iQ Scoring Guide

This article is relevant to the Mixed iQ Templates configuration area of Assure. It has cross-module implications for any module that uses iQ Templates, including Procedural Audit, General Risk Assessment, Activity Risk Assessment, Behavioural Observation, and others. 

For Audit, Behavioural and Checklist scoring is fixed to the following:

• Audit: Numerical Sum
• Behavioural: Count of Safe Acts Sum and Count of Unsafe Acts Sum
• Checklist: Weighted

iQ Scoring Guide

Eligible Field Types

Scoring can be applied to the following iQ field types:

• Numeric
• Single-Select (picklist)
• Multi-Select (picklist)

Scoring can be switched off for any of these field types if it is not required. Text fields cannot be scored and are automatically excluded from all scoring calculations.

Scoring Levels

All iQ scoring works across three levels, with scores rolling upwards:

1. Question level (the individual question result)
2. Section level (an average of applicable question scores within a section, incorporating question weighting)
3. Template level (an average of applicable section scores, incorporating section weighting)

Four Scoring Methods

iQ supports four scoring methods. Weighting can be applied to all four methods.

1. Positive/Negative (returns 0% or 100% per question, this is well suited to yes/no [or similar] type processes)

2. Weighted (this is where you have a range of values with different scores for each question, min0% max 100%)

3. Normalised Weighted (a mathematical term where weighting needs to be rescaled for some reason, meaning scores lower or greater than 0-100% can be achieved)

4. Score Modifier (a means of affecting the overall template score, useful for red flag processes, or driving tests!)

NB weighting can be applied to all the above scoring methods.

iQ Scoring – Switching Off Scoring

Pro Tip: Keep scoring as simple as possible.  This helps ensure your team members understand why audits, inspections or other relevant forms have the scores they do.  You can add scoring information in the guidance of the iQ template, which will be displayed to all users.  This can be added under Menu Cog (Cog Wheel icon) > Edit Template > Template Details > Edit > Guidance 

Switching Off Scoring

Scoring can be disabled for any individual question within an iQ Template. When scoring is switched off for a question, that question is excluded from all score calculations at question, section, and template levels.  It cannot be switched off for an entire template in one go.

iQ Scoring – Controlling weighting

Scoring for individual picklist/dropdown options can be set in Menu Cog (clicking the Cog Wheel Icon) > Edit Template > Template Picklist Items.

You can then set the score per picklist item by clicking the Cog Wheel icon of that item and selecting Edit.

iQ Scoring – Positive/Negative

This is the simplest approach to generating a score and it is the most used. This option simply gives an output either 0 or1 (e.g.0% or 100%),because it is either on or off, this only works where you (the question set designer)want each question to provide 0% or100% outcome(excluding questions marked N/A, as these have no score).

The most typical application of this is where the questions elicit a “Yes” or “No” answer,however you can specify any response text you wish e.g. it could be “Compliant” and “Not Compliant”, or “OK” and “Not OK” etc.

It is also possible to have more than two question responses, similarly, you can use this scoring approach with multi-select; in both cases the whole question can still only result in a maximum 100% score.

With a positive/negative approach, all weightings within picklist responses are ignored, the score is simply calculated by the number of positive and negative responses given.

iQ Scoring – Positive/Negative(numeric)

Single-Select scoring =return either 100% (where a positive response was selected) or 0% (where a negative response was selected)

For numeric questions, where the positive/negative scoring option is selected, you must set the numeric threshold, at/above which a 100% (positive) score is returned.

This is controlled at the question level within the response type configuration:

iQ Scoring – Positive/Negative (single select)

Single-Select scoring =return either 100% (where a positive response was selected) or 0% (where a negative response was selected)

In this example, the question is “Is site area tidy and adhering to housekeeping procedures?”; the question also has the N/A response enabled.

iQ Scoring – Positive/Negative (multi select)

Multi-Select scoring = (number of positive) / (number of positive+number of negative)

In this example, the question is “Select all types of PPE which you must wear to prepare a sandwich”; the question also has the N/A response enabled.

iQ Scoring – Weighted Scoring

Weighting is a means of increasing or reducing the impact of question responses, the question itself or an entire section.

At a question level, the system looks at all the configured picklist responses for the question and takes the highest and lowest values and uses them to define the 0-100% range. In the case of numeric questions, the question set designer manually configures the range within the question.

By default, all iQ weighting is set to 1.0 (e.g.100%) which means that all answers given are unaltered from their default value.

Weighting can be set (as above) at a question response level and at question and section levels.

iQ Scoring – Weighted (numeric)

Weighting for numeric questions is controlled at the question level within the ‘configure question set ‘view.

