Understanding the minimum threshold

The minimum threshold is the number of responses required before a survey report can be generated. This is usually set to 5 by default, but can be as low as 3, depending on your organisation’s configuration.

Why is it important?

The threshold protects participants’ privacy. By requiring a minimum number of responses, it helps ensure that individual answers cannot be linked back to specific people.

We remind participants that their responses are confidential in two key places:

the survey invitation email
the welcome screen of the survey

This helps people feel safe to give honest feedback.

💡Did you know? The minimum threshold applies only to confidential surveys. In non-anonymous surveys, responses are intended to be identifiable, so the threshold does not restrict access to reports.

How the minimum threshold affects reporting

Let's look at what happens before and after the threshold is met:

Before the threshold is met

Reports and summaries can’t be generated.
No data will appear when using demographic filters.

After the threshold is met

Reports will include survey results.
Summaries will generate once the survey closes or the reporting period is met.
Data will also appear when demographic filters are applied.

If the threshold is never met

Standard surveys

If your survey closes before reaching the minimum number of responses, no data will appear in the report. These responses are not lost; they are securely stored but remain hidden to protect participants’ privacy.

Ongoing surveys

If not enough participants respond during a reporting period, their answers won’t appear in reports and there won't be any changes to summaries. To protect privacy, these responses are securely held and will only be included once enough responses have been collected in future reporting periods.

💡 Need more responses? Try extending the survey to give more participants, or specific demographics, time to respond and help meet the threshold.

Who sets the minimum threshold?

The minimum threshold is set at the account level for your organisation. It is set to 5 by default, although you can submit a request to our Customer Success Team to reduce it to 3 or 4.

There is one exception – Leadership Effectiveness 360. If you're running a leadership survey, the survey creator can adjust the minimum threshold themselves. This is done in the survey's settings.

What happens to the responses below the threshold?

If the number of responses is below the minimum:

No data will appear in reports or summaries.
Responses are securely held in the system.
If the survey is still open, reports will begin to show data once enough responses have been received.
If the survey closes before the threshold is met, the data will stay hidden and excluded from reporting.

💡Remember: For ongoing surveys, responses that don’t meet the threshold during one reporting period will be saved and carried forward, appearing in reports once the required number of responses is reached in a future period.

What happens if a specific demographic doesn't meet the threshold?

This can occur when applying filters or viewing reports, like the Heatmap.

If a particular demographic group doesn’t meet the minimum response threshold:

The group’s specific results (e.g. averages or filtered responses) will not be displayed
However, their responses still contribute to the overall survey results
If the survey is still open, reports will update as more responses are submitted
If the survey closes before the group reaches the threshold, that group’s data will remain hidden and will not appear in reporting.