Job people-staff-survey-comments-grouped-into-themes-without-names · revised 12 October 2026
Group staff survey comments into themes without names or per-person results
Free-text staff survey comments sorted into the themes you choose, with counts and a few scrubbed quotes, never by person and never for a theme with fewer than five comments.
You might be seeing
- The comments are read once by one person and summarised from memory
- Staff do not believe their comments were read
No passwords, keys, card details or admin invites needed to start.
What usually happened
Free-text comments hold the most useful signal in a staff survey and are the least read. A tool that scores individuals or tries to find authors would damage the trust that makes people write.
Who it’s for: Owner or people lead with hundreds of survey comments and no time to read and group them.
Usually starts when: The staff survey closed and the comments sit unread in a spreadsheet.
The result: Your comments come back sorted into up to 12 themes you agree, with a count per theme and a few quotes scrubbed of identifying detail. No theme with fewer than five comments is reported, and nothing is reported for one person. Comments are never scored for mood.
Check whether this job fits
Answer these without sending files, logins or personal data. Nothing is submitted unless you choose to contact us.
What you get
- The theme counts
- The scrubbed quotes
- A list of comments that fit no theme
- The held-back test result
Included
- Up to 500 anonymous comments from one survey
- A theme list of up to 12 that you agree before the run
- Counts per theme and up to 3 scrubbed quotes per theme
- A minimum of five comments per reported theme
- An optional split by team where each team has at least 10 people
- A test on 100 comments you label, 50 held back from us until the test run, with the other 50 visible while the themes are built
Not included
- Identifying who wrote a comment
- Sentiment or mood scores for anyone or any team
- Emotion or sentiment scores for individuals
- Advice on what management should do
- Comments about named individuals
How we know it’s done
Agreed with you before work starts. Each check produces evidence you keep.
On 100 comments labelled by your team, 50 of them held back from us, the theme matches your label on at least 85 of the 100 and on at least 43 of the 50 held-back comments on their own (75% as the lowest rate the held-back result supports at 95% confidence), counting unsure as a miss, and it beats a rule that puts every comment in your commonest theme.
Evidence: The labelled sheet beside the run, with the results for the 50 held-back rows.
No reported theme has fewer than five comments, and no quote contains a name, a place name or an unusual detail that your reader marks as identifying; one identifying quote fails the whole test.
Evidence: The theme counts and your reader's check of every quote.
The output contains no per-person result and no sentiment or mood score for anyone or any team.
Evidence: A search of the output columns.
Sign-off. Your survey owner checks the quotes and signs off in writing. The result describes comments like the sample, not every future survey. Payment follows sign-off.
If it fails. If a test is not met, you do not pay for this fixed scope. We hand over what we found and agree whether to stop or re-quote; no surprise work.
When it fits, and when we stop
It fits when
- Comments were collected anonymously, with a notice that a supplier may process them
- There are at least 100 comments, so no one can be picked out
- Two people on your side label 50 comments with the theme list and agree on at least 85%
- Any team breakdown covers teams of at least 10 people
We stop and tell you if
- You ask us to find who wrote a comment or to score individuals
- Comments name individuals or describe health or discipline details that cannot be removed
- Fewer than 100 comments, where one comment can point to a person
What could go wrong
This job reads files you send and writes a report. It changes nothing in your systems, so there is nothing to revert. Our copies of your files are deleted when the job ends.
Scroll the table sideways to read it all.
| Risk | How we handle it |
|---|---|
| A quote points to one person. | Quotes are scrubbed of names, places and unusual detail, and a theme with fewer than five comments is not shown. |
| Themes are mistaken for a measure of how any person feels. | The report states that it counts comments by theme and says nothing about individuals. |
| Health or discipline details appear in comments. | Such comments are returned to you for removal and left out of the counts. |
A separate automated reviewer checks every output against the agreed test before hand-over. No person on our side reviews unless your agreement names one. Your named survey owner approves what is used.
How we deliver
We arrange the work and independent review, then show you the result against the agreed checks. You keep authority over your systems.
- Agree the theme list, the minimum count per theme and the scrubbing rules
- Two of your people label 50 comments; we check they agree
- Sort every comment into a theme or a no-theme list
- Scrub quotes of names, places and any detail that points to one person
- Separate automated review against your 50 held-back labels
- Hand over counts, quotes and the test result; delete our copies
This is a one-off job, not emergency cover or a subscription. We confirm eligibility, the total price, a start window and a delivery date before you accept, and an enquiry creates no charge or booking. Work starts only after agreed inputs, secure access and any needed permissions are in place.
Need to keep it working?
Discuss the same grouping for each later survey.
Ongoing work is separately scoped and quoted: no monitoring, response-time guarantee or automatic subscription is included in this job.
Explore an ongoing managed lane, or mention the responsibility you need in your enquiry.
What you can check
This is a new service. We have not delivered this job for a client yet.
Other ways to get this done
- Read and tag a random 100 comments yourself in a spreadsheet. It is slow and tells you the main themes if the sample is random.
- Most survey tools group comments in their own reports; try that first.
Questions
Can you tell me who wrote a comment?
No. We never try to, and we stop the job if asked.
Do you score how people feel?
No. We count comments by theme and we never score a person.
What about small teams?
Nothing is reported for a team of fewer than 10, so comments cannot be traced to a group of a few.
Send an enquiry
Send us
- The survey tool and how many comments there are
- The themes you expect, or the survey sections
- Whether comments can be exported without names or user IDs
Later, once you agree
- The comments with any name or ID column removed, through an agreed secure route
- The agreed theme list
- 100 comments that you label, 50 of them held back until the test run
- The agreement that names the model provider, its country and how long it keeps data, settled before any real personal data is shared
You keep the survey and the results. We receive comment text only, with no names, IDs or team tags smaller than 10 people. We return counts and scrubbed quotes and delete our copies when the job ends.
Email fallback: open your mail app
If website submission is unavailable, review and send the fallback email yourself. An email fallback is not a website receipt. Or write to hello@syntheticindustry.ai with “people-staff-survey-comments-grouped-into-themes-without-names” as the subject.