The Heatmap turns your survey data into a clear, visual map of sentiment across your most critical employee groups. By comparing each group's scores against your company average — and against each other — you can see exactly where to focus, all while respecting respondent anonymity. This guide explains how to read and use the Heatmap, and what each Prosper group definition means.
Who this is for: Managers and Administrators
Read time: 7 minutes
What the Spotlight Heatmap shows
The Heatmap lets you assess the sentiment of your critical employee groups by selecting the corresponding tiles. You can compare their scores with the company average and with other relevant responder groups, making it easy to spot where sentiment is strong and where it needs attention.
Anonymity is respected throughout the Heatmap. Groups are only shown where there's sufficient data to protect anonymity (see Part 2).
Prosper group definitions
Spotlight groups your people into meaningful cohorts. Here's what each means:
- Exited the business: Upon leaving the company, this group amalgamates ratings for all previously departed employees, and every survey interaction they had with your organisation during the Employee Lifecycle.
- Future Leaders: Someone who inspires innovation, fosters collaboration, and adapts to change while driving sustainable growth and empowering others to succeed.
- Critical Roles: A role that directly influences the success and stability of key operations, driving strategic objectives and ensuring business continuity.
- High Performers: Someone who consistently exceeds expectations, delivers exceptional results, and demonstrates leadership through innovation, dedication, and a strong work ethic.
- Promotion Candidates: An employee who demonstrates exceptional performance, leadership potential, and the skills required to succeed in a higher-level role.
- Retention Risk: The potential loss of key employees due to factors such as dissatisfaction, lack of growth opportunities, or competitive external offers.
- Performance Issue: A gap between an employee's actual output and the expected standards, often impacting team effectiveness and organisational goals.
Prerequisites
- You must be a Manager or Administrator.
- The relevant survey data must exist, with enough responses to meet the anonymity threshold.
Part 1 — Spotlight: data-driven decision making
Step 1 — Open Spotlight in the Heatmap
Navigate to Analytics and select Spotlight in the Heatmap.
Step 2 — Drill into a group
Select tiles for a further breakdown of focus areas and scores for that group of responders.
Step 3 — Examine the response breakdown
Select scores for a breakdown of Total Responses, and how people responded — Positive, Neutral, or Negative.
Part 2 — Heatmap: demographics and tiles
Minimum data threshold: Demographics will only show data where there is sufficient data available — a minimum of 3 responses in any group. Where there are fewer than 3 responses, that group will not show in the Heatmap. This protects respondent anonymity.
How tiles represent scores
Each tile in the Heatmap displays the score difference relative to the overall company average (which is shown at the top of the Heatmap). Differences are represented using colour and signs:
- Green — more positive than the company average.
- Red — more negative than the company average.
- Plus (+) / Minus (−) signs — indicate whether a score is higher or lower than the overall company average.
Step 1 — Open the Heatmap and select a group
Navigate to Heatmap in Analytics and select a group under Spotlight.
Step 2 — Drill into tiles
Select tiles for a breakdown of scores and focus areas for that group of responders.
Step 3 — View the response breakdown
Click scores for Total Responses and a breakdown of how people responded (Positive, Neutral, or Negative).
Part 3 — Heatmap: tiles and scoring
The positive or negative value in each tile is directly relative to the overall company average score.
Worked example: If the Future Leaders team Learning & Development score shows -5, and the overall company average is 77%, then this tile represents an actual score of 72% (77 - 5).
When a score is equivalent to the overall average, the tile appears grey (0) — no difference from the company average.
Reading a tile at a glance
- Green with a + → this group scores above the company average for this focus area.
- Red with a − → this group scores below the company average for this focus area.
- Grey (0) → this group matches the company average exactly.
- Any group not shown → fewer than 3 responses; suppressed to protect anonymity.
How to use the Heatmap for decisions
- Find your biggest reds first. The most negative tiles relative to the company average are usually where attention is most needed — start there.
- Compare groups, not just absolutes. A group scoring 75% might look fine until you see it's −10 against a company average of 85%. The relative view surfaces problems an absolute score can hide.
- Cross-reference critical groups. A red tile in your Retention Risk or High Performers group carries more strategic weight than the same tile in a less critical cohort. Prioritise accordingly.
- Drill into the response split. A score can hide its story. Two groups with the same score may have very different Positive/Neutral/Negative splits — the breakdown tells you whether sentiment is polarised or simply lukewarm.
- Watch the Exited group. Sentiment from departed employees often reveals issues current employees are reluctant to voice — treat it as an early-warning signal.
Tips and best practices
- Lead with the relative view. The Heatmap's power is in showing difference from the average. Train yourself to read the +/− and colour first, then the underlying score.
- Respect the threshold. If a group isn't showing, it's because there are fewer than 3 responses. Don't try to work around anonymity protection — roll small groups into larger cohorts for analysis instead.
- Pair red tiles with action. A Heatmap that highlights a problem but isn't followed by action is just observation. Use the focus-area breakdown to target a specific, concrete response.
- Track over time. A single Heatmap is a snapshot. Comparing Heatmaps across survey cycles shows whether your interventions are moving sentiment in the right direction.
- Bring it to leadership conversations. The Heatmap is highly visual and intuitive — it's an effective way to focus leadership attention on the groups and focus areas that matter most.
Troubleshooting
A group I expected to see isn't showing.
The group likely has fewer than 3 responses, so it's suppressed to protect anonymity. This is by design — there's no setting to override it.
A tile shows a score that doesn't match the raw survey result.
Tiles show the difference relative to the company average, not the raw score. Add the tile's +/− value to the company average (shown at the top) to get the actual score — for example, +8 on a 78% average is 86%.
All my tiles are grey.
Grey means the group's scores match the company average. If everything is grey, the groups may be too similar to the average, or there may be limited variation in the underlying data.
I can't tell whether green is good or bad.
Green always means more positive than the company average, and red means more negative — regardless of the focus area. The +/− sign confirms direction.
The company average seems off.
The company average reflects all qualifying responses across your organisation. If it looks unexpected, check the survey scope, date range, and response volumes feeding into it.
Can I see individual responses behind a tile?
No — the Heatmap is aggregated and respects anonymity. You can see total responses and the Positive/Neutral/Negative split, but not individual responses.
Comments
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.