Learn who can start Anonymous Chats, who can see them, what the different chat statuses mean, and what to do if you cannot start a chat.
Who can start an Anonymous Chat in Employee Surveys?
Three roles can initiate an Anonymous Chat in Employee Surveys:
HR Admin: Can start an Anonymous Chat from any survey comment they can access in the results, provided that Anonymous Chat is enabled.
Direct Group Owner (Manager): Can start an Anonymous Chat from comments submitted by members of their direct group, if this is enabled in the organization’s settings.
Group Member (Employee): Can start an Anonymous Chat while answering a survey question, if this is enabled in the organization’s settings.
Note: If the assigned HR Admin is also a direct Group Owner, that person appears only as an HR Admin in Anonymous Chat.
How can an employee start an Anonymous Chat while answering a survey?
If Anonymous Chat is enabled for employees, you can initiate a conversation while answering a survey question.
Open a survey question in Employee Surveys.
Write a comment in response to the question.
Use the Anonymous Chat toggle to initiate a chat based on your comment.
Select the person you want to address your chat to:
HR Admin
Direct Group Owner (Manager)
The available recipients depend on your organization's Anonymous Chat settings. You may be able to select the HR Admin, a direct Group Owner, or either.
If you have multiple direct Group Owners, you can choose which one to address your chat to.
Your identity remains anonymous to the recipient throughout the conversation.
Note: An Anonymous Chat initiated while answering a survey remains Pending until the pulse has closed and the final results are available.
How can an HR Admin or Group Owner start an Anonymous Chat from survey results?
HR Admins and direct Group Owners can initiate Anonymous Chats from comments in the survey results, provided they have access to the comments and the relevant settings allow them to start a chat.
Open Employee Surveys.
Go to the question results in the Dashboard or Individual Questions page.
Find the Comments section for the relevant question.
Locate the comment you want to discuss.
Click the chat button next to the comment to initiate an Anonymous Chat with the employee who submitted it.
The chat button appears next to comments when Anonymous Chat is enabled and the user is allowed to initiate a chat.
HR Admins can initiate chats from comments they have permission to view.
Direct Group Owners can initiate chats from comments submitted by their direct group members when this is enabled in Company settings.
The employee who submitted the original comment remains anonymous.
Why can't I start an Anonymous Chat?
If you cannot initiate an Anonymous Chat in Employee Surveys, there may be several reasons:
Anonymous Chat is not enabled: An Employee Surveys administrator must enable the feature for the organization.
No recipient is available: There must be an HR Admin or direct Group Owner available to receive the chat.
Organization settings restrict access: The Company settings determine whether employees can initiate chats while answering questions and whether direct Group Owners can initiate chats from comment results.
If you cannot start an Anonymous Chat, contact your HR Admin to check whether the feature is enabled and whether your organization's settings allow you to initiate a conversation.
Who can see Anonymous Chats in Employee Surveys?
Anonymous Chats can be found under Results > Anonymous Chat.
Who can see a conversation depends on their role and the status of the chat.
Employee (original commenter): Can see their Anonymous Chat in all four statuses: Pending, Open, Closed, and Hidden.
HR Admin or direct Group Owner (chat recipient): Can see chats addressed to them when their status is Open or Closed.
HR Admin (organization overview): Can see an overview of all Anonymous Chats created in the organization in the web version of Employee Surveys. However, they can only open, read, and reply to chats addressed directly to them.
An HR Admin's ability to see a chat in the organization overview does not mean they can access its messages.
When does an Anonymous Chat become visible to the HR Admin or Manager?
When an employee starts an Anonymous Chat while answering a survey question, the conversation is not immediately visible to the recipient.
The chat remains Pending until the pulse has closed and the final results are available.
During this time:
The employee who initiated the chat can see the conversation and send messages.
The addressed HR Admin or direct Group Owner cannot see the Pending chat.
Messages sent during the Pending state become visible to the recipient if and when the chat becomes Open.
Once the final results are available and the original comment is visible, the chat becomes Open, allowing the recipient to see the conversation.
What do the Anonymous Chat statuses mean?
Anonymous Chats in Employee Surveys can have four statuses:
Pending
A chat is Pending when an employee has initiated an Anonymous Chat while answering a survey question, but the final results are not yet available.
The employee can see the chat and send messages.
The addressed HR Admin or direct Group Owner cannot see the chat yet.
Messages become visible to the recipient if and when the chat becomes Open.
Open
A chat is Open when the conversation is available to both the original commenter and the addressed HR Admin or direct Group Owner.
A chat becomes Open when:
The final results are available and the original comment becomes visible to the recipient.
An HR Admin or direct Group Owner starts a chat from a comment in the survey results.
Closed
A chat becomes Closed when the addressed HR Admin or direct Group Owner manually changes its status from Open to Closed.
Participants can still see the conversation.
Participants cannot send new messages while the chat is Closed.
The HR Admin or direct Group Owner can reopen the chat if needed.
Hidden
A chat becomes Hidden when the final results are available, but the original comment is hidden because of scheduling visibility or the integrity framework.
Only the employee who submitted the original comment can see the chat.
The addressed HR Admin or direct Group Owner cannot see the Hidden conversation.
Note: The employee who submitted the original comment can see their Anonymous Chat in all four statuses. The addressed HR Admin or direct Group Owner can only see Open and Closed chats.
Video guide: Anonymous Chat - Setup and Use
Anonymous Chat: Setup and Use
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