How to Launch an Automatically Recurring Survey

Automated surveys refer to surveys configured to recur on a regular basis, i.e. weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.  Recurring surveys are a great way to capture and measure opinions on regularly repeating topics or events.

In this article: 

 

Overview

Automated surveys refer to surveys that are configured to automatically recur on a regular basis, i.e. weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc. 

Recurring surveys are a great way to capture and measure opinions on regularly repeating topics or events.

For example, if an organization hosts quarterly Ask Me Anything sessions with the leadership team, a recurring survey can be configured to launch each quarter to give employees a space to communicate their thoughts, questions, and concerns with an organization's leadership team. 

Getting Started

To launch an automated survey:

  1. Click and expand Administration in the left-hand navigation menu
  2. Click Survey & Pulses from the drop-down menu
  3. Click New Survey in the top right

Select a Template (Question Set)

The first step of the survey-creation process is to select the template for the survey.

  1. Select a template from Quantum Workplace's Best Practices, your organization's templates, or click Create Your Own Survey in the top-right to create your own questions
  2. Look over the included questions- questions can be removed or added later in the setup
  3. To confirm your template, click Use this template

Survey Details

On the Survey Details page, enter the survey name, the context for the survey, determine what other languages to offer the survey in, and whether to disable Action Planning.

  1. Under Survey Name, provide the survey name as it should appear on the survey, invitations, and reminders
  2. Click and expand the drop-down menu to select the survey type
  3. Optionally, provide a brief description or add context for your survey participants
  4. Specify whether any additional languages should be included in the survey
    • Additional languages require translations that will be submitted in a later step
  5. Action Planning is enabled by default, click the box to disable Action Planning for the survey. Learn more about Action Planning

Click Next to continue.

Confidentiality

On the Confidentiality page, specify the confidentiality settings appropriate for the survey.

  1. Select the confidentiality setting for the survey
  2. Each confidentiality setting has a different follow-up action:
    • Not Confidential: Enter the user(s) who should be notified each time the survey is completed
    • Mixed: Specify the number of responses required to show survey results in Analytics, and enter an email address for survey participants to contact should they have any confidentiality-related questions
    • Confidential: Specify the number of responses required to show survey results in Analytics
    • Anonymous: Specify the number of responses required to show survey results in Analytics

Learn more about survey confidentiality and best practices.

Click Next to continue. 

Questions

From the Questions page, you can add, rearrange, and edit your questions.

If you selected a template at the beginning of the survey creation process, those questions will be listed on this page.

If you selected Create Your Own Survey, this is where you will add questions for your survey, either via the Library or custom questions. Learn more about creating survey questions.

  1. Under the menu to the left of the question list, you have several options to modify your survey's questions:
    • Add from Library: Add a question from Quantum Workplace's Best Practice library or from past surveys
    • Add Custom Question: Create a custom question
      • Note: Custom questions do not provide benchmark or trending data
    • Add Section: Create a section to visually organize survey questions
    • Survey Question Export: Export your current list of questions in detail 
    • Logic: Configure questions to ask follow-up questions based on responses or limit who can see a question, learn more about Survey Logic
    • Preview Survey: Click View to preview a finalized version of the survey, and click Share to copy the URL of the preview to your web browser's clipboard 
  2. View and edit the questions currently included in the survey

    • Click the Move Question icon (Figure A) to open a modal and specify the question's position before or after a specified question/ section
    • Click the up and down arrows (Figure B) to rearrange the question one place earlier or later, respectively

Click Next to continue. 

Participants

On the Participants page, customize how survey participants are chosen and invited.

To launch an automated survey:

  1. Select Invite Automatically
  2. Under Triggered By, select Recurring Date Interval
  3. Use the drop-down to specify how often the survey launches, i.e. monthly, quarterly, etc.
  4. Under Targeting, specify if all qualifying employees are invited or if a qualifying employee should pass through a demographic filter
  5. Under Access Survey By, specify how invited participants can securely access the survey
    • Unique Link: Participants receive a unique link in their email inbox that opens their survey
    • Employee ID or Unique Link:
      • Employee ID: Participants receive a generic invitation link in their email inbox that requires participants to enter their employee ID to open their survey
      • Unique Link: Participants receive a unique invitation link in their email inbox that opens their survey
    • Unique Access Code or Unique Link
      • Unique Access Code: Participants receive a generic invitation link in their email inbox that requires participants to enter a manageable custom access code to open their survey, learn more
      • Unique Link: Participants receive a unique link in their email inbox that opens their survey

Under Targeting, determine who is sent survey invites after the selected trigger occurs:

  • Send to all employees will invite all employees who qualify for the trigger
  • Limit who is invited based on demographics allows you to control what demographics are included and excluded as an additional rule for survey invitations.

    For example, if a New Manager Event survey is meant for offices in Boston and San Diego, but shouldn't include HR employees in either office, the fields can look like this:

Include: Location: Boston, Location: San Diego

Exclude: Department: HR

Click Next to continue. 

Schedule 

On the Schedule page, determine when invitations are delivered, how long surveys are open for, and when reminders, if any, are sent to participants. 

Depending on the invitation method(s) selected in the previous step, the options displayed on the Schedule step will vary.

The following view reflects when the Invite Automatically option is selected.

  1. Click Change Time Zone to update the time zone reflected in the survey setup
  2. Invitations: Customize when invitations are sent out according to the trigger, the Invitation Message can also be edited 
  3. Survey Deadline: Determine how many days survey participants have to complete their survey
  4. Reminders (Optional): Customize when reminders, if any, are sent to participants as well as the Reminder Message's text
    • Click Add Reminder to add additional reminders
    • Click Delete Reminder to remove reminders

Click Next to continue. 

Languages

If you specified that a survey is offered in another language, besides English, you will see the Languages page following the Schedule page. If your survey is only in English, you will see the Test and Review page instead.

From the Languages page, enter translations for the survey title, description, reminders, and each question. Learn how to add translations individually or in bulk.

Test & Review

On the Test and Review page, review key details and dates for your survey before finalizing and launching the survey. 

Learn more about testing and previewing surveys prior to launch.

The information displayed on this page should reflect and confirm your survey design decisions. 

  1. Test Mode: Optionally, click Send Test Survey to send a survey sample to select users as well as which message to be included
  2. Survey Details: This card details the survey name, confidentiality, and the specified survey timeline
  3. Survey Distribution: This section reflects your selections on the Participants page and allows you to perform any follow-up actions, i.e. adding users manually or copying the shareable link, as you could on the Participants page

Click Schedule Launch to complete the survey. If you schedule the survey to launch at a future date, it will automatically launch at the specified time.