Advanced Filters vs Segments

Advanced Filters and Segments are designed to work together to give you both structured and flexible ways to explore your survey results. They serve different purposes but ultimately support the same goal: helping you understand your organization better and take informed action.

What is Advanced Filters?

Advanced Filters is a flexible tool in the Results Dashboard that allows authorized users to create custom participant groups after survey results are published. This enables deeper, more agile analysis without needing to request new reports. For more information about Advanced Filters, you can read this article on the support page.

What is Segments?

Segments in My Effectory are predefined breakdowns of survey results based on employee characteristics. They allow you to analyze how different groups within your organization, such as by gender, age, or tenure experience work differently. For more information about Segments, you can read this article on the support page.

What is the difference?

Aspect	Segments	Advanced Filters
Purpose	Predefined breakdown of results by employee characteristics (gender, tenure & age).	Post-survey creation of custom groups for deeper analysis
Use cases	Strategic planning, benchmarking, hypothesis testing	Ad-hoc analysis, combining hidden groups, exploring new groupings
Example scenario	Compare engagement by tenure across departments	Create a filter for a cross-functional team using email addresses (for example Works Counsil).
Timing	Set up before the survey starts	Created after survey results are published
Who can create	Automatically by Effectory, Central Coordinator & Employee Coordinator	Central Coordinators, Project Coordinators, Survey Creators
Sharing options	Not shareable individually; visible based on survey structure	Can be shared with Local and Result Access Coordinators
Where it's managed	Segment page in My Effectory	Results Dashboard → Advanced Filters tab
Data source	Mapped columns in Employee Exchange tab (e.g. Gender, Birthdate, DateInService)	Data fields in Employee Exchange tab (e.g. manager, email addresses)
Customization	Limited to mapped fields; Age, Tenure & Gender categories editable. In the future, custom (automated) segments, based on information in the employee file, can be created	Highly flexible; create filters using multiple fields or merge groups
Anonymity rules	Net 5 Response Rule: all categories must have ≥5 responses. Confidentiality and data segmentation	Real-time anonymity check per filter; results hidden if group is too small Advanced Filters: Confidentiality and Advanced Filters
Visibility scope	Available across all levels of the inviting structure (if confidentiality rules met)	Visible only to authorized roles; can be shared selectively
Open answers	Not included in data segmentation	Not included in filter results
Limitations	Requires correct data mapping before survey	Only applies to current survey; filters not reusable across surveys