Skip to main content
Skip to article
  • Qualtrics Platform
    Qualtrics Platform
  • Customer Journey Optimizer
    Customer Journey Optimizer
  • XM Discover
    XM Discover
  • Qualtrics Social Connect
    Qualtrics Social Connect

Org Hierarchy Questions

Was this helpful?


This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

The feedback you submit here is used only to help improve this page.

That’s great! Thank you for your feedback!

Thank you for your feedback!

About Org Hierarchy Questions

The org hierarchy question type allows participants to associate their response with a place in the hierarchy by either selecting from a hierarchy structure, using a search box, or both. The hierarchy must be generated first (see the Generating a Parent-Child Hierarchy or Generating a Level-Based Hierarchy pages). This can be useful for large organizations or organizations where the anonymous link and authenticator are used (e.g., when participants do not have email addresses).

Qtip: Remember, hierarchies are only in Engagement, not Lifecycle or Ad Hoc Employee Research. For more details on each, see Types of Employee Experience Projects.
Qtip: “Update Responses with Current Metadata” in the Participants tab updates all responses connected to a participant with the participant’s current metadata. If a response’s associated participant is either not in the hierarchy, or in a different place in the hierarchy than the user specified in the Org Hierarchy question, their hierarchy data will be overwritten with the participant’s hierarchy data.

Setting Up an Org Hierarchy Question

Once you add an org hierarchy question (see Creating & Editing Questions for instructions on how to create a question), you will have three additional settings in the question editing pane.

an org hierarchy question in the survey builder with key features called out

  1. Select org hierarchy: You must select a hierarchy to base your question off of. Note that your org hierarchy question will not work properly if you have not already generated a hierarchy (see the Generating a Parent-Child Hierarchy or Generating a Level-Based Hierarchy pages) or if you do not specify an org hierarchy from the dropdown menu.
  2. Display options: Choosing Hierarchy will display a series of dropdown menus from which a participant can locate their manager or unit. Choosing Search Box will display a search box from which a participant can search for their manager or unit. Choosing Both will display both a search box and a hierarchy; an individual can use either one.
    Qtip: In the search box, participants will only be able to use their manager’s name or their unit’s name.
  3. Metadata search field: This option will appear if you select search box or both in the question display options. If you generated a parent-child hierarchy and selected a metadata field for Org Unit Metadata, then that option will be available to select here. This will let your participants search by this metadata field in addition to searching by org hierarchy unit.
    Example: In this example, we selected the UnitDescription field for out Org Unit Metadata.
    creating a parent child hierarchy and selecting a metadata field for org unit metadata
    You can then select the UnitDescription as the metadata search field, allowing participants to search by this field.

Using the Org Hierarchy Question Type

How the org hierarchy selector functions depends on the types of hierarchy it is connected to.

If it is connected to a parent-child hierarchy or a skeleton hierarchy, the participant will often search for their manager’s name.

an org hierarchy question where an employee's name is selected

If it is connected to a level-based hierarchy (or a parent-child hierarchy with org unit descriptions), the participant will search for or select the unit in which they belong.

an org hierarchy question where a company level is selected

Qtip: This question relies on participants to select the correct manager or unit. It is possible for participants to make a mistake.

FAQs