Set up attributes and hierarchies

Attributes are the demographics attached to each participant: team, department, location, tenure. They power every filter and segment in your results. The org chart is built alongside them, and it’s what lets results roll up to each leader.

Before you start

You need the admin role. Both come from your participant file rather than a settings screen, so get the file right first. See Prepare and upload your participant CSV.

Attributes are just your extra columns

Every column beyond First Name, Last Name, Email, and Manager Email becomes an attribute. Add a Department column and you can group and filter results by department. There’s nothing to configure: upload the column and it’s available in the heatmap.

This is also why consistency matters. Each distinct value becomes its own row in the heatmap, so “Sales”, “sales”, and “Sales ” would split one team three ways. The importer catches most of these and tells you what it merged, but it’s cheaper to fix in the spreadsheet.

The org chart builds itself

You don’t define a hierarchy by hand. The Manager Email column is the hierarchy: each person links to whoever their manager’s email points at, and the top of the chart is whoever has a - instead of a manager.

The upload shows you the result before you commit it, with the number of levels, the number of teams, and how many people are linked. If someone’s manager isn’t in the file, the review flags them: they still take the survey and still count toward overall results, but they won’t appear under any leader. Adding the missing leader reconnects everyone below them in one move. After the survey has launched, reconnect people from the org chart page instead. See Fix your survey’s org chart.

With the chart in place, each leader can be given their own downline. See Use hierarchy and downline views and Share survey results.

Choose the default grouping

One attribute acts as the default grouping for reports. On the survey’s Settings page, under Results, set Team Name Demographic to the attribute that describes the groups you want to compare. It’s a default, not a lock: you can regroup the heatmap by any attribute whenever you’re reading results. See Segment, filter, and save views.

When the chart can’t be built from email

Some organizations link people by something other than a manager’s email address, such as a position ID. Building a chart that way is a LeaderFactor-managed setting rather than a self-serve one. If your roster works that way, or you need to change who sits at the top of an existing chart, contact the LeaderFactor Solutions Team at [email protected].

Next step

With your roster and demographics set, you’re ready to schedule your survey and customize invitations.