Confidentiality
How does confidentiality work
at Hive?
Your feedback in Onboarding & Exit Surveys may be linked to demographic details to address specific needs. Please read the below to understand how Onboarding & Exit Surveys can differ from regular Hive Surveys.
For Onboarding & Exit Surveys, confidentiality works a little differently to benefit you and your employer. For this survey, your employer has the option to remove the minimum group size (also known as the confidentiality limit) on demographic filtering. Please note, compared to regular Hive surveys your feedback may be more difficult to remain anonymous in the results. While Hive usually enforces a minimum group size to protect anonymity, this is not applied for Onboarding & Exit surveys.
This adjustment helps your employer quickly address any concerns you may have as a new employee or understand your reasons for leaving. The goal is to ensure a smoother onboarding experience and to make meaningful improvements for current and future employees. Please keep this in mind when submitting feedback.
How does confidentiality work for regular Hive Surveys?
Your employer recognises the importance of protecting your identity, and by choosing to use Hive, they’ve taken a step toward giving you a permanent voice. This ensures that your feedback can be shared openly and honestly, so meaningful improvements can be made in your organisation
Here’s how Hive protects your identity:
- Your employer only receives your feedback, never your identity.
- Your feedback is combined with your co-workers’ and divided into demographic groups, like department or location. Hive makes this possible by cross-referencing your feedback with your user profile.
- We restrict your employer from viewing and filtering feedback in groups of fewer than 3 (we strongly recommend a minimum of six), even if filters are combined. But don’t worry, your feedback will still contribute to larger groupings.
Why has the confidentiality limit for Onboarding & Exit Surveys been altered?
In smaller groups—or when only one person is involved— confidentiality is almost impossible.
Let’s say you have a new hire join your team, and a week into their role, they’re asked to fill out an onboarding survey about their experience so far. Even if the survey is set up to be “confidential”, it’s pretty clear who filled it out—it’s the only new person on the team. The same goes for exit surveys. If only one person is leaving the company, there’s no real way to hide who provided the feedback, no matter how the survey is framed.
This is fundamentally different from a large-scale survey. In a company-wide survey, where dozens or even hundreds of employees participate, feedback gets pooled together.
You might hear that 50% of people are unhappy with their workload, but there’s no way to pinpoint exactly which employees said it. That’s what true confidentiality looks like, and it’s easy to achieve when you’re working with large groups.
Onboarding and Exit Surveys play a key role in improving your overall experience with an organisation.
- Onboarding Survey: The confidentiality limit may have been adjusted to help your employer better support you during onboarding. If adjusted, your demographic information (such as your department or team) will be visible, but your name will never be displayed with your responses. By associating feedback with certain demographic information, your employer can address any team-specific or department-specific issues more effectively.
- Exit Survey: In the exit survey, this adjustment helps your employer understand trends across different teams or departments, ensuring that patterns or issues are addressed in those areas to improve the overall employee experience.
Will my name be displayed alongside my responses?
No, your name will not be attached to your feedback. Instead, Hive assigns a randomly generated code to your profile, which is never shared with your employer. This code allows Hive to link your feedback with your user profile without revealing your identity.
All employee feedback is grouped into demographic categories, such as department or location. However, for Onboarding & Exit Surveys, it may be harder to remain completely anonymous due to the removal of the confidentiality limit on filtering. Unlike regular Hive surveys, there is no minimum group size for these surveys, allowing your employer to address any immediate concerns more quickly.
If you have any further questions, feel free to reach out to your employer.
How to approach Onboarding & Exit Surveys?
When providing feedback, be specific by including details about what worked and what didn’t, and offer constructive suggestions for improvement. Sharing personal experiences can help your employer better understand the impact of their onboarding process. Your thoughtful feedback is crucial in helping create a better experience for everyone.
Thank you for your participation and trust in Hive. Your feedback is vital for your employer to provide you and your colleagues with the best employee experience possible.
