Response Scale and Scoring
Most survey questions are presented as agreement statements. Employees indicate the extent to which they agree or disagree.
Standard response scale
| Response option | Interpretation | Score value |
|---|---|---|
| Strongly Disagree | Negative response | 0.0 |
| Somewhat Disagree | Negative response | 2.5 |
| Neither Agree nor Disagree | Neutral response | 5.0 |
| Somewhat Agree | Positive response | 7.5 |
| Strongly Agree | Positive response | 10.0 |
| Don’t Know / Not Applicable | Excluded from score calculations | Not scored |
How scores are calculated
Each question receives an average score out of 10.
Question Score = Sum of valid response scores ÷ Number of valid responses
A higher score means a more favourable result. A score out of 10 is not the same as a percentage positive score. For example, a score of 7.0 does not mean that 70% of employees responded positively.
Valid responses
A valid response is one of the five agreement responses. Don’t Know / Not Applicable, blank and invalid responses are excluded from score and percentage calculations unless otherwise stated.
Worked example
| Response option | Number of responses | Score value | Total contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strongly Agree | 20 | 10.0 | 200.0 |
| Somewhat Agree | 30 | 7.5 | 225.0 |
| Neither Agree nor Disagree | 10 | 5.0 | 50.0 |
| Somewhat Disagree | 8 | 2.5 | 20.0 |
| Strongly Disagree | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Don’t Know / Not Applicable | 5 | Excluded | Excluded |
In this example, valid scored responses are 70 and total score contribution is 495. The question score is 495 ÷ 70 = 7.07 out of 10.