Way back when Engagement Multiplier was in the development phase, our developers came up with a brilliant piece of technology – what we refer to as Vault Technology™. That means no comment on the platform can be attributed to an individual. It’s so good that even our own developers can’t break it (and our founder, Stefan Wissenbach, asked them to try, just to be sure!).

How we deliver real anonymous employee feedback

We built anonymous employee feedback features into our employee engagement platform from the very beginning because we’ve always felt anonymity and confidentiality were that important. And it’s not just us that feel that way. According to a report by AllVoices, 74% of employees would be more inclined to give feedback if the channel was anonymous.

Feedback from every employee in every engagement survey on our platform is absolutely anonymous and confidential. We’ve also included tools like Secure-Follow Up and Suggestion Box to open the lines of communication between managers and employees without breaking confidentiality.

Here’s a little bit about how each of those anonymous communication features works.

Anonymous employee engagement surveys

Our most used features are no doubt our anonymous employee surveys which we offer in the form of a Benchmark Assessment (the survey that provides your Engagement Score), topic-specific On-Demand surveys, and completely custom employee engagement surveys.

No matter which survey you deploy, all employee feedback will be 100% confidential and anonymous. To gain more insight, admins will be able to set up and sort comments by groups. For example, if a company has a group called “Chicago” that includes all Chicago employees, the responses could be filtered to see how just that group responded.

But, to ensure total anonymity, if a group is too small – say three or fewer – we think it’s too easy to guess the owners of comments, and we won’t do it.

Secure Follow-Up, aka anonymous 1:1 communication with a team member

Secure Follow-Up, a unique feature of our employee engagement  platform, enables business leaders to communicate directly with survey participants while maintaining anonymity for both.

Leaders can respond to employee comments by asking for more context, to say thank you, etc. without ever knowing who left the comment AND the employee who left the comment can respond back to management through the platform without ever revealing who they are.

This type of anonymous communication opens the door for real change in organisations and responding to employees’ feedback is a great way to ensure they feel their input is valued. In reality, what at first glance appears to be a simple tool is actually a powerful employee engagement tool that can make an enormous impact.

Suggestion Box, aka an anonymous space for employees to ask questions or submit ideas

Suggestion Box is a tool we always encourage employees to take advantage of. Our anonymous suggestion box creates a space for employees to submit ideas or questions to the organisation without revealing their identities.

Perhaps if an employee feels disconnected from their coworkers, they could submit a suggestion for a team-building event that leadership would then be able to review and take action on.

Or, maybe an employee has a suggestion for an improvement to the product but is uncomfortable sharing their idea in a group. They can use the Suggestion Box to relay their idea directly to management anonymously.

A Gallup survey found that only 3 in 10 employees strongly agree their opinions matter at work. Encouraging employees to use Suggestion Box is a great way to foster innovation in your company while also ensuring employees feel their opinions are valued.

Anonymous employee feedback promotes truth and fast-tracks innovation

People tend to tell the truth when they feel safe and our Vault Technology™ provides employees the safety they need to be transparent.

Because of this, more often than not, we uncover issues and surface brilliant ideas management never would have heard otherwise. These become the actionable insights that drive real, meaningful, lasting change that results in transformation at your organisation.

Now, one argument against anonymous employee feedback is that “it discourages the level of specificity that’s needed to make real changes.” Of course, if one of your employees has a great idea, you may want to ask them to explain it to you more fully, via Secure Follow-Up.

We’ve got a funny story about that, actually:

Last year, during one of our own employee feedback cycles, one staff member came up with an idea Stefan thought was “incredible.”

“I read the comment and I thought, this is wonderful. So I responded using the Secure Follow-Up feature, not knowing who the person was. I told them it was a great idea and I’d love to implement it in our business, can you give me a bit more information?”

We went back and forth a few times, and eventually, I said,

“We’re going to implement it, and you have a choice: you can remain anonymous, which I’ll respect but it means I can’t give you the credit. Or you can let me know who you are and you can have the credit for this great idea.

At that moment, my executive assistant who’s worked with me for over ten years walked into my office smiling. And I had absolutely no idea.” – Stefan Wissenbach

Don’t lose out on valuable employee insights

You’ve taken great care to select the best people to work with you. It would be a shame to lose out on their valuable insights – and even your closest employees may not feel comfortable sharing them with you in person. It’s why we’ve committed to anonymity and confidentiality in employee feedback, and we hope you will too.

Your employees are on the front lines, which means they notice waste and identify opportunities before anyone else. That information doesn’t always make it up the chain of command.

You have to ask for it, regularly.

And you need to act on it.

Getting honest employee feedback not only requires anonymity and confidentiality, but it also requires you to prove to your staff that their thoughts matter, and will be acted on. That creates the motivation and employee empowerment to share more ideas for positive change. Anonymous employee feedback engages everyone in the cause of making your business the best it can be.

Hear more from our founder & CEO, Stefan Wissenbach, on why Engagement Multiplier has committed to completely anonymous employee feedback and how our Vault Technology™ works.