Why can’t I view a particular chart within the Workplace Insight Tool?
You may have been presented with the following message when trying to view a certain chart within the Workplace Insight Tool:
"We are unable to show this chart as it may compromise the anonymity of your employees"
This is a result of anonymity rules which are designed to prevent a single employee’s response being exposed. This is done by identifying where a single response cannot be displayed on a chart and preventing any of the chart data being displayed.
If based on the filter criteria of the chart there was a single response, but more than one person was invited to fill in a survey, then we can show the chart (excluding the data with the single response). This is because we still cannot identify an individual. We can only apply this rule if the demographic data being used by the chart has been pre-populated as part of survey setup, otherwise the number of invitees is not taken into account and a single response would result in the chart not being displayed.
What data can be displayed on a chart?
Typically our Workplace Insight Tool will display all the data where there are 5 or more responses. Where an answer has fewer than 5 responses, the value is not displayed.
In the chart below, "Accounts/finance/compliance" and "Other" have fewer than 5 responses, so the values cannot be displayed.
How does the anonymity rule work?
The anonymity rule works by counting how many responses cannot be displayed on the chart based on the rule described above. If the total number of responses is 1, the data cannot be displayed and the whole chart is cancelled. If the total is more than 1, then a single employee is not being exposed so we can display the chart.
For example, in the chart above "Accounts/finance/compliance" has had 1 response and "Other" has had 2 responses. So although we have a single response for "Accounts/finance/compliance" the total number of responses which cannot be displayed is 3 meaning that the chart can be displayed.
If "Other" had not had any responses, then the total responses would have been 1, meaning the entire chart would have not been surfaced, and instead the anonymity message shown.
What do these rules apply to?
The anonymity rule is applied to all demographic charts, including employment group charts. Any time a demographic chart is requested and the message above is displayed, the data has been affected by the anonymity rule. This rule is also applied to the filtering options which may be available. When attempting to filter the data by employment group, if the group fails the anonymity test for the above reasons, they are not made available for filtering.
Why can I view the data within the comparison tables?
Although comparison tables do display demographic data, the anonymity rules are not applied to the data displayed on these charts. The data displayed must still meet the minimum number of response requirements, but the anonymity rules are relaxed, meaning we can display more data in comparison tables than on traditional charts.
The reasons the anonymity rules are not applied to these charts are:
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The values displayed are percentage difference scores relative to another benchmark (previous year or benchmark)
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The values displayed are rounded to the nearest whole percentage value
This means that it is not possible to expose an individual employee’s response with any accuracy.
How we keep survey responses anonymous
This video explains how we protect employee anonymity...
For additional support please email support@b.co.uk, call us on 01978 856222, or click the 'Get in Touch' button at the top of this page.