This article explains the time zone mechanism behind the survey, and how to configure the survey if you have geographically dispersed employees.
- How it works
- When to enable time zone specific schedules
- Configuring time zones
- Time zone aware emails
How it works
- The survey round opens at 00:30 in the schedule time zone. If no schedule time zone is present, the fallback is company time zone, after which the fallback is UTC time zone.
- The survey schedules the survey emails for that schedule, based on send-out time and selected time zones. The survey prioritizes the employee record time zone (whether manually set from a data upload or automatically detected from previous survey rounds).
- Employees receive notifications at the send-out time of the schedule. If this isn't set, the fallback is 09:00.
If no time zone is present on the employee record, there’s a fallback order for each individual employee.
- Schedule time zone.
- Company time zone.
- UTC time zