Officevibe & Anonymity

Key Takeaways From This Article:

Anonymity is serious business at Officevibe.

• Individual answers are never displayed; only aggregated results are presented in Reports to give managers a sense of what’s going on in their team.
• When you share Feedback, it will be anonymous by default. For every Feedback you provide, you can decide to show your identity if you wish to do so, using the anonymity toggle.
• To protect your anonymity, Officevibe displays your anonymous feedback in groups of which you are a member if the group satisfies the “5 users rule”.
• If you don’t respond to Officevibe Surveys for more than a month, your status changes to ‘’inactive’’ in the platform. Because of this status (which is only visible to a restricted number of people inside your organization), you may get an email nudge to remind you to participate.
• Your information is protected by strict rules and protocols.
• Your Employer is governed by Terms & Conditions that protect your identity. These T&Cs commit your Employer to use the platform appropriately and in an ethical manner.

Whenever we’re about to share our honest thoughts and feedback, it's normal that we err on the side of caution. We question the forum we're about to use to share our personal views, opinions and feelings. We feel you. We've gone through the same process using Officevibe internally to create dialogue in our team and have given this a lot of thought.

In fact, is Officevibe really anonymous? As a passionate team, we want to discuss the matter with you in an open and transparent way. And so, we’ll be presenting the tool and how it works in detail in this article.

What is Officevibe?

At Officevibe, we believe the future of work is human. We dream of a better world where every organization focuses on bringing out the best in humans.

With our product, we want to help managers become great leaders. To do this, we use the science of Employee Engagement. It sounds complicated but it’s really not.

Officevibe is an online platform that measures 10 Key Metrics that are directly tied to your level of Engagement at work, based on your answers to our 120 Survey questions. Officevibe also provides you with a simple way to share Feedback with your organization, the goal being to foster a positive work culture and environment.

Why should I participate?

By answering Officevibe Surveys and sharing Feedback on a continued basis, you are providing timely and valuable information -- and therefore contributing directly to improving your work environment. Officevibe is your voice, so speak up! Help shape a healthy and motivating workplace where you can thrive and grow.

How does it work?

Each week, we prompt you to answer 5 Survey questions. One of these questions is open-ended, giving you the opportunity to share Feedback on various topics. If you want to express your thoughts on a specific matter, you can also use Officevibe’s virtual Suggestion Box.

Here’s an example of Officevibe’s Survey questions.

How anonymity works in Officevibe

Answers to Survey Questions

We believe that anonymous Surveys help create a safe space to share our honest thoughts.

To preserve user anonymity, the answers of all members of a team, for a specific subject, are aggregated and then converted into scores. These scores are presented to managers in Officevibe Reports.

Scores for the entire organization are available to all managers. However, scores and Reports for a specific group are visible only to managers who have access to view them.

Through these Reports, managers can identify opportunities, strengths, and challenges within their team and can act accordingly. The intention is always to have a positive impact on your work environment and your organization’s culture. For example, if the level of stress is a problem for the team, this will be reflected in the manager’s Officevibe Report. By being aware of this issue, the manager will be able to discuss it with the team and take action to improve the situation.

The Engagement Report

The data that is collected through our Survey questions is aggregated and presented to managers in a powerful, yet simple Engagement Report. It presents a global Engagement score as well as a score for each of the 10 key Metrics.

This is an example of the Officevibe Engagement Report. You can see the overall Engagement score as well as scores for each of the 10 Officevibe Engagement Metrics.

To protect your anonymity, Reports are not visible to managers if the group contains fewer than 3 participants. Moreover, regardless of the size of the group, a score for a Metric is only visible when there are at least 3 responses from 3 distinct users over the last 3 months.

The Feedback Report

As mentioned previously, one of the Survey questions is open-ended, giving you the opportunity to share written Feedback on various topics. If you want to express your thoughts on a specific matter, you can do so by using Officevibe’s virtual Suggestion Box.

Whether you’re sharing Feedback through a follow-up question, the virtual Suggestion Box or responding to a Custom Poll[1], you have the option to choose if you want to be anonymous or not.

This is an example of a follow-up question.

It's important that you know that your feedback is anonymous by default in Officevibe. You can change the setting to show your identity if you wish to do so, for every piece of Feedback you share. This said, this flexibility also comes with the responsibility of voicing your opinions and concerns respectfully.

