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Scales (EX)

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

About Scales

Many widgets display participant engagement and category scores through the use of colorful scales. Where on the scale a given color begins and ends is entirely up to you and can be configured in your dashboard settings.

Example of an Engagement Summary widget

But these colors are not just for show. Each color indicates favorability, which is used to calculate the engagement scores. In the example above, 67% of the participants gave favorable ratings on the engagement scale selected.

Navigate to the Settings and select the Scales section on the left to get started.

Button that says Settings and has a gear icon

image of the scales tab

Qtip: Looking to change the color scheme of your scales? Check out the Theme Settings section of your dashboard.

How to Change Your Scales

Only fields that are mapped as a number set will appear in dashboard scales.

Attention: Scales are not compatible with embedded data and will cause your widgets to display an error message.

Click the arrows on the white sliders to adjust which scale points correspond to which colors, then click Save.

image of the partitions in the scales tab

As a rule, the color on the far left indicates low favorability, the color in the center indicates neutrality, and the color on the far right indicates favorability. This affects the percentages calculated in the compatible widgets listed below.

Reverse-Scale

If you have questions with scales that are reverse-coded, click the dropdown arrow to reveal the different scale points, then select Reverse Scale next to each question that uses a reversed scale. This setting is especially helpful when configuring categories.

14 Statements use this scale clicked to expand a list of each, with Reverse Scale checkbox to right of each of the 14 scales

Example: Reverse-coded scales are the exact opposite of the standard scale. For example, instead of listing your scale points in order of increasing positivity from left to right, you may have listed them in increasing negativity, as shown in these screenshots. Or you might have a series of questions about integrity phrased so that for most of the questions, saying you strongly agree indicates high integrity, but for one or two of the questions, saying you strongly agree indicates very low integrity.

If you have mapped more than one source to your dashboard, these sources will share the same scale. You cannot set a different scale for your historical data sources.

Qtip: If your historical data source contains fields that are on a different numeric scale than your primary source, you’ll need to recode your historical data to match your primary data. For example, let’s say last year’s engagement project had a question on a 7-point scale. If this year’s engagement project has the same question on a 5-point scale, the historical data will need to be recoded to the 5-point scale so that it aligns with the current project’s scale.

Answers Excluded from Analysis

Sometimes scales have an option, such as “Not applicable” or “I don’t know,” that shouldn’t be included in the scale calculations. Choices that are excluded from analysis will appear as dark gray segments.

Scale as described in scale dashboard settings

Many phrases, such as “Not applicable” and “I don’t know,” will automatically exclude the choice from analysis. But if you’d like to reverse this, or if you think a scale point should be excluded when it isn’t already, go to the Survey tab and use the answer dropdown.

Question in survey tab. Choice selected, blue dropdown arrow selected

Widget Compatibility

The following widgets use these scales:

Qtip: The participation summary widget only uses the first and last colors of the scale. The bubble chart widget can use its own color scheme altogether.
Attention: Multiple answer survey questions are not compatible with scales.

Error Messages & Troubleshooting

You may encounter a few different error messages when setting up your dashboard’s favorability scales. These errors are built to preserve your data’s integrity and prevent incorrect analysis of engagement results. Below is a list of common error messages, their causes, and how to fix them.

    • Your scales changes can’t be saved because some of them aren’t compatible with your recode values. This error message appears when you try to save a scale that contradicts your recode values. For example, if two points on your scale have the same recode value, they must have the same favorability on your scale. The scales editor will tell you which scales and fields are invalid by marking them with a red triangle. To fix this, you will need to recode your fields so that the scale points have different recode values. The same error can happen when your scale points don’t form a progressive set (i.e. they aren’t continuously increasing or decreasing), see the recode values troubleshooting section for more details.
      the scales editor with the error message "your scales changes can't be saved because some of them aren't compatible with your recode values"

      Qtip: Hover over a scale point to see its recode value.
      an scale that's invalid which is marked by a red warning triangle. hover your mouse over a scale point to see its recode value
    • There was an error loading your scales settings. You may see this message if the fields in the Data Mapper are misconfigured, or if you have any questions in your survey that use carry forward or default choices. These features are not supported in scales.
      the scales tab with the error
    • All scales are neutral upon dashboard creation. While rare, this scenario occurs when the recode values in the survey editor would create invalid scales. When you create your dashboard, all of your scales will be neutral. There are two different ways you can fix this issue. If you haven’t yet built your dashboard, we recommend recoding the questions in your survey editor and then creating a new dashboard so that the scales auto-generate. You can also recode your fields in your dashboard data and then manually create your scales, but this method takes longer and is more work.
      the scales tab when all the scales have defaulted to neutral due to invalid recodes in the survey editor upon dashboard creation
    • If your historical data source contains fields that are on a different numeric scale than your primary source, you’ll need to recode your historical data to match your primary data. For example, let’s say last year’s engagement project had a question on a 7-point scale. If this year’s engagement project has the same question on a 5-point scale, the historical data will need to be recoded to the 5-point scale so that it aligns with the current project’s scale.