Translations

Make sure your team understands Hive.

  • Ensure your employees are receiving communications that are clear and correct
  • Update survey and reminder comms to the correct language for each and every one of your employees
  • Create an accessible platform for employees with no language barriers
  • Personalise settings to the right language for each individual employee
  • Assign in-house ‘language champions’

Article contents

  1. Why would I need to use the translation feature?
  2. Can I translate employee communications from Hive?
  3. How do I change the language on Open Door or Hive Fives?
  4. Can I change the language on the survey itself?
  5. I need a survey translated for my employees without it costing an arm and a leg... what shall I do?
  6. What exactly will be translated?
  7. What can’t be translated? Why not?
  8. My employee speaks another language but received the survey in English…

Why would I need to use the translation feature?

To guarantee your team is able to speak up without language barriers! Ensuring the employee-facing content (survey questions, email templates, etc) is in a language everyone can understand helps to create a comfortable environment where employees can build trust with the platform and share their thoughts.

Can I translate employee communications from Hive?

The employee-facing side of Hive can be translated into 20 different languages to support your employees’ needs. For the employee comms from Hive to be in the right language, the ‘Locale’ column in the user data sent to the Support Squad must have the correct language code.

Below is a list of the languages and the locale code for each, we will need the code for each employee in the employee data sheet to ensure we receive the correct translations:

  • English - en
  • Czech - cs
  • Italian - it
  • Latvian - lv
  • Portuguese - pt
  • Slovakian - sk
  • Simplified Chinese - zh
  • Dutch - nl
  • German - de
  • Spanish - es
  • Hungarian - hu
  • Lithuanian - lt
  • Polish - pl
  • Romanian - ro
  • Bulgarian - bg
  • Turkish - tr
  • French - fr
  • Swedish - sv
  • Danish - da
  • Arabic - ar
  • Welsh - cy-gb

If you're not 100% sure you're using the correct locale code, simply get in touch with our Support Squad. We're always happy to answer any questions!

How do I change the language on Open Door or Hive Fives?

All you have to do is get in touch with our Support Squad,  provide the translations you’d like to see and we’ll do the rest!

Can I change the language on the survey itself?

While the Hive question bank is in English only, part of the beauty of Hive is that we allow you to create bespoke surveys using questions and languages specifically tailored for your employees.

I need a survey translated for my employees without it costing an arm and a leg... what shall I do?

We know sometimes you need to translate surveys. In that situation, we'd recommend assigning an internal ‘language champion’ to translate the survey for you. By allocating this role in house, you are giving yourself more freedom to translate surveys to fit your employees’ needs. The language champion could also translate the email template if you do want it to be bespoke. 

Alternatively, Hive's translation partner can professionally translate the relevant words and phrases for you. It's worth noting that Hive currently uses Google translate for in-platform translations. As clever as Google translate is, it's not intended to be a substitute for a real translator and may not be completely accurate.


If you or your language champion require a helping hand or if you'd like to know more, just get in touch with your Customer Success Manager.

What exactly will be translated?

  • Default email template(s)—survey invites and survey reminders, Hive FivesOpen Door and Messenger

  • The “top” section of the survey page—the default text that cannot be customised

  • The default Hive text that goes alongside Hive Fives and Open Door

  • The submit button at the bottom of the survey

What can’t be translated? Why not?

  • The survey itself—this is not to say your survey can’t be translated; we would just need to be provided with the translation to ensure the content is exactly how you want it to be.

  • Any content which you have already customised and hasn't been translated previously, e.g. email templates, Hive Fives and Open Door categories.

My employee speaks another language but received the survey in English…

No problem! There is a language drop-down at the top of each survey to select the right language (only the languages which have been turned on will appear here).