How to create a great data file

The data file is an extremely important element in your GAIS survey. Therefore, it is time well spent to make some considerations before preparing the file - and to work thoroughly with the structure of it. 

A data should contain the data in all the invitees you want to invite to participate in the GAIS surveys. In addition to the name and email address, the data file also contains the other data about the participants that you want to have available when you analyze the results of the GAIS measurement.

Note: The template for the data file can be downloaded at the bottom of the article.

What is the data file used for in GAIS?

The data file forms the basis for your work with data. The better the data file, the more precisely you can work with your data afterwards. The data file is used in relation to:

Filters

The columns you choose to create in the data file constitute the filters you can subsequently use to sort data. The data file above contains the columns: Name, Email, Age, Gender, Language, Position/Title, Country, Immediate Manager, Department, Location, Management Responsibility and Senority. This means that the administrator can use the background information to filter data and, for example, investigate how job satisfaction is specifically among the invitees in Copenhagen or among Marketing employees.

GAIS always collects four mandatory background information, which constitute the mandatory filters: gender, age, position, and country. The mandatory background information can also appear in your data file - then the invitees do not have to answer questions about these.

Segments

You can create data segments based on the filters/columns you have created in the data file. Data segments are subsets of a survey, for example a department or invitees in a certain age group. It is advantageous to create section reports when you want to share part of a report with others but do not want to give access to the entire report. Sections can be made based on a single filter or by combining several filters (e.g., function and location).

Organization

Your organization chart is also created via the data file. “Immediate Manager” is defined via a column in the data file. “Immediate Manager” is used in connection with the comment and dialogue function in GAIS, where the immediate manager can be given access to see and engage in dialogue with the employees’ free text comments.

What data should the data file contain? 

It is important to make a precise data file. It requires some considerations about what data you need and what you will use them for.

Not too few: Consider what background data you need. You cannot add columns with data later in the process, so think carefully in advance about what you will need later.

Not too many: You can get too many background data. Consider what is relevant to you. Shoe size is probably not relevant. It is also very important not to put confidential background data into the data file if data sections are to be shared with others. Those whom you share a segment report with will also get access to all filters - therefore it may not be appropriate with a filter around salary range.

Answer categories with at least five invitees: Be aware that GAIS has an anonymity limit of five. This means that there must be at least five responses in a filtering and a data section to be able to create a report. The answer categories under each column should therefore preferably contain at least five invitees each. Therefore, we recommend specifying age in intervals such as 18-29 years, 30-39 years, etc., instead of a specific number or birth year such as 30 years or 1967

GAIS recommends: We recommend that your data file at a minimum contains the following columns:

• Name: Mandatory and necessary 
• Email: Mandatory and necessary 
• Age: Specified in intervals such as 18-29 years, 30-39 years, 40-49 years, etc. It is important not to have too narrow groups or just write the user’s age, as it will be difficult to filter if there are only very few people in each group 
• Gender: Mandatory. If gender is not in the data file, GAIS will automatically ask the user 
• Language: GAIS platform’s default language is English, so even if all employees speak Danish, it is important to have the language column with, so you are sure that all automated emails are sent out in the correct language. 
• Position: Mandatory. If the position is not in the data file, GAIS will automatically ask the user 
• Department/team: It is very useful to be able to filter afterwards 
• Management responsibility: It can be very useful to let the data file contain information about management responsibility. That is, a column where it is stated for each invitee whether the person has management responsibility or not. Then you can later in the process sort between managers and employees in the reporting 
• Immediate manager: You can greatly benefit from letting the data file contain information about which manager is linked to each employee. This opens up for more functionalities, such as the possibility of dialogue (anonymously) between manager and employees. This should be included if you want to show the immediate manager’s name in the well-being surveys. 

In addition, we recommend that if you include the following, if you have data available:

• Location: Do you have departments in different cities or countries? Add it to the data file, so you can easily filter and become wiser about whether there is a difference in the answers depending on where the employees belong. 
• Seniority: How long have the employees been employed? Like age, this is indicated in intervals: 0-1 year, 2-3 years, 4-5 years, 6-10 years, 11 years+ 
• Management level: Do you have several management levels, top manager, middle manager, management? 
• Terms of Employment: Do you distinguish between salaried employees, hourly paid, freelance, etc? 
• AMU (AMU representative/Not part of AMU): Do you have AMU representatives? It can be useful to filter on in connection with APV, especially if you want to work with actions.

Can filters be created that do not originate from the data file? 

In some cases, it may be helpful to create filters on background data that you do not already have. It could be, for example, whether the employees have had a development conversation with their manager within the last six months. Or whether the invitees have been on a course or further education within the last year. If you do not have this data available when you need to make the data file, you can create a filter where the invitees themselves are asked to give an answer. Such filters are thus not part of the data file, but otherwise function as completely ordinary filters, which data can be sorted after afterwards.

Who should have access to filters? 

When you make your data file, you should be aware that the filters that are created based on the data file are available to everyone who the digital company report or section reports are shared with. So it is important to consider who the reports should be shared with, and which filters it is appropriate for the relevant ones to have available.

It is also important that those who have access to filter data do not try to bypass the invitees’ anonymity by filtering so heavily on the results that they can calculate the individual invitee’s response.

How should our organization look? 

The data file defines your organization chart in relation to the GAIS survey. That is, who should be placed in which units, reference relationships, etc. Therefore, it is important to make considerations about how your organization should be built up in relation to the GAIS survey.

Can filters be transferred from one survey to the next survey? 

When you have created and sent out a survey that is to be repeated at a given frequency, GAIS automatically creates a draft for the next survey. GAIS carries forward all the setups you have made for the first survey to the draft. This means that the draft initially has the same filters as the previous survey. But you can easily change all elements in the setup. If you upload a new data file, because there has been a change in the employee group, for example, the filters must be established anew.

Segments

If you have created and saved data segments in the first survey, these segments are transferred to the draft for the next survey. This means that you can follow the development for the different segment reports over time, even if you upload a new data file.