Create an Anonymous Survey: Best Practices, Template

An anonymous survey does not store a respondent's IP address, location, or device. Additionally, the response submission date is not recorded. Responses can be collected using a specialized survey link or email collector. Anonymous surveys are commonly used for employee, instructor, or course feedback.

You can create an anonymous survey using an anonymous survey link or an anonymous email collector. The anonymous survey link is the easiest method and can be included in an email or posted to social media. An anonymous email message uses a specialized collector that will not allow you to view the email address to which a response was submitted. The specialized email collector lets you send reminders and track competition rates while keeping the respondents anonymous.

The anonymous survey link is the easiest way to collect anonymous survey responses. Large organizations can add custom data to the link to capture additional data points. To ensure anonymity, only one anonymous link is available per survey. Here are the steps needed to create an anonymous survey link:

To create an anonymous survey using the anonymous survey link, navigate to your survey's "Distribute" page and click on "Anonymous Link." You can copy the link and place it in an email or website. The link will contain a seal at the top informing respondents how their identities will be protected.

The anonymous email collector is ideal for employee or academic surveys. You can upload a list of respondents and send an email invitation out. The benefit of this method is our system will automatically track who has completed and who has not completed the survey. You won't have access to see which respondents have or have not completed the study, only a button that says, "Send Reminders." You can also include custom data with this collector type.

To ensure anonymity there is only one anonymous email collector per survey. If you wanted to send out a new campaign, such as a second-round employee survey, you would want to click the "Clear Messages" button. This will reset the anonymous email collector. Note: This will NOT delete survey responses.

To create an anonymous survey using the anonymous email collector, navigate to your survey's "Distribute" page and click "Anonymous Email Message." You can add email addresses and custom data to the upload grid from here. For a quicker upload, you could also do an Excel upload. You can send the email immediately (with a five-minute delay) or schedule it for a future date or time.

Anonymous surveys are best used when respondents feel their answers may have negative repercussions. Here are some other tips to keep in mind as you are creating your anonymous survey:

• Before sending the survey, convey to your respondents that the survey is anonymous and that the SurveyKing system is being used. When your employees see the anonymous seal, they will be comfortable giving their opinions. Many employee surveys state, "This survey is anonymous," without using the anonymous link, leading to distrust.
• In the email that contains the survey link, adding wording about taking the survey on a personal device may help boost response rates. This will increase anonymity as an employer cannot track web traffic on a personal device. In this case, the link should be displayed as plain text or a QR code so people can access the survey on a personal device.
• In the survey itself, add wording at beginning that the survey is anonymous and any unique steps your company takes to ensure anonymity. Sometimes, research studies may want to ask for a profile along with a submission, such as the Stack Overflow Annual Developer Survey does. In this case, you could use multiple surveys to hide the profile linked to a response. But be sure to communicate precisely how the survey protects identities.
• If sending an employee survey, try not to ask identity-related questions, such as names, departments, or work location. This will trigger mistrust.
• For projects like employee feedback, course feedback, or program evaluations, a Net Promoter Score question will help you benchmark results over time.
• Ask questions that have been obvious pain points to your organization. For example, what do you think of the recent paid time off policy changes?." With anonymity guaranteed, employees will feel comfortable sharing their true feelings, and your organization can address issues brought to light by candid responses.
• Include question types like MaxDiff or Ranking. These are ideal for anonymous surveys since they help determine preferences; honest preferences will give your organization actionable feedback.
• An open-ended textbox question will allow respondents to voice their opinions freely. Be sure to include at least one in your survey. Advise respondents to refrain from including details that can indirectly identify them, such as a spice project they are working on or a unique skill they have.

One of the most common uses for anonymous surveys is to capture honest employee feedback. Anonymous employee surveys can encourage new ideas, increase productivity, and reduce turnover. SurveyKing allows you to run anonymous surveys quarterly or annually, helping your organization benchmark and compare results over time.

Labor union surveys are often used during contract negotiations. The data is critical to securing the best contract; every response counts.  An anonymous survey may ease employee concerns about giving honest feedback, helping to increase response rates.

Unique to SurveyKing is the ability to add a passcode while protecting identities. The passcode can be in multiple fields, including the member ID and birthday. This ensures that responses are not double-counted, thereby eliminating ballot box stuffing. The submitted passcodes will not be available to the survey author in any results or exports.

Anonymous surveys are a perfect way to capture feedback from university students. Researchers can also use anonymous academic surveys in K-12 to evaluate courses, faculty peer reviews, and parent feedback. Schools can use the data from anonymous surveys to improve the learning experience or even identify new after-school activities.

You might need to interview at-risk groups, such as immigrants. Anonymous surveys are a perfect way to collect valuable feedback while protecting the group's identities. These groups are often unfamiliar with online survey tools, so seeing the anonymous seal on surveys gives them the confidence needed to provide honest feedback.

An anonymous survey does not store your respondents' IP address, location, device, or submission date. This ensures that the survey administrator cannot indirectly identify respondents. SurveyKing also takes additional measures that other platforms ignore to help further ensure anonymity.

SurveyKing does not log query strings for anonymous surveys. This gives respondents additional peace of mind that they are not being tracked through the link they clicked. Below is an example of anonymous survey links with custom data added to the link. If this information is saved, the data has the potential to reveal the respondents' identities.

Example: surveyking.com/survey/2625?c1=Dallas Office

Below are sample questions to help you get started. When doing evaluations, these sample questions are usually rated on a scale of 1-5, although a simple yes or no multiple choice could also work.

• I believe in the company's mission
• Leadership puts the company in a position to succeed
• My manager actively supports me
• I have the tools needed to do my job
• My feedback is valued
• How clearly did your instructor explain the course material
• The course design encouraged my participation in the class
• The course was a productive use of my time
• Which part (s) of the training were most useful and why? (open-ended)
• How can we improve our company (open-ended)