Understanding Survey Anonymity and Thresholds – Prosper

Anonymity is the foundation of honest feedback. When employees trust that their responses can't be traced back to them, they answer truthfully — and truthful data is the only data worth acting on. This guide explains how anonymity works in Prosper, what the anonymity threshold is, and how both protect your people while still giving you actionable insight.

Who this is for: Administrators and Managers with survey access

Read time: 6 minutes

Why anonymity matters

The value of any survey depends entirely on whether people answer honestly. Employees who fear their responses could be identified tend to give safe, positive answers — which masks the very issues a survey is meant to surface. Anonymity removes that fear, and in doing so:

Increases honesty — people share genuine concerns they'd otherwise keep quiet.
Improves response rates — employees are more willing to participate when they feel safe.
Produces better data — and therefore better decisions.
Builds trust — a well-run anonymous survey signals that the organisation genuinely wants to hear the truth.

Anonymous vs non-anonymous surveys

In Prosper, you choose a survey's anonymity setting when you create it. All surveys default to anonymous.

Anonymous surveys

Responses are not linked to individual respondents in any reporting or export.
Comments are shown without identifying the author.
Results are only displayed where the anonymity threshold is met (see below).
Best for engagement, wellbeing, culture, and any sensitive topic.

Non-anonymous surveys

Responses can be attributed to individual respondents.
Appropriate where attribution is necessary and respondents understand their answers will be identifiable.
Should be used deliberately, with respondents informed up front.

Set anonymity before sending. The anonymity setting determines how responses are stored and displayed. Confirm it's correct before activating a survey.

What is the anonymity threshold?

The anonymity threshold is a minimum number of responses required before results for a group are shown. In Prosper, this minimum is 3 responses.

The logic is simple: if only one or two people in a group responded, showing their results could make it possible to identify who said what — especially in small teams. Suppressing results below the threshold protects respondents.

In practice: If a team of 4 has only 2 respondents to a survey, that team's results won't be shown as a standalone group. The responses still count toward larger groups (such as the whole site or the company average) — they're just not displayed at a level where they could identify an individual.

How the threshold appears across Prosper

The threshold is applied consistently wherever survey results are displayed:

Survey results — group-level results below the threshold are suppressed.
The Spotlight Heatmap — groups with fewer than 3 responses don't appear as tiles. See Using the Heatmap for Data-Driven Decisions.
Manager visibility — Managers see results for their teams only where the threshold is met. See Enabling Manager Visibility for Survey Scores and Comments.
Exports — results below the threshold are not broken out in exports. See Exporting Survey Recipients and Results.

How anonymity is preserved in exports

Exports are designed so that anonymity holds even when data leaves the platform:

Recipients and responses are separate. The recipients export tells you who was invited; it is never linked to how anyone responded.
The threshold still applies. Groups below <3 responses are not broken out.
Identifiers are stripped from anonymous results. Comments and responses in an anonymous survey are exported without respondent identifiers.

Your responsibility doesn't end at export. Even with anonymity preserved, survey data is sensitive. Store exports securely, limit access, and never attempt to re-identify respondents by cross-referencing small groups — doing so breaks the trust your entire survey programme depends on.

Working with small teams

The threshold can be frustrating when you genuinely want insight into a small team — but the protection is essential. A few ways to work within it:

Roll small teams into larger groups. Analyse at site, region, or department level where response counts comfortably exceed the threshold.
Compare cohorts, not individuals. Use Spotlight groups (such as High Performers or Retention Risk) which aggregate across teams.
Drive participation. A small team that fully responds may clear the threshold — encouraging completion is the legitimate way to get team-level visibility.
Use qualitative conversation. For very small teams, a direct (and clearly non-anonymous) conversation may simply be more appropriate than an anonymous survey.

Tips and best practices

Default to anonymous. Unless you have a specific, well-communicated reason not to, keep surveys anonymous — it produces better data.
Be transparent with employees. Tell people their survey is anonymous and explain the threshold. Understanding why a small team's results aren't shown builds trust rather than suspicion.
Never promise more than the platform delivers. Explain anonymity accurately — responses aren't shown below the threshold and aren't individually attributed — rather than making absolute guarantees you can't control.
Resist the urge to deduce. If you find yourself trying to work out who left a particular comment, stop. Protecting anonymity is what keeps future responses honest.
Design surveys with the threshold in mind. If you want team-level insight, make sure teams are large enough — or plan to analyse at a higher level.
Treat the Exited group as a signal. Departed employees often give the most candid feedback. Their aggregated, anonymous responses are a valuable early-warning system.

Troubleshooting

A team's results aren't showing.
The team likely has fewer than 3 responses, so its results are suppressed to protect anonymity. This is intentional and can't be overridden. Encourage participation or analyse at a higher level.

I changed the anonymity setting after sending — what now?
Anonymity determines how responses are stored and shown, so it's best set before sending.

Can I see who responded to an anonymous survey?
You can see who was invited via the recipients export, but not who responded or how. The recipients list is deliberately separate from response data to protect anonymity.

The recipients export and response count don't match.
This is expected. The recipients export shows who was invited; it's intentionally not linked to who responded, so the two are not meant to reconcile.

Why is the threshold 3 and not higher or lower?
Three is a balance — low enough that small teams can still surface results when they participate, but high enough to meaningfully protect individual identity.

Does a non-anonymous survey have a threshold too?
The threshold's purpose is protecting anonymity. For non-anonymous surveys, respondents have understood their answers are identifiable — but you should still handle all survey data securely and ethically.

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