Employee surveys with works councils & staff councils
A survey the whole workforce benefits from.
Honestly gives every employee a voice, shows where strain and dissatisfaction arise, and turns that into actions you help shape as the works council.
- Reach everyone, in the office, on the shop floor and on the road
- Results only for groups, never for individuals
- Actions that the works council and HR follow up together
A selection of our customers who run surveys with their works or staff council
What Honestly is
Honestly is an employee survey platform from Cologne, Germany. Companies use it to survey their workforce in depth once a year and briefly in between when needed, analyze the answers and put actions into practice.
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Questionnaires based on the JD-R model, developed and validated with Freie Universität Berlin
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Participation via email, QR code, personal access code or app, also without a company email address and in more than 40 languages
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Analysis in dashboards, actions as initiatives with owners and deadlines
Benefits
What employees and the organization gain
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Every voice counts
Everyone can say what is going well and what isn't, including people on the production line, in care or behind the wheel, and in their own language.
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Spot strain early
The survey measures job demands and resources. The psychological risk assessment also runs on the same platform.
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Change you can see
Results are shared, and actions have owners and deadlines. So everyone can see what became of their feedback.
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Facts instead of assumptions
The organization learns which topics affect satisfaction most and starts there instead of relying on gut feeling.
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Understand why people leave
Exit and onboarding surveys show what keeps people and what makes them leave.
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A shared basis
The works council and HR talk about the same numbers instead of individual cases and impressions.
Have a say in results and actions
Many of our customers' works councils have their own access to the dashboards, with the same anonymity as everyone else. So you see the results yourself and discuss actions on the same basis as HR.
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Your own access with read or analysis rights can be agreed with your employer
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Agreed actions are tracked in the platform as initiatives with owners and deadlines
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Dashboards can be exported as PowerPoint or PDF, for example for the works meeting (Betriebsversammlung)
Your questions
What works councils ask us most often
The answers apply to every survey on the platform, regardless of who creates it.
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Can anyone see individual answers?
No. Results only appear once a group reaches a minimum number of responses. This applies to managers, to HR and to admins. Smaller groups are not shown individually.
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Can the threshold be lowered afterwards?
No. The anonymity threshold is set when a survey is created, ideally together with you, and can't be lowered once the survey has started.
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Who sees which results?
Five roles govern this, from participants to admins. Managers only see their own area. You can record the role concept in the works agreement (Betriebsvereinbarung).
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What happens to open-text answers?
Open-text answers have their own threshold. The platform can automatically mask names, email addresses and phone numbers.
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Can the results be used to monitor performance?
No. The platform shows neither individual results nor who took part. The results are not suitable for assessing individual employees.
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Are the answers used to train AI?
No. The AI groups open-text answers by topic and sentiment. The data is not used to train AI models.
How anonymity is protected technically
The threshold is not a promise but a platform setting. When a survey is created, it is set how many responses are needed before results become visible, separately for scale questions and open-text answers.
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The platform enforces the agreed threshold for all roles, including admins
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Small departments can be combined into larger groups for analysis
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Employees see in the survey how their anonymity is protected
Process
How the rollout works with the works council
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Informed early
Before the questionnaire is final.
- Your employer presents the goal, process and questionnaire
- You set the anonymity threshold together
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Review the documents
Everything you need for your review.
- Information on anonymity, roles and data flow
- Data processing agreement, TOMs and ISO certificate
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Clarify questions directly
With us at the table.
- A meeting with Honestly, with our IT team if you wish
- Access to try out the platform yourself
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Conclude the agreement
Agree once, then run surveys.
- Template for the works agreement available on request
- A framework agreement can also cover later surveys
With Honestly, we can quickly and easily run anonymized global surveys on a wide range of topics and reach all employees.
Anna-Sophie
HR Expert Development, Tchibo GmbH
Frequently asked questions
What works councils want to know before giving their approval
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Is a digital employee survey subject to co-determination?
In Germany, as a rule, yes. As soon as a digital tool is used and questionnaires go out to the workforce, the works council has a right of co-determination (Mitbestimmungsrecht). That is why most companies conclude a works agreement (Betriebsvereinbarung) before the first survey.
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Does the employer find out who took part?
No. The platform only needs names or email addresses to send invitations and to assign answers to groups. Your employer cannot see who took part and who didn't.
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What data does the employer send to Honestly?
Only what is needed for invitations and analysis: name, email address or login, and attributes such as department or location. You can specify which attributes these are in the works agreement.
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Who at Honestly has access to the data?
Only employees who need it for their work, for example in support. Access is role-based and logged. Everything else is governed by the data processing agreement with your employer. More on our page on security and data protection.
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What anonymity threshold is common?
For our customers, it is usually between three and seven responses per group, and many use five. The higher the threshold, the better anonymity is protected and the more small groups drop out of the analysis. That is why small departments can be combined into larger groups.
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Is there a template for the works agreement?
Yes. On request, you receive a template with annexes on data flow and on roles and analyses. It is a starting point: which rules apply is something you agree with your employer.
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Does this also apply to staff councils and church employee representatives?
Yes. In the public sector, the staff council (Personalrat) and the public employer usually conclude a service agreement (Dienstvereinbarung). In church organizations, the employee representatives (Mitarbeitervertretung, MAV) are involved. The same points are reviewed: anonymity, access rights, open-text answers and data protection. The documents and template can be used in the same way.
Ask us directly
We are happy to present Honestly in a meeting with the works council and HR and walk you through anonymity, access rights and data flow. Are you in HR? Book the meeting and bring your works council along.
Write to us if you prefer to ask your questions in writing. We reply within one business day.
The contact form cannot be loaded right now. Write to us at info@honestly.com or call +49 221 828 282 40.
