The confidentiality threshold is a protective setting that hides the results of teams with fewer than "X" participants in a survey. This protection ensures that no user with access to the results will be able to isolate an individual's response.
This threshold is set by default to a minimum of 5 participants but can be adapted to your context.
In this article:
How it works
All survey results are only accessible in a grouped manner, according to the different analysis filters defined in the account (e.g.: Country = France, etc.). To access the results of a population, the confidentiality threshold must be reached or exceeded.
Let's take a concrete example with a confidentiality threshold set at 5.
The commercial department consists of 2 sub-teams: marketing and sales.
In this case, the Marketing team, having only 4 participants, their results are hidden. They remain accessible in aggregate form with those of the Sales team, at the "Commercial department" level.
Choosing the most appropriate threshold
In our experience, the most relevant threshold and the one we apply by default is 5. It makes it possible to unlock access to results quite easily while maintaining a high level of confidentiality protection.
A confidentiality threshold of 5 is a balance between results visibility and participants protection.
ℹ️ In order to guarantee a minimum level of protection, it is not possible to lower the confidentiality threshold to less than 3 participants. |
Depending on your company structure, you may still need to adjust the confidentiality threshold:
lowering it to allow access to responses from smaller teams ;
or by increasing it to reinforce the protection of participants.
Before making a decision, follow these verification steps. You may not need to change the confidentiality threshold. 👌
Check the size of the smallest teams
To get the right balance between results' visibility and participants' protection, start by identifying the size of the smallest teams in your organization.
Group them together if necessary
If you have many teams with less than 5 employees, it is best to group them together (as long as these groupings maintain consistency).
For example, if a retail company has only 2 to 5 employees per store, it would be wise to do regional groupings.
Finally, make sure that with a 50% participation rate, the results of the majority of the teams will be accessible.
Set the confidentiality threshold at or below half the size of the smallest teams. For example, if your smallest teams average 20 people, you can increase the confidentiality threshold up to 10 participants.
💡 Make sure it's not a survey participation problem. |
Setting the confidentiality threshold
ℹ️ The confidentiality threshold is set for the entire account and applies to all past and future results. |
It can be set up by an administrator.
Set the confidentiality threshold in the dedicated field 👍
And remember, ensuring confidentiality is essential for your employees so they can feel free to express themselves through surveys. So make sure you communicate this new threshold to employees to reassure them of the reasons behind the change.
If you are not sure which confidentiality threshold is best suited to your context, your account manager can advise you. Don't hesitate to give him/her a sign! 💌