What can I learn from this page? | A guide to report sharing from the options that we have available to the guiding principles |
Who is this guide for? | Account Admins, Survey Admins, Survey Creators |
“Who” should get access to “what” when sharing results is an important part of closing the loop on the survey process. Culture Amp knows that each organization is unique so we allow customization in how you configure your shared reports. These are big decisions, and this article is intended to help you make them by giving you a philosophical approach to report sharing. You may also be interested in the technical aspects of report sharing, including how to create and share reports and how to create a data file that allows the types of slices you want. In this article we’ll cover:
Report Sharing Options
In addition to sharing results directly in the platform, you are also able to export report views, or a powerpoint. We recommend sharing in platform so report viewers can explore the data and digest the results on their own time.
When sharing in the platform, there are four key decisions to make:
Who should have access? Who the reports are shared with
What results should they have access to? What data they can see (e.g., just their direct reports or a specific department).
What views/reports should they be able to see? What analysis is done on the results (e.g., viewing heatmaps that show how different demographics compare).
What demographics should they be able to filter on? What can they slice and dice the data by.
There is a spectrum from high-level reports to detailed reports. You can customize the report to be more transparent and detailed by:
Including more views - Summary, Standard, or Advanced, each add an additional layer of detail in terms of the views an individual has access to, with Advanced including the Heatmap.
Including more demographic filters - each will give them more information to filter by.
Goals of Report Sharing
Now let’s take a step back and consider the goals of report sharing. One is to close the loop on the survey process by providing employees with an understanding of the results. This can be achieved by sharing high-level results. The second is to support action planning. Results create a shared understanding of the employee experience so individuals can make informed decisions on where to focus and take action. Therefore, your approach to sharing detailed reports will mirror your approach to action planning. Most companies believe culture initiatives are not owned by HR, but are everyone’s responsibility, and therefore everyone should receive access to some results to be able to take part in that responsibility.
Common Scenarios
Share to Close the Loop
Role | Results | Report views | Filters | Comments |
All employees | All company - Overall report | Summary or Standard | None or typical demographics (e.g., location) | No |
To close the loop on the survey process, some companies share high-level results with all of their employees. Our research has found companies that shared with more than 30% of their organization:
Have significantly higher beliefs that action will take place (4%)
See on average a 7 percentage point increase in participation on their next survey, while those that don't share decrease in participation
Have an average participation rate 11% higher than our customers who are not regular sharers
Share to Support the Action-Planning Process
Then to support the action-planning process, they share detailed reports with the data needed to make decisions on which actions to take.
Role | Results | Report views | Filters | Comments |
HR Managers, Execs | Whole company | Advanced | All | Yes |
VPs, & Directors | Restricted to their department & their directs | Advanced | Most (minus talent demographics) | Yes |
Managers | Restricted to their directs | Standard | Only necessary demographics (consider removing Gender, Ethnicity, etc.) | No |
Across our customers, we've seen a few guiding principles
A small group within the people function will typically benefit from having the most granular results, including results broken down by potentially sensitive demographics such as diversity (e.g., gender, ethnicity) and talent demographics (e.g., talent rating, if applicable).
Outside the people function, individuals higher up in the organizational structure will often benefit from having greater access (to report views & demographics) than first-line managers or individual contributors. This may include the heatmap report (represented in Culture Amp in our Advanced report) and depending on the report configuration, may have some of the most granular demographic breakdowns.
Generally, as a company gets more comfortable in their feedback process and establishes a culture of trust (having gone from results to action before), they will explore opportunities to share results more broadly. This may include sharing more detailed results or further down the hierarchy (e.g., to managers).
Outside of the above rules, the following questions can be used to guide reflection for yourself and your people team on what reports governance might look like in your organization.
Questions to Consider to Determine Who to Share Detailed Results With
“Who owns the action process?”
If all of your actions will be centralized at the organizational level, there isn’t a requirement for other levels to receive detailed results. Alternatively, if you expect each manager to identify actions specific to their team or employee groups, they would need access to cuts of data that display results for those groups so they can make informed decisions and create targeted action.
A related question is “How do you plan to measure success?” If managers are going to be held accountable for progress towards some goal, they need to have visibility into where they are today and where they are expected to get to in the future.
“Does your culture err on the side of tradition or transparency?”
Neither is better than the other, nor is this truly a dichotomy! Determining which way your culture leans will let you know what employees expect to see.
In a large and/or heavily geographically dispersed organization, this can be a question to ask yourself for each business unit, division, or major group. Point being, what’s right for one business, market, or function may not be what’s right for another, and we allow you to tailor your reports governance accordingly.
“Is engagement factored into scorecards/performance evaluations?”
We believe an individual’s experience results from many more variables than a single manager. So we generally recommend to separate this from performance management discussions and recommend against setting specific engagement targets. However, if your company has a history of linking the two, it’s imperative for managers to know what and how they are being assessed, and what specifically they can do to improve. For that reason, sharing results at the team level with managers would be critical.
Overall, when considering who to share detailed results with, consider who is taking action.
Questions to Consider to Determine How Much to Share
If actions are distributed, “Do you expect actions to vary by demographic/group?”
For example, if each department is creating their own action plans and a department crosses multiple locations, will there be 1 action for the department or might that differ by location? If it could differ, that specific demographic should be included as a filter in the shared reports
“Will certain groups be working towards the same goal?”
Context is important, that’s why comparisons displayed in shared reports in the platform default to showing the delta against your company overall. You may want to provide a more granular level of context, such as giving each team visibility into how their results differ from their specific department. This isn’t as important if each team is developing their own action plans, irrespective of other results, but can be helpful with providing additional context for a group.
“What is the feedback maturity of those receiving results?”
There are features in some reports that can be misused or misinterpreted without proper context and training, and thus ought to be considered before being selected as default features to include. In particular, heatmaps can lead to analysis paralysis for many and is more useful for those tasked with making decisions across groups of employees. In addition, comments require a little more knowledge and training to understand how to properly utilize, as qualitative data can inaptly get equal weight to the quantitative results. Be sure to utilize and bring awareness to all of the resources managers have at their disposal like our Engagement Results to Action Guide.
Overall, when considering how much to share, consider how a shared context can help individuals work together towards action.
Now that you've had a chance to think through who would get the most benefit from understanding the employee experience, head over to Create and share reports for more information on how to set up test reports.
A Small Caveat When it Comes to Sharing Reports and Respondent Data Confidentiality
The benefits of sharing results typically outweigh the risk of sharing demographics. However, there is always a risk. We strive to strike the right balance between utility of results and preventing the possibility that a respondents answers could be easily inferred; however, the exact possibility will be related to the reporting rules you selected.
💡 Tip: It is important that the organization educate managers and employees alike in how to receive feedback and using the results to identify constructive areas of focus, rather than aiming to identify who said what.