Lattice allows super admins, survey admins, and managers to collaborate and close the loop on employee feedback with Anonymous Comment Replies. This feature allows your people team to dig into great ideas, learn more about employees' points of view, or address issues directly.
Before you start
If you choose to turn on Anonymous Comment Replies…
- Don’t flip-flop (turn on and off) – either allow or don’t allow responses for a given survey. This could set confusing expectations for employees whether their comments will be replied to or not.
- Let employees know before the survey that specific people will be able to reply to comments and communicate that not every comment may receive a response.
- Explain to those who can reply to comments about how they fit into your overall engagement survey follow-up and action-taking process.
- Lattice will send a weekly digest that includes new comment assignments or if a comment is awaiting reply. Learn more in A List of Notifications for Engagement Surveys.
Survey setup & reply options
Depending on the options selected, Managers and Managers of Managers will have visibility into the full thread or a more limited status view. The status view gives some status that comments are being addressed but will not share the thread with the user.
When creating a survey, admins will be given the following options to allow replying to anonymous comments submitted by survey participants:
Only allow admins and survey admins to reply to anonymous comments
This is recommended for companies that only want admins to reply to comments. However, it is important to note, even if Managers or Managers of Managers will not be able to reply, they will be able to see a status view that notifies them that a conversation is happening and which admin is assigned. Admins can activate this setting by toggling on the Comment replies and leaving the boxes unchecked.
Allow Managers to reply to anonymous comments from their direct reports
This is recommended for companies that want admins and Managers to reply directly but do not want Managers of Managers to see the detailed conversations. With this setting, admins can reply to every comment and see the full comment thread, and managers can reply to comments from their direct reports and see the full comment thread. However, Managers of Managers can only see a status view that lets them know a conversation is happening and the admin or Manager assigned.
Allow Managers of Managers to see the replies for their indirect reports
This is recommended for companies that want to have admins reply, but they also want to give visibility to Managers of Managers on the detailed conversations happening. With this setting, admins can reply to every comment and see the full comment thread, and Managers of Managers can see the full comment thread. However, Managers can only see a status view that lets them know a conversation is happening and the admin assigned.
Allow all settings on
This is recommended for admins from a more transparent organization that is comfortable having all replies and private notes visible across admins, Managers, and Managers of Managers. By having all settings turned on, admins can reply to every comment and see the full comment thread, Managers can reply to comments from their direct reports and see the full comment thread, and Managers of Managers can view replies made for their indirect reports, but they cannot reply directly to the comment. Admins can activate this setting by toggling on the Comment replies and checking both checkbox options.
Next, learn How to Reply to Anonymous Comments as an Admin.