Transforming Employee Feedback: A Step-by-Step Guide to Visualizing Survey Results in Excel

Collecting employee feedback through surveys often yields valuable insights into team dynamics and workplace satisfaction. However, raw survey data, especially from Likert scale questions (e.g., Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree), can be challenging to interpret at a glance. Visualizing survey results effectively can transform this data into actionable insights, revealing patterns such as which aspects of employee experience generate the most positive or negative reactions.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through a practical, step-by-step process to visualize employee survey results in Excel—focusing on those common Likert-style responses. We will cover how to create clear, intuitive charts that highlight the spread of opinions, including a powerful diverging stacked bar chart that emphasizes the balance between positive, neutral, and negative feedback.

Understanding the Data

Imagine a survey with statements like:

• "I feel valued in my team."
• "The work is distributed evenly in my team."

Survey participants select from responses such as Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree, and Strongly Agree. For example, four people might strongly disagree that the work is distributed evenly, while 32 agree.

The goal is to convert these counts into a visual summary that makes it easy to spot trends and compare questions.

Step 1: Insert a Simple Stacked Bar Chart

The quickest way to visualize survey data is with a stacked bar chart in Excel:

1. Arrange the data so each question’s responses are in rows, with columns representing each response category.
2. Select the range including questions and response counts.
3. Insert a Stacked Bar Chart (Insert > Bar Chart > Stacked Bar).
4. By default, Excel may put response categories on the axis instead of questions. If so:
   • Right-click on the chart and choose Select Data.
   • Use the Switch Row/Column button to get questions on the vertical axis.

This basic chart shows the distribution of responses per question but can be improved to better highlight neutral and opposing views.

Step 2: Create a Diverging Stacked Bar Chart for Clarity

A diverging stacked bar chart centers neutral responses in the middle, with negative responses extending left and positive responses extending right. This design helps:

• Easily compare questions.
• Identify which statements evoke the strongest positive or negative feelings.

How to Prepare Data for Diverging Chart:

Because Excel stacks bars starting at zero, negative and positive values must be represented with negative and positive numbers. To do this:

1. Assign negative values to negative responses (e.g., Strongly Disagree, Disagree).
2. Split the Neutral response count evenly into half negative and half positive (since neutral is centered).
3. Keep positive values (Agree, Strongly Agree) as positive numbers.

This requires creating a new data preparation table in Excel:

• Link to original data using cell references.
• Add minus signs before negative response counts.
• Divide neutral counts by 2 and assign one half as negative, the other as positive.

After preparing the data, insert another stacked bar chart, switch rows and columns if necessary, and adjust the axis labels so they don’t overlap with negative values (by setting label position to "Low" in Axis Options).

Step 3: Adjusting Chart Appearance

To enhance clarity:

• Order the series in the data preparation table so that:
  • Strongly Disagree and Disagree are at the far left.
  • Neutral is centered.
  • Agree and Strongly Agree align right.
• Make neutral bars one uniform color (typically light gray) by assigning the same color to both halves of neutral bars.
• Remove unnecessary gridlines to declutter the chart.
• Adjust the legend to show categories in logical order and remove duplicates; e.g., only list one "Neutral" instead of two separate entries.

Step 4: Automate the Process with Peltier Tech’s Utility

Creating diverging stacked bar charts manually can be tedious. Fortunately, Jon Peltier offers an Excel add-in that automates this process:

1. Highlight your original survey data.
2. Go to the Peltier Tech add-in menu.
3. Select the Diverging Bar Chart tool.
4. The add-in creates a new worksheet with the prepared data table and the chart.

This automatic tool:

• Handles data splitting and negation.
• Orders categories properly.
• Links dynamically to your original data so changes update the chart instantly.

This saves time and reduces the risk of manual errors.

Step 5: Adding and Formatting Data Labels

For greater insight, add data labels to show participant counts on each bar segment:

1. Right-click on any bar segment and choose Add Data Labels.
2. To avoid displaying negative signs for negative values (which represent counts), apply custom number formatting:
   • Open Format Data Labels options.
   • Use custom format code: #,##0;#,##0 (positive; negative).
   • This format ensures that negative numbers appear as positive labels for readability.

You may customize data label colors to maintain contrast and readability.

Final Thoughts

Visualizing employee feedback using diverging stacked bar charts in Excel turns complex survey responses into clear, actionable insights. The centering of neutral responses and contrasting positive and negative responses helps managers and HR teams prioritize efforts to improve workplace satisfaction.

While manual data preparation teaches you the chart’s logic, tools like Jon Peltier’s add-in streamline the process, making visualization accessible even for large datasets.

By following these steps, you can effectively transform employee survey data into compelling visual stories that elevate your decision-making and foster a more engaged workforce.

Ready to turn your next employee survey into insightful visuals? Start experimenting with diverging stacked bar charts in Excel today!

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