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Comparisons (EX)

Suite

Employee Experience

Product

Qualtrics

What's on this page

Qtip: This page describes functionality available to Engagement, Lifecycle, Pulse, and Ad Hoc Employee Research projects. For more details on each, see Types of Employee Experience Projects.

About Comparisons

Have you ever wanted to include comparisons in your dashboard? For example, maybe you’d like to show the difference in scores from last year’s engagement survey to this year’s, or maybe you want to compare every department to the company baseline. You can set up the basis for these comparisons by going to the Settings and selecting the Comparisons section on the left.

the comparisons section of dashboard settings

Metadata Filters

You have the option to set filters when defining your comparisons. You can filter any Multi-Answer Text Set fields mapped into your project.

You can filter by Multi-Answer Text Sets. You can choose an exact value (e.g., Australia, Mexico, USA) or determine that the value should be “same as viewer.”

The “same as viewer” option means the value will match with the metadata value of the dashboard viewer on the selected source. So if someone from the US office looks at the dashboard, they’ll only see US data; an employee from Australia will only see the Australian office’s data.

Qtip: When using the “same as viewer” filter, you must select a specific source from the Source dropdown. This filter is not compatible when “All” is selected.

Attention: Metadata fields used in comparison filters must be mapped in the selected source, otherwise you may experience issues with your widget.

Org Hierarchy Filters

You have the option to set org hierarchy filters when defining your comparisons.

Once you’ve selected a hierarchy, you will be able to choose between Current Unit, Parent Unit, or Grandparent Unit.

Hierarchy options for 2018, 2019, and Active

Qtip: When filtering a comparison by an org hierarchy, note that if you are referencing a separate data source, you should consider how the hierarchies are mapped and what org hierarchy permissions are in place. For example, if you see no data for an org hierarchy comparison on a historical source, double-check that the unit is mapped correctly across sources and that the user has permission to view the unit based on those mappings.

Active Org Hierarchy

If you’re not interested in isolating the comparison data to one hierarchy, you can select Active Org Hierarchy. This filters the comparison by whichever hierarchy filter the dashboard user looking at the data has selected.

In Active Org Hierarchies, comparisons will be based on the hierarchy unit selected in the Org Hierarchy filter.

Image of a dashboard with the hierarchy filter opened. You see Tiffany Hunter, under her is Aurelio Banner, and under him is Alden Hart, who has been selected

Current Unit: Selecting “Current Unit” will show dashboard users the data of the exact unit they click.
Example: In the image above, Alden Hart’s unit is selected.
Parent Unit: This is the unit above the selected unit. Parent unit is useful if some of your company’s units are very small – the chance of anonymity decreases the fewer results that appear on the dashboard. Parent unit is also a useful option if you want a larger unit of people to work towards a common goal – for example, you’re not worried about engagement for just Web Design or the Email Marketing teams, but the whole of Digital Marketing.
Example: In the image above, if Alden Hart is selected, then we’d see data for Aurelio Banner, since his unit is just above Alden’s.
Grandparent Unit: This is the unit 2 units above the dashboard user (i.e. the unit above the parent unit). Grandparent unit is useful if some of your company’s units are very small or if you want larger groups of employees working towards a common goal. For example, using grandparent unit will show engagement across all of your Marketing teams.
Example: In the image above, if Alden Hart is selected, then we’d see data for Tiffany Hunter, since she is 2 units above Alden.

Selecting a Specific Org Hierarchy

Any hierarchies you’ve added to your project will be listed as options. You can select a specific hierarchy if this basis of comparison is only supposed to be defined for one hierarchy and no other. For example, if you want to compare 2019’s hierarchy to all other years, you’ll want to set the filter to the 2019 hierarchy’s data, only.

Qtip: If you’re comparing different hierarchies, don’t forget to map the hierarchies so the dashboard knows what units to compare.

comparison has Seattle 2019 hierarchy selected as a filter, plus parent unit

Current Unit: This is the specific unit the dashboard user belongs to. If you don’t want your teams knowing the results for the unit above them, or want them to have very team-specific data, use current unit.

Example: Let’s say Barnaby belongs to the Web Design team of the Digital Marketing Department. The current unit would be Web Design.

Parent Unit: This is the unit above the dashboard user. Parent unit is useful if some of your company’s units are very small – the chance of anonymity decreases the fewer results that appear on the dashboard. Parent unit is also a useful option if you want a larger unit of people to work towards a common goal – for example, you’re not worried about engagement for just Web Design or the Email Marketing teams, but the whole of Digital Marketing.

Example: To use the same example, Barnaby’s parent unit would be all of Digital Marketing.

