the topic of survey fatigue, when a survey is too long or complicated, employees might rush through it without giving much thought to their answers. Or worse, they might drop off and not complete the survey at all.

To minimize survey fatigue:

• Keep it short: A survey should take no longer than 10-15 minutes to complete. Anything longer risks losing the employees' attention.
• Keep questions clear and concise: Clarity and brevity in your questions make it easier for employees to understand and answer them.
• Use a logical sequence: Arrange your questions in a logical order. For example, keep all questions about leadership in a row rather than scattering them across the survey. 
• Order your questions by difficulty level: Starting with easier questions can increase the employees' engagement and willingness to complete the survey.

Choose the right timing and distribution method

Generally, you should avoid times of high stress, such as the end-of-quarter or during significant organizational changes, as these periods might impact the responses. 

Regular, predictable intervals between surveys can be a pillar of your feedback culture.

You could distribute the survey through email, an intranet portal, or Google Forms or send the survey link during a team meeting. 

And for a more analog method, you can use a drop-off box for printed and filled-in forms. But be ready for the hassle of compiling your answers. 

Tip: Ensure the method used is easily accessible for all survey participants.

Communicate anonymity settings

Once your anonymous survey is ready, you must inform your employees and highlight the anonymity settings.  

Explicitly state that the responses are anonymous and that employee answers cannot be traced back to individual respondents. 

If you can, walk them through how you plan to ensure anonymity while collecting answers.

Tip: Multiple feedback tools on the market collect anonymous feedback, so take advantage of available tech. 

📈 What steps can you take to address concerns identified through employee anonymous surveys?

Once you've conducted your confidential survey and gathered employee feedback, it's time to take action. After all, collecting feedback with no follow-up is a waste of time and money. 

• Analyze and understand the feedback: Look for trends and common themes in the responses. For example, a specific team has been struggling with micromanagement. Then, you need to take action regarding that team's leaders, e.g., a leadership training refresh. 
• Create an action plan: Develop strategies to address the identified issues. This might involve policy changes, training programs, or cultural initiatives. Define success metrics for your action plan, so you can measure its progress and achievements. 
• Communicate the results: Summarize survey data and share it with your employees, highlighting the main focus areas inspired by the results. This transparency shows that you value their input and take their feedback seriously.
• Implement and monitor: Put your action plan into motion. Monitor key metrics to assess progress and adjust your strategies as necessary.
• Follow up: Repeat the survey process after a set period to check if the changes made have had the desired impact. This shows your commitment to continuous improvement.

➡️ Run anonymous surveys in a few clicks with Zavvy

Picture this: you're sitting with your morning coffee, brainstorming a survey. With our anonymous feedback tool, you'll morph from brainstormer to survey sender before your coffee gets cold. It's that easy! 

And the honest feedback? It starts pouring in, in real-time, like fans flocking to a sold-out concert.

Our platform should be your go-to for anonymous surveys because we're:

• User-friendly: You don't need a Ph.D. in software to navigate it.
• Cost-effective: It gives you top-tier feedback without the top-tier price tag.
• Anonymous (for real): Our developers worked hard to ensure that anonymous survey results stay anonymous. Surveys on Zavvy do not collect any personally identifiable information. Nobody, not even company admins, would be able to trace back answers to individual respondents.

And the best part is that Zavvy offers solutions for many of the issues your employees might raise:

• Need more growth opportunities? Then, Zavvy's growth plans are the answer. 
• Need more role and career progression transparency? Then, Zavvy's career progressions frameworks are what you need.
• Need more feedback for growth? Then, Zavvy's 360 feedback tool can help. 
• Need more human connection? Then, start pairing people automatically with our connections programs.

Ready to collect feedback and address your people's challenges?

📅 Book a demo now!