Managers see Feedback listed in a Feedback Page and present only Feedback they’re allowed to see. They see that it comes from Anonymous Employee unless you choose to have your name displayed. If your feedback is non-anonymous, your manager will see your name next to your it. Whether anonymous or not, a Feedback can be replied to by any manager who access to it.

 

This is an example of Feedback shared in Anonymous mode.

When a manager replies to your feedback, you will receive a notification and can continue the conversation as needed. Once again, your name isn’t displayed unless you decide otherwise, and of course you can decide throughout the conversation to show your identity if you wish to do so.

 

In this screenshot, you can see that the employee’s comment is anonymous but the person responding to the comment – their manager – is not and will never be.

The different types of Feedback and Rules

As rules are slightly different for each type, Feedbacks coming from a follow-up question or the Suggestion Box are displayed in one section of the platform and those coming from a Custom Polls are displayed in another section.

In this screenshot, you can see in the Sidebar on the left that Feedback is split into two sections: Surveys and Custom Polls. You will also notice that the Feedback Report contains both anonymous and non-anonymous feedback.

Anonymity rules can definitely be a dry read (trust us, we've been there!), so we did our best to break it down in the most digestible and simple manner.

The guiding principle behind these anonymity rules is to provide access to a maximum amount of Feedback to allow management to take action while still protecting user anonymity. It's a balancing act.

Feedback from Follow-up questions and the Suggestion Box

Anonymous Feedback coming from a follow-up question or the Suggestion Box is only visible if a group is composed of at least 5 users.

If an anonymous Feedback has already been viewed and the group falls below 5 users, it will remain visible as this constitutes an ongoing conversation.

This said, any new anonymous Feedback that is given will be hidden as long as the group is not composed of 5 users.

Finally, Feedback that is non-anonymous is always visible.

Feedback from Custom Polls

Anonymous Feedback coming from a Custom Poll is only visible when the Custom Poll targets[2] at least 5 users.

If an anonymous Feedback has already been viewed and the target group falls below 5 users, it will remain visible as this constitutes an ongoing conversation.

However, any new anonymous Feedback will be hidden until the target group reaches 5 users.

Finally, Feedback that is non-anonymous is always visible.

Who can see my Feedback?

Your direct Manager sees your Feedback, based on the rules we've explained above. It is possible for other individuals inside your organization to see your Feedback, depending on permissions assigned by your organization in Officevibe.  As an example, someone in the Human Resources department might have permission to view Feedback and Reports across the company, just like a VP or CEO.

As this reality differs from one organization to another, we invite you to discuss this matter with the appropriate person at your organization so that you can get an accurate understanding of your organization's setup in Officevibe.

Personal Settings

When adding you as a user in Officevibe, your organization will input some of your personal information into the platform. This includes:

• Your first and last name 
• Your email address
• Your job title
• Your group information  
• Your profile picture

Status & Participation 

Your participation and input are key to improve your workplace -- after all if your input isn't being considered, improvements may be limited. Therefore, when you stop answering Officevibe Surveys for more than 30 days, your status switches from active to inactive on the platform.

Only someone from your organization with an Admin role in Officevibe can see this active/inactive status. Therefore, the Admin user may gently remind you to participate in your weekly Survey. The information they have is in no way related to your answers or your Feedback. The objective is strictly to encourage you to continue sharing your opinion.

Managers can see that some users in their group are inactive but they cannot know who these users are.

How does Officevibe handle my data?

All your data is stored on secure servers and is protected by strict rules and protocols. When handling any customer data, we're mindful of your privacy.

Further, it's important to note that your Employer is governed by Terms and Conditions that protect your identity when sharing feedback in anonymous mode. These T&Cs ensure that your Employer is using the platform appropriately and ethically.

Conclusion

We hope we’ve been able answer your questions with this article.

If you’re ever curious to know more about Officevibe or concerned about how our tool works, please drop us a line at support@officevibe.com.

You can also connect with your Admin at any point if you have questions about Officevibe.

 _____________________________________________________________________

[1] Custom Polls present questions that are written by your organization and sent by your organization or by your manager. These questions, which are specific to your organization, are  added after your regular Officevibe Survey questions or sent separately.

[2] The target includes all current users of the group targeted by a Custom Poll as well as any user who answered the Custom Poll but who is no longer part of the target group (the user would have answered the Custom Poll before leaving the group, thus being part of the target group).