Use case: employee surveys
Employee Survey Comment Analysis with AI
Analyze employee engagement survey comments with AI. Group open-ended answers into themes like workload, managers and growth, with counts and examples.
By Apercu team · Last updated
Employee engagement surveys produce scores and comments. The scores are easy to chart. The comments, where employees explain what is actually going on, often go unread because there are hundreds of them and HR has a deadline. Apercu groups those comments into themes with counts and examples, so you can report what employees said, not just how they scored.
Why employee comments are hard to analyze
- Volume: a 600-person company with three open questions produces well over 1,000 comments.
- Sensitivity: comments must be handled carefully to protect anonymity.
- Pressure: leadership wants results within days of the survey closing, and every week of delay weakens the follow-up.
How to analyze employee survey comments with Apercu
- Export the comments. One row per comment, with only the segments you need, such as department or location.
- Anonymize. Remove names, emails and IDs, and mask details that identify one person.
- Analyze one question at a time. "What should we start doing?" and "What do you value most?" need separate analyses.
- Describe the data in the context box, for example "Answers to 'What would make this a better place to work?' from an annual engagement survey".
- Review the themes. Check the example comments in each theme, rename unclear labels and move comments that landed in the wrong group.
- Report with care. Share themes and anonymized quotes, and only show segment results for groups large enough to protect anonymity.
Example: themes from an engagement survey
An illustrative example for the question "What would make this a better place to work?" with 480 comments:
| Theme | Comments | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Workload and staffing levels | 106 | 22% |
| Career growth and promotion clarity | 82 | 17% |
| Communication from leadership | 67 | 14% |
| Manager support and feedback | 58 | 12% |
| Pay and benefits | 53 | 11% |
| Tools and internal processes | 43 | 9% |
| Flexibility and remote work | 34 | 7% |
| Other | 37 | 8% |
Turning themes into action
- Pick two or three themes, not ten. Employees notice follow-through more than plans.
- Share back quickly. Tell employees what you heard and what will change within a few weeks.
- Assign owners for each theme, with one concrete action per theme.
- Re-run in the next pulse survey and compare the share of each theme.
Other HR text you can analyze
- Exit interview notes and exit survey answers
- Onboarding feedback from new hires
- Pulse survey comments
- Training and course evaluations
- Internal help desk or HR ticket descriptions
Related pages
Frequently asked questions
How do you analyze open-ended employee survey comments?
Export the comments with useful but non-identifying segments such as department, remove names and other identifying details, and run a thematic analysis on each question. Report the top themes with percentages and anonymized quotes, and only show segment results for groups large enough to protect anonymity.
How do I protect employee anonymity when analyzing comments?
Remove names, emails and employee IDs before uploading, mask details that identify a person, such as a unique job title, and only report results for groups above a minimum size. Many HR teams use a minimum of 5 respondents per group.
What themes usually come up in employee surveys?
Common themes include workload and staffing, manager communication, career growth, pay and benefits, recognition, tools and processes, and flexibility. Your own themes will depend on your questions and organization.
Can Apercu analyze exit interview notes?
Yes. Put each exit interview's notes or answers in a row of a CSV or Excel file and upload it. Themes across exits show the most common reasons people leave.
Does Apercu use our employee comments to train AI?
No. Apercu does not use your content to train AI models. Saved projects stay in your account until you delete them.