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Guide to Combining Inclusion and Engagement Surveys
Guide to Combining Inclusion and Engagement Surveys

An overview guide ato combining the Inclusion and Engagement Survey and which considerations to be aware of

Jared Ellis avatar
Written by Jared Ellis
Updated over a week ago

What can I learn from this page?

An overview guide ato combining the Inclusion and Engagement Survey and which considerations to be aware of

Who is this guide for?

Account Admins, Survey Admins, Survey Creators

Why would I want to combine the Inclusion and Engagement templates into a single survey?

For some companies, there are benefits to integrating Inclusion & Engagement into a single survey:

  • Ease of administering a single survey vs. two surveys. Because there is some overlap between templates, it is plausible to cover both topics in a single survey.

  • Setting the expectation that inclusion carries the same "weight" as engagement as an organizational priority.

  • Being able to see how engagement items and inclusion items compare in a driver analysis.

  • Using a single action planning process.

What are some considerations I should be aware of?

Anonymity expectations: The Inclusion Survey is, by default, an unattributed survey. This gives participants complete anonymity in their responses and ensures that their responses cannot be tied to their identity. Engagement Surveys are attributed surveys. When combining the survey, the Engagement format (attributed) is typically the format that is chosen. Make sure your legal team and employees are comfortable with collecting demographic data in this manner.

Transparency and communication: There could be an impact on the length of the survey and participation rate. Combining the two surveys will make your survey longer; however, we don't see participation rate greatly impacted because people are used to taking the Engagement Survey - adding Inclusion questions doesn't appear to materially impact participation rate. Clear communication is paramount to ensuring a good participation rate, so consider adding transparency into why this decision was made.

Results sharing: Companies typically present the results from an Inclusion Survey differently than how they present the results from an Engagement Survey. You'll need to consider the expectations from the people you're surveying and the audience desiring the results. Inclusion Survey analysis typically involves evaluating differences between demographic groups. Sharing this data without proper context is not advisable. However, many people expect to see results from an Engagement Survey with a fair amount of detail. Think carefully about how you are going to present the results to various audiences and stakeholders.

Selecting a focus area: We recommend that companies appropriately focus their effort and resources on a single focus area after a survey closes. A combined Inclusion-Engagement survey might surface several areas of focus. Combining the survey for administrative ease might not be what's right for the organization in all instances if resources are split between multiple focus areas across Inclusion and Engagement. You can overcome these obstacles by pre-defining which teams will have responsibilities over certain aspects of the survey.

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