Employee Survey Tips: Are employee surveys really anonymous?
In many organizations, “anonymous” surveys are actually better described as “confidential.” There’s a critical difference: truly anonymous surveys don’t track who provided which response, whereas confidential ones can tie responses back to individuals.
I spent seven years leading methodology and data science for employee engagement surveys at Peakon and Workday. Over that time, I’ve worked with everyone from tiny tech startups to massive retail brands, mining operations, football clubs, and even government entities. Now that I’m no longer directly involved in survey creation, I can share my honest thoughts on the most effective ways to run employee surveys.
See the complete set of tips & tricks for running employee engagement surveys.
In many organizations, “anonymous” surveys are actually better described as “confidential.” There’s a critical difference: truly anonymous surveys don’t track who provided which response, whereas confidential ones can tie responses back to individuals, though that data is usually kept under tight controls. Below are three key points to help you understand how these systems typically work and what it means for your employees.
1. True Anonymity vs. Confidentiality
If you receive a survey link that contains a unique token, which will look like a random string of letters and numbers, it likely means that the survey provider knows exactly who you are when you respond.
In a purely anonymous survey, there would be no way to connect your answers to your identity, and no need to add a unique token to any link.
There are very few engagement survey providers that offer a truly anonymous survey. It's hard to offer the kind of advanced analytics that modern customers demand while remaining completely anonymous, so it's much more common to see confidential surveys instead. Some surveying tools like Google Forms can operate in anonymous mode, but these types of tools are not specifically targeting employee surveys.
- Why It Matters: A confidential survey isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does require employees to trust in the process. The data can still be secure and masked from managers or coworkers; however, it’s important for the organization to communicate the distinction clearly.
2. Who Sees the Raw Data?
Usually, only people analytics teams or HR professionals have access to raw, identifiable results. Even in a “confidential” setup, direct managers typically see only aggregated results, and only once there are enough responses to preserve anonymity.
Some providers go even further, and offer only aggregated or anonymised exports of the data - even to administrators, HR teams and People Analytics functions. In these cases only the provider itself has unrestricted access to the raw data. This is more common in Europe and/or regions with strong union representation, where works councils sometimes mandate this type of set-up.
- Protecting Privacy: HR teams are trained to handle sensitive information ethically. They often have strict policies about not sharing details that could identify individuals unless a comment flags a severe issue like harassment or a legal concern.
3. Why Confidential Surveys Can Be Useful
Some companies prefer confidential surveys because they can tie responses back to demographics like team, department, or tenure. This adds valuable context, for instance, discovering that a specific department struggles with work-life balance more than others.
Others enable interactivity that is only possible when you can identify feedback. I previously worked on a conversation feature where employees could converse with their managers without revealing their identity. The provider has to know where to send notifications and updates in order to enable that conversation to occur.
- Potential Risks: The big caveat is trust. If employees suspect their feedback might be used against them or shared inappropriately, participation rates will drop, or responses could become less candid. Transparency about how data is handled and safeguarded is critical.
The key is honesty. Make it explicitly clear to employees whether a survey is anonymous or confidential, who has access to the data, and how it will (and won’t) be used. Avoid sharing raw data with large groups—especially direct managers who might identify individuals.
Sunbeam
Sunbeam is a feedback analytics platform designed to make working with open-ended, text-based feedback as straightforward as working with scores. Too many organizations overlook the rich insights hidden in qualitative responses, and Sunbeam aims to fix that. By combining deep industry expertise with cutting-edge AI, Sunbeam makes it simple to analyze and act on text feedback, ultimately helping HR teams unlock the full potential of employee engagement data.