The % range is simply driven by the range min and max values, therefore where the question weight is 1, in this example:

0 = 0%

2 = 40%

4 = 80%

5 = 100%

If the weight was changed to 2, this would not impact the question score, but would impact the score of the question, relative to its peers, within its section. However, if all questions within a given section are weighted the same way then the scores are simply averaged across that section.

iQ Scoring – Weighted (single select)

• This scoring method is based on potential minimum and maximum weights of available answers.
• The score can be only in range of 0% to 100%.
• The lowest available weight becomes the point of reference for 0%, and the highest for 100%.
• If only one answer is available, the score is always 100%.

iQ Scoring – Weighted (multi select)

• This scoring method is based on weights of selected responses in relation to maximum possible selected weight and minimum possible selected weight.

• The score is always in the range 0% to 100%.

• Range = max possible weight – min possible weight

iQ Scoring – Normalised Weighted

When we looked at standard weighting, we saw that the 0 – 100% range was determined by the associated picklist values, or the manually set range in the case of numeric questions.

With normalised weighting the question set designer can set, at a question-level, define the 0 – 100% range, overriding the picklist or numeric options offered to the user responding to the question set.

iQ Scoring – Normalised Weighted (numeric)

Normalised weighting applied to a numeric question facilitates an above 100% score being returned for that question, where the user responds with a permitted value that is greater than the 100% defined threshold.

In practical terms, this means you define the permitted range (e.g. 0-100; this is what the user can enter)and then separately define what response garners a 100% score (e.g.50) – this this example, a user response of 75 would equate to a question score of 150%.

This is controlled at the question level within the response type configuration:

iQ Scoring – Normalised Weighted (single select)

iQ Scoring – Normalised Weighted (multiselect)

iQ Scoring – Score Modifier

iQ score modifiers can impact the overall score dependent on one, or more, picklists values being selected within the question set where they have been configured with score modifiers.

Score modifiers can be positive or negative. Typically, they’re used in a “red flag, stop work” case, this might alter the overall score so dramatically that the process is deemed a fail, e.g. the threshold pass mark maybe 80%, and a score modifier might be -21%. Therefore, no matter how good, or bad, the rest of the responses are, if the user selected the “Red flag, stop work” option, the overall score will be <80%.

You can configure the picklist score modifier as follows:

iQ Scoring – Question Weighting & Section Scores

Section scores are calculated as an average score of applicable questions, it also includes question weight in calculation.

Score of a question which has weight set as 2 is twice as important as a question where weight is set as 1.

iQ Scoring – Section Weighting & Template Score

The overall template (Questionnaire)score is calculated in similar fashion to section score. The main addition is that it includes section weight in the computations.

Section weight is set to 1 by default, you can modify this within the Question Set configuration as follows:

Hints and Tips

• Because all iQ scores are returned as percentages, scoring methods can be mixed and matched freely across questions and sections within a single template.
• If all questions within a section carry the same question weight, the section score is simply the average of the question scores for that section.
• Questions answered as N/A are excluded from the score calculation and do not affect the section or template total.
• Section weight defaults to 1 and can be modified within the question set configuration to give certain sections greater or lesser influence on the template score.
• The overall template score is calculated in the same way as the section score, with the addition of section weights in the calculation.

AI Metadata

• Product Area: iQ Templates, Template Configuration, Assure
• User Role: iQ Template Designer, System Administrator, EHS Manager, anyone with the Manage IQ Templates Supervisor Privilege
• Tags: iQ Scoring, Positive Negative Scoring, Weighted Scoring, Normalised Weighted Scoring, Score Modifier, iQ Template, Question Weighting, Section Weighting, Template Score, Percentage Score, Picklist Response Weight, Numeric Scoring, Single Select, Multi Select
• Version/Region: Assure (all versions, all regions)
• Important Synonyms: iQ Template (Intelligent Questionnaire, Question Set, IQ Template), Positive/Negative Scoring (Pass/Fail Scoring, Binary Scoring), Weighted Scoring (Response Weight Scoring), Normalised Weighted Scoring (Normalised Scoring), Score Modifier (Red Flag Scoring, Score Adjustment), Question Set Designer (Template Designer, IQ Admin), N/A Response (Not Applicable, Excluded Question), Template Score (Overall Score, Questionnaire Score), Section Score (Section Total)
• Suggested Embedding Keywords: iQ scoring methods, Assure iQ scoring guide, positive negative iQ scoring, weighted iQ scoring, normalised weighted iQ scoring, score modifier iQ, iQ template percentage score, question weighting iQ, section weighting iQ, iQ template scoring configuration, iQ scoring setup, how does iQ scoring work, iQ scoring types Assure, iQ score calculation, mix scoring methods iQ template
• Relevant Modules and Cross-Module Implications: iQ Templates are used across multiple Assure modules including Procedural Audit, General Risk Assessment, Activity Risk Assessment, Behavioural Observation, Hazard Spotting, and any other module that supports iQ Template attachment. The scoring configuration described in this article applies identically across all of these modules. Section and template scores appear in module records, standard reports (including the Audit Detail Report and General Risk Detailed Report), and the Assure Data Extraction API (IQ Extract). Score Modifier and Normalised Weighted scoring have particularly significant cross-module implications as they can produce scores outside the 0 to 100% range, which affects how score thresholds and pass/fail logic are interpreted in reports.