What are parent and child comparisons?
Parent and child comparisons allow organisations to compare a current dashboard view with a relevant group from the same survey.
For example, a team can be compared with its wider department, a location can be compared with its region, or a function can be compared with a related internal group. This gives leaders a clearer point of reference for understanding whether local results align with or differ from the surrounding organisation.
Parent and child comparisons build on the comparison datasets already available in People Insight.
Despite the name, a parent and child comparison does not have to follow a formal organisational hierarchy. A People Insight administrator can use hierarchy variables or other survey demographics to define an appropriate comparison group.
Creating a parent and child comparison
Please reach out to your People Insight administrator to set up a parent and child comparison.
Using parent and child comparisons in the dashboard
After your PI administrator has set this up for you, the new dataset appears under comparative datasets in the dashboard’s comparator selector.
Survey admin users can select the new comparison dataset. The dashboard then shows the current results alongside the selected comparison data and the difference between them. Dashboard users can view the results.
For example, a user may view team A through their usual dashboard access and compare its results with the preconfigured department X group. The team remains the current dashboard view, while department X provides the comparison baseline.
The difference shown provides descriptive context. It helps users understand how the current result compares with the selected group, but it does not prove statistical significance, explain why the results differ or establish that the comparison caused an outcome.
Anonymity and visibility
Parent and child comparisons use existing dashboard permissions, hierarchy settings and comparator visibility controls. If the comparison response base for an individual question falls below the organisation’s configured anonymity threshold, the comparison result is suppressed for that question.