The Segmentation tab lets you analyze all of your employee responses to the sentiment questions asked in your courses, sliced and diced by various learner attributes—such as Department, Tenure, or Job Group. This view highlights how different groups experience workplace topics differently, revealing both strengths and potential risk areas across your organization.
Please see the video below for a walkthrough of the tool:
What does the Segmentation by Question report show me?
Each row in the table represents a segment (such as an individual leader, department, or tenure group). Each column represents a question from the selected catalog topic.
The percentage values indicate how many learners in that segment selected a healthy response—a response that aligns with a positive, respectful, or safe workplace experience. For negatively worded questions (for example, “I have observed bullying on my team”), the percentage shown represents those who disagreed with that statement.
- Average % Healthy: An overall indicator summarizing how positively a segment responded across all questions in the view.
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Color Shading: Highlights segments that differ from the overall organizational sentiment.
Red or pink indicates below-average sentiment, while green indicates above-average sentiment.In general, darker greens (and generally higher numbers) = more positive sentiment than the overall organization. Darker reds (and generally lower numbers) = less positive sentiment than the overall organization
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Note: Colors are based on how much a segment’s responses deviate from the organizational average, not on the raw score itself. (See “What do these colors mean?” below for a technical explanation). As a result, you might see:
A 45% healthy score shaded green if the organization overall scored lower, or
An 88% healthy score shaded red if the organization overall scored higher.
- Sorting: Hover over a question header to reveal sorting controls. Click to sort by highest or lowest scoring segment for that question.
How do I use the segmentation controls?
Use the filters at the top of the dashboard to refine which data appears in your segmentation table. The controls are divided into three main steps:
Step 1 – Choose Time Period and Content
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Response Range:
- Calendar Year: A fixed range from January 1 to December 31 for the selected year.
- Rolling Six-Month Period: Six-month periods starting on the first of the month and ending six months later. This time period was chosen to reflect the cadence of most training campaigns, which typically span less than six months.
- Date Range: Displays the specific dates covered by your selection (for example, Jan 01 2025 – Today).
- Catalog Title: Choose the course or topic you want to analyze (for example, Preventing Workplace Harassment or Workplace Violence).
These filters determine which learner responses are included in your dataset.
Step 2 – Choose Population
- Segment Results By: Choose a learner attribute to break down responses by group—for example, Department, Tenure, or Senior Leader.
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Minimum # of Learners: The minimum learner threshold helps you narrow down the results by number of learners who have responded to questions. This filter enables you eliminate smaller groups and focus on larger populations, as desired.
- We require a minimum of 5 respondents as the threshold for showing scores. This is to protect learner confidentiality, so that learners feel comfortable responding candidly.
- We recommend setting your minimum threshold to .5% of your learner responses to eliminate noisy smaller segments. This recommended threshold is shown in the tooltip to the right of the filter.
- Include New Hires: Toggle on to include learners with less than one year of tenure. This is off by default to reduce noise.
These options define which population segments appear in the table and help ensure your analysis is statistically meaningful.
Step 3 – Add Additional Filters
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Question Type: Limit results to a specific category of question topics:
- HR & People
- Business Compliance, and
- Overall Culture
- Show All Segments: Display all available segments, even if some are missing responses to several questions.
- Show All Questions: Display all questions from the catalog, even if some are missing responses from several segements.
- Show Unreported: Include learner responses with incomplete learner attribute data provided to Emtrain.
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Question Keyword / Segment Keyword: Use these search boxes to filter for specific questions or segments. For example,
- Search Segment Keyword for “marketing”
- Search Question Keyword for "respectful behavior"
These filters let you refine your analysis to focus on specific question types or key themes.
What do the colors mean?
Colors represent segments that are trending above or below the overall organization sentiment across all segments. This shading helps highlight where specific groups' experience differ from the broader organization.
For a more technical understanding, the darkest colors (red and green) indicate values that are greater than +/- 2 standard deviations from the overall organizational sentiment for that specific segment, question, and time period combination.
Lighter shades represent smaller differences, starting at +/- 0.5 standard deviations and stepping incrementally toward the darkest tones as deviation increases.
The color shown in the Average % Healthy column summarizes the overall sentiment from all questions in the current view, using the average of the colors derived from individual questions.
Interpreting results (example)
In the example screenshot for Acme Corporation, the results are segmented by Senior Leader for the Preventing Workplace Harassment course. Each row represents responses from an executive’s team, and columns show key questions like “I have observed bullying on my team” or “My co-workers are respectful to others regardless of their race, gender, or identity.”
- Leaders like Casey Lang (CHRO) and Quinn Lopez (SVP, Marketing) show higher overall healthy responses on average (78% and 76%), reflecting stronger team culture.
- Segments such as Taylor Reid (CFO) and Avery Morgan (COO) appear in red or pink for several items, suggesting lower confidence or higher perceived conflict within their teams.
These insights help identify where additional communication, leadership development, or culture interventions may be valuable.
Best practices
- Use consistent time periods when comparing data across quarters or years to ensure valid trend comparisons.
- Review both low and high scoring groups to understand areas needing attention as well as culture strengths.
- Focus on the Average % Healthy column first to identify overall trends ("this department responded less positively on average") and then hone in on specific questions based on those.
- Tip: If the Average % Healthy column only shows gray, then this means that every segment trended similarly to the overall organization sentiment.
Where does this learner attribute data come from?
You! Please work with your Admin and your Emtrain team to send relevant learner attribute data. Learn more about how to work with Emtrain on importing segments.