About attribute hierarchies and how they work

It is possible to set-up hierarchies between different attributes to help the system understand the hierarchy of your organisation. 

An advantage of setting up hierarchical relationships between attributes is that you are able to add a manager to any parent attribute segments and they will automatically also gain access to any child attributes. 

This is also useful when viewing the heat map, as it makes analysing survey results by hierarchy more streamlined, since an increased level of granularity can be achieved by simply clicking on the segment to reveal the related segments. 

This article contains:

• How it works
• Viewing hierarchies in the dashboard
• Who can access hierarchies

For configuration of attribute hierarchies, see Configuring attribute hierarchies.

How it works

Hierarchies are made of child and parent attributes, in order to help the system understand the hierarchical order. 

Start by identifying which attributes should be included in a logical hierarchy that would give the correct access. Usually, it's the case that the attributes with the least amount of segments are at the top of the hierarchy gradually increasing in segment amounts the further you go down. 

Example:

Entity → Country → Business unit → Department → Team → Manager

It's not always necessary to link up all the attributes in the hierarchy, and you can add the same attributes to multiple hierarchies.

Automatic versus manually updated hierarchies

As of 13th August 2020, it's possible for hierarchies to update automatically when employee changes take place. Instructions on how to move a manual hierarchy to automated mode can be found in Configuring attribute hierarchies.

• Automatically updating hierarchies: The hierarchy will automatically update and it is not possible to add to or edit the hierarchy manually.
• Manually updating hierarchies: The hierarchy will be outdated if segment relationships have changed after an employee update. The administrator will need to confirm directly on the hierarchy that it must be updated to reflect the latest data set. It is always possible to manually add segments or edit segments on manual hierarchies.

Considerations

Viewing hierarchies in the dashboard

Child segments of a hierarchy will be visible in two ways:

• Through the context switcher if the user is set as a segment manager of the parent segment
• In the segment heat map, by expanding the parent segment

If you make changes to an automatically updating hierarchy manually or through an employee import, the segment heat map reflects the changes in the Child segments section automatically.

In the example below, I can have a quick overview of the 'North, Central and South America' region and identify any offices with lower engagement scores. Clicking on the drop-down arrow will reveal related segments and their scores directly on the heat map.

Who can access hierarchies

Managers will only be able to see segments that they have access to, either through being assigned to that segment or the segment being part of their downward hierarchy. Only segments that meet the Number of responses threshold will be displayed in the heat map and on dashboards.

Managers who are set as segment managers of the parent attribute

If a user is set as the manager of a specific Region segment, and that segment is the parent segment of multiple Country segments, the user will be able to not only view these countries in their segments page, but also switch their context to the full, standalone segments of these countries.

Furthermore, if the Country segments are parent segments of other segments, the user will be able to access those the same way.

Managers who do not manage a parent attribute

When viewing the heat map, there will be an option to allow all child segments to be added to the heat map, where applicable. Child segments will always be within the selected dashboard context and allow managers to easily add the segments beneath the current segment's context. Child segments will only be visible if they have met the visibility requirements, with regards to participation.

Here, it is also possible to export the data with the hierarchical set up visible in the export.

In the example below, a senior manager Marguerite is viewing her team dashboard. The two managers reporting into Marguerite directly have their own teams and therefore break out into manager segments. As these are child segments of the overall context she is using, she is able to quickly split her data down to these segments. Both of these managers have managers reporting into them as well, so Marguerite is able to split down her extended team even further.