How do I analyse open-ended responses in an employee engagement survey?

Open‑ended questions in engagement surveys allow employees to speak candidly. Analysing these responses can be challenging but yields valuable context. Here’s a process you can follow:

1. Read through all comments. Get a sense of the breadth of topics. Note recurring themes or surprising insights.
2. Develop a coding framework. Create categories based on themes (e.g. communication, recognition, workload, leadership). Assign each comment to one or more categories. Consistency is key—if multiple people are coding, align on definitions.
3. Quantify themes. Count how many comments fall into each category. While open feedback is qualitative, quantifying themes helps you prioritise which issues affect most employees.
4. Highlight verbatim quotes. Use representative quotes to illustrate themes when presenting results to leadership. These anecdotes give life to the numbers.
5. Cross‑reference with quantitative data. See if themes correspond with low scores on specific survey questions. For example, if “workload” appears often in comments and the workload rating is low, it reinforces the issue.

By combining structured coding with narrative quotes, you can turn unstructured text into actionable insights. If you want to test whether themes differ by group, use the Chi‑Square Test Calculator. After analysing, share what you learned and the steps you’ll take—closing the feedback loop builds trust. For more on the feedback loop concept, see What is a feedback loop in surveys? and our blog Employee Engagement Surveys.