Running multiple survey schedules simultaneously

By default all employees are on the main company schedule, however it is also possible to run multiple survey schedules at the same time, to meet the differing demands of the various areas of an organisation. This can be useful when different areas of the company need different communications, frequencies and more. 

This article will include:

• When to add a separate schedule
• Configuration
• Checklist
• Other considerations

When to add a separate schedule

Because of the high level of available customizations in the survey settings, we recommend reviewing your current use case and then decide if a separate schedule should be added. There might be an additional functionality that can help you with your needs instead.

Configuration

By default, the Company schedule contains all employees in the company. On the schedules page, it is possible to edit the Company schedule and to create and edit any custom targeted schedule. It is possible to customize the survey experience to suit each area of the organisation. 

How to create a new schedule

1. Go to Administration > Schedules
2. Click Add schedule
3. In the Target population field, choose the intended segment
4. Click Create schedule

Examples

Scenario 1: A company has several entity brands that each have their own unique name and logo.

In order to ensure each entity has its own survey logo and the segment name is used instead of the company name, by creating a separate schedule for each entity brand the entity brand will be used instead of the company logo and the questions will be customized for that particular entity. 

Scenario 2: A company has employees located globally and need to ensure that each employee receives the survey in their local time at 09:00.

By setting up multiple survey schedules, an admin can ensure that a timezone is set on each schedule and the survey send time is configured for a specific timezone.

Checklist

The below table contains a checklist for setting up a separate survey schedule.

Other considerations

Aligning survey dates

We recommend aligning survey end dates, because:

• The survey end date is used for data comparison between survey rounds.
• Each survey accounts for 1 data point in the Score over time graphs. If you have multiple surveys ending on the same day, they display as the same survey end date, making it easier to compare data from different rounds.
• In the case of multiple surveys ending during the same week, the View previous scores function displays the end date of the last survey of the week. The dashboard contains the aggregated survey data up until that point.

Timezones

When a schedule begins a new survey round, the survey emails are queued up for delivery around 1AM UTC, regardless of the timezone used. 

If employees of a specific schedule are dispersed in timezones that are more than 8 hours between each other and they all need to receive the survey email at 9AM in their local timezone, it may be necessary to create a separate schedule for the group that is more than 8 hours ahead. Please refer to the Running multiple survey schedules in different timezones article. 

Kiosk

If using kiosk mode on separate schedules, each schedule will have its own kiosk survey link. See About kiosk mode and how it works for more information on the kiosk mode.

Editable attributes

When collecting employee attributes through the survey, this will need to be set up on a per schedule basis as well. See About editable attributes and how they work for more.