Grandparent Unit: This is the unit 2 units above the dashboard user (i.e. the unit above the parent unit). Grandparent unit is useful if some of your company’s units are very small or if you want larger groups of employees working towards a common goal. For example, using grandparent unit will show engagement across all of your Marketing teams.

Example: Using the above example, Barnaby’s grandparent unit would be all of Marketing.

Creating & Managing Comparisons

Click Add Comparison.

Check Include page filters and user permissions if you want the filters on the dashboard pages to apply to the comparisons. Please note that checking this option will also apply the user’s dashboard permissions. If you want this comparison to stay static, keep this option unchecked.

Qtip: If you have a dashboard filter applied on the same field as a comparison filter, the dashboard filter on that field is ignored. Only page filters that are not on the same field as a comparison filter are applied, even when “Include Page Filters” is checked.

Name the comparison. This will be the name that shows up on widgets.

Select the Employee Experience project that will be the Source of the comparison.

Qtip: Another project cannot be added as a source until you have mapped it to the dashboard’s primary survey. For more information on this, see our Dashboard Data page.

Qtip: If a source is unmapped in the data mapper comparisons which use that source will need to be reconfigured.

Click Add Filter to filter the comparison by metadata or hierarchy.

Qtip: Click the gray X to the far left of a comparison to remove it.

Widget Compatibility

The following widgets can display comparison data:

Comparison data is displayed as the difference between the primary source and the comparison. It often appears in a delta format, with a plus (+) or minus (–) and color coding to indicate in which direction this difference is, or in base value format, where the exact value of the comparison is displayed. The widgets will only show color if deltas are used.

Attention: The delta for comparisons is calculated using the data raw values. Because of this, you may see values that look like they do not completely match due to your widget’s rounding settings. For example, let’s say your widget is set to round numbers to the nearest whole number. If field A has a score of 38.5 and field B has a score of 35.4, then they will display as 39 and 35 respectively in your widget. However, the comparison between them will be displayed as 3 since 38.5-35.4=3.1 which rounds to 3.

In the image below, the data displayed in the Distribution column shows the score for different questions for a specific department which is determined by a dashboard page filter. The Overall Company column displays the score for the department relative to the company’s overall score. In this example, the department scored higher than the company average for these questions.

Qtip: The comparison widget is unrelated to the comparisons you create in the dashboard settings.

Adding Comparisons to Widgets

Edit the widget you’d like to add the comparison for.

In the widget editing pane, click Add Comparison on the bottom.

Select the comparison you want to add to the widget.

FAQs

How do I pull my comparisons into the Comparison widget in my EX dashboard? / Where is the "Add Comparison" button?

The Comparison widget is unrelated to the comparisons you set up on the Settings tab. You do not need to set up anything in the Settings tab to use the Comparison widget, although you can adjust additional sources and field types in the Dashboard Data section, if desired. Make sure your favorability settings for your Scales settings make sense when they calculate the Comparison widget's Distribution column.

If you want to pull comparisons from the Settings into a widget, try out the Scorecard Widget, Question List widget, Heat Map widget, Demographic Breakout widget, Engagement Summary widget, or Bubble Chart Widget.

I have some comparisons displayed on my EX dashboard, but they aren’t matching the historical data like I would expect. How do I fix this?

First, select Update All Responses With Current Metadata in your historical project. To do this, open your old project to the Participants tab and click on the Tools menu. Use the option to Update All Responses With Current Metadata. Then, repeat this step for your current project as well.

Next, check to make sure the comparison is correctly set up in the Settings tab of your new dashboard. Check the Comparisons section to confirm that the source of the survey is your historical project. If you have a filter in place on your comparison, be sure to check that as well.

Lastly, if you are comparing org hierarchies, make sure that your hierarchies are mapped. If they haven't been mapped, map your hierarchies. Then, Update All Responses With Current Metadata in both the historical and current project after mapping the hierarchies.

I have a comparison set on my EX dashboard that shows the overall organization results, but it appears to be different from when I’m at the top of my hierarchy. How is this happening?

It’s likely that you have some anonymous responses or responses that aren’t associated with your hierarchy in your data set. When this happens, it can change the number in your comparison, resulting in non-zero delta values. If you delete the anonymous responses, then the values will display properly. To check for anonymous responses to your survey that aren’t associated with a unit in your hierarchy, download the data for your project from the Data tab.

What should I do if a filter in my comparison is invalid?

If you receive a message that a filter is invalid, try deleting the field from your Dashboard Data and then re-adding it. Please be aware that deleting and re-adding a field will cause a dashboard recache, which can take a while for larger dashboards.

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