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Why do you need my demographic information?

AskYourTeam Help CentreInformation for survey participants

Why do you need my demographic information?

Demographic information helps organisations understand the experiences of different groups of people.

Here are some examples:

  • Age

  • Gender

  • Ethnicity

They're used to make sure important insights are not missed and to ensure organisations provide an environment that supports everyone.

For example, consider the question:
Honesty and directness are valued in our organisation

The average score across the survey might show that 65% of participants agree with this statement. But if you analyse the results by gender, it might change. It could reveal that males have an average score of 75%, whereas other genders (like female or prefer not to say) have an average score of around 41%.

How is my identity protected?

For anonymous surveys, we protect your identity by design. Survey results and reports can only be generated if there are a certain amount of responses. We call this a minimum threshold. It is set at 3 to 5 participants (the number depends on the survey settings).

So if your HR Manager wants to view results for 26 to 35 years old, but there were only 2 responses for that demographic group, they wouldn't be able to generate a report. The image we've shared shows an example of this. The 'See results button' can't be selected because the 26 to 35 years old option is under the threshold.

Example of how the minimum threshold works

Here is an example of a survey with a minimum threshold of 5.

Joan is a Team Leader and has a team of 10 staff (5 males and 5 females). All the participants have provided Gender demographic information.

These are the scenarios that could happen:

  1. Less than 5 people completed the survey: Only 2 people in Joan's team completed the survey. This did not meet the minimum threshold of 5. Reports can't be generated. The image we've shared shows an example of the message Joan would see.

  2. More than 5 people completed the survey: All 10 people in Joan's team completed the survey. Reports can be generated, and the demographic filter 'Gender' can be applied so you can analyse experiences between males and females.

  3. Not enough completions within a demographic group: 3 males and 2 females in Joan's team completed the survey. Reports can be generated, but the demographic filter 'Gender' can't be applied. Joan can't analyse the experiences between males and females.

Where is my demographic information stored?

Your demographic information is securely stored in your organisation's AskYourTeam account. It does not link your answers to you and can only be viewed by account administrators either from or acting on behalf of your HR Department.

Take a look at our Privacy Policy for more information.