FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Plain answers about Anchor, the analysis, privacy, and getting started. If your question isn’t here, it’s a quick one on a call.
The basics
What is Anchor?
Anchor is a retention tool built for managers. It looks at one employee at a time and gives that person’s manager a clear picture of where they stand and a simple plan to keep them. Not a company-wide score. One person, one read, one plan.
Who is Anchor for?
The manager. Most tools in this space report to HR. Anchor is built for the person who actually has the conversation with the employee, the team lead or department head who can do something about it. HR still gets value, but the manager is who we build for.
How is Anchor different from an engagement survey?
An engagement survey tells you the company averaged a 7.2. It doesn’t tell you which person is about to leave, or what to do about it. Anchor works the opposite way. It reads one employee, not the whole group, and it ends with a plan for that person, not a chart for a meeting.
How is Anchor different from a stay interview?
A stay interview is one conversation, done well if the manager knows what to ask. Anchor gives the manager that preparation for every person on the team, every cycle. It shows what’s going on before the conversation, and it hands over the questions worth asking. It makes the stay interview better, it doesn’t replace the human having it.
How it works
How does Anchor work, start to finish?
HR provides a roster once. Each employee gets a private survey about their experience. Their manager fills out a short parallel survey about that same person. New employees also take a one-time personality assessment. Once those are in, Anchor writes a single analysis for that one employee and hands it to their manager.
What are the inputs?
Three things. The employee’s own answers about their experience. Their manager’s answers about how they see that person. And a one-time personality profile. Together they give a fuller picture than any one source alone.
How long do the surveys take?
The experience survey is short and takes most people a few minutes. The personality assessment takes a little longer and happens only once, when someone first comes on. After that, they never take it again.
How often does Anchor run?
In cycles, twice a year for standard customers. Each cycle is a fresh read on every person, so a manager is never working off a picture that went stale months ago. People change, and the read keeps up.
Do managers need training to use it?
No. The whole point is that the analysis is written in plain language, for the manager, ready to act on. There’s no dashboard to learn and no scores to interpret. A manager reads it and knows what to do.
The analysis
What does a manager actually receive?
A short, written analysis about one person. It covers where that employee stands, where the manager’s view and the employee’s view differ, how likely the person is to leave in the near term and longer term, the best way to reach them, conversation scripts for the talks that matter, and a plan of specific moves for the quarter.
What makes the analysis different from a report?
A report tells you something is wrong and stops. Anchor never does that. Every analysis ends with something to do, and the words to do it with. No flag without a next step. The analysis is a plan, not a problem statement.
Does the analysis tell me why someone might leave?
Yes, in plain terms specific to that person. It draws on what the employee actually said, not on how they compare to a benchmark. That’s the difference between “engagement is down” and “here’s what’s going on with this person and here’s what to say.”
Privacy and trust
Does the employee’s manager see their raw answers?
No. The manager never sees raw survey responses or raw personality scores. They see only the finished analysis. That separation is deliberate, and it’s the reason people answer honestly.
Is the personality assessment shared with the manager?
Never in raw form. No trait numbers, no scores, no “here’s exactly how this person rated.” The assessment only helps shape how the analysis is written. The manager gets the guidance, not the raw data.
Why should an employee answer honestly?
Because honesty is protected by design. Only the analysis engine reads the raw answers. No manager sees them. People tell the truth when they’re sure it’s safe, so we protect that on purpose. A tool people lie to is worthless, and we built Anchor to be worth trusting.
Who can see what?
Employees answer privately. Managers receive a written analysis about each of their own people, and nothing about anyone else’s. Raw responses stay with the engine. The finished analysis is the only thing that reaches a human.
Fit and scope
What size company is Anchor for?
Mid-sized companies, roughly the range where there are real managers running real teams but the organization is still small enough that losing one good person genuinely hurts. If you’re not sure whether you fit, that’s a quick answer on a call.
What industries does Anchor work for?
Any industry where people report to managers and losing a good one is costly. We lead with energy services because that’s our founder’s background, but Anchor serves healthcare, professional services, technology, manufacturing, financial services, and more. The product reads people, not industries.
What do we need to get started?
A roster from HR with the basics, name, role, manager, hire date, and the willingness to send your team a couple of short surveys. That’s the starting point. The setup is light on purpose.
How Anchor fits with what you already use
We already pay for Lattice, 15Five, or Culture Amp. Why add Anchor?
Those are good tools, and they do a different job. They give HR a dashboard and a company-wide view. Anchor gives a manager a plan for one specific person. You can keep your current tool for benchmarks and use Anchor for what to actually do about the people you don’t want to lose. Many customers run both.
Does Anchor replace our engagement survey?
It doesn’t have to. Keep your engagement survey if you want company-wide benchmarks. Anchor does the thing those surveys can’t: tell a manager what’s happening with one person and what to do about it. Some customers eventually let the old survey go, but that’s their call to make later, not a requirement to start.
Does Anchor work alongside our HR system?
Yes. Anchor doesn’t ask you to rip anything out. It adds the manager-facing piece that most HR stacks are missing.
Getting started
Is Anchor available now?
Anchor is in its pre-launch build, and we’re working with a small group of early customers first. The best way to get in early is to book a call and tell us about your team.
What happens on a call?
It’s a short conversation, about twenty minutes. You tell us where you’re losing people. We show you what Anchor would put in front of your managers. No pressure, no checkout. If it’s a fit, we take it from there.
How much does Anchor cost?
Pricing depends on your team and how you’d use Anchor, so we talk through it on a call rather than list a number that wouldn’t fit your situation. Book a call and we’ll walk you through it plainly.