What's in it for me, an employee?
As an employee, participating in the analysis will not only assist your company in improving and growing the organization, but it will also provide you with a Personal Network Profile. This profile will help you understand your role within the organization. Every company needs many types of employees, and recognizing your role can empower you to utilize it as a strength, or acquire new skills to adapt your position towards your personal ambitions.
Are the answers anonymous like in engagement or pulse surveys?
ONA answers are not anonymous, because it is important to know which people are connected to each other. This way the analysis can indicate the strength or absence of connections compared to objectives. It also helps identify potential bottlenecks or other situations which can cause a burden on individual employees.
How many colleagues am I supposed to nominate in the survey?
In the ONA survey the idea is to focus on the most relevant and suitable colleagues regarding each statement. As a general guideline, try to nominate at least 1 person for each statement and not go much over 10. Because your colleagues are also nominating people, you do not need to list every possible person you are interacting with.
Why can't I nominate entire groups of people in the statements?
In the ONA survey the idea is to focus on the most relevant and suitable colleagues regarding each statement. Because your colleagues are also nominating people, you do not need to list every possible person you are interacting with at work. It is quite rare that an individual would be interacting equally with colleagues from multiple different teams for example.
Do I need to nominate someone to each statement in the survey?
There are 3 mandatory statements to which you need to nominate at least 1 colleague:
People you collaborate with multiple times a week
People you go to for advice on completing difficult tasks
People who help you to get things done or ensure faster progress
We strongly suggest to nominate the most suitable and relevant colleagues to the other statements as well. This increases the data quality and allows for a more precise analysis in your part of the organization.
Can others see what I have answered?
Your responses in the survey remain confidential. Your colleagues will not be able to see if you mentioned them or not. Only the admin users have access to the comprehensive reports, while individual employees will only view their personal profiles. The admin users can choose to share relevant information from the reports with everyone, but specific individual answers are not shared with the larger audience. Your privacy and confidentiality are respected throughout the process.
What if I don't answer the survey?
If you do not respond to the survey, your colleagues will not receive nominations from you. However, you can - and most likely will - be nominated by your colleagues. This means that you will be included in the analysis and you will have a position in the network. Lastly, if you do not respond to the survey, you won't be able to see your personal Network Profile.
What if nobody nominates me?
If you don't receive any nominations from others, this will have some impact on what your role will be in the network. The best way to impact your personal results is to respond to the survey yourself and nominate others. This will ensure that you have data points in the analysis and you can be linked to other individuals in the network.
If nobody nominates you, and you do not respond to the survey, the analysis can not generate any insights on your role in the network.
What data can admin users see?
Admin users, usually certain individuals from HR or the executive team who handle confidential information on a daily basis, have an important role in analysing the results within the context of your organization.
For this purpose, the admin users have access to the data set including:
A map of the organization's network to analyze the structure and potential silos.
Each employee's position in that network to understand which individuals connect different parts of the organization.
A group-level analysis to analyze how teams and departments collaborate, and identify where more interaction would be needed
Network profile of each employee, to understand their role in the organization's network and to facilitate discussions about how each person can use their full potential and strengths in the organization.
Can ONA be used for evaluating performance?
ONA is not a performance evaluation tool. It focuses on identifying strong connections between individuals through a nominations-based survey. If someone receives fewer nominations, it simply indicates that they may not be among the strongest connections of others. However, this does not diminish their value or importance within the organization. ONA does not assess overall performance but rather highlights collaboration dynamics between groups and individuals.
Is it acceptable to collect this type of data in a workplace?
While ONA is not a very common practice yet, this analysis is very similar to many other solutions companies routinely use for developing their employees or the organization as a whole.
For example, the data collection process is very similar to any regular 360 feedback or performance evaluation process. Companies routinely collect feedback about their employees, in order to assess the performance and facilitate development discussions. ONA just focuses more specifically on the collaboration and relationships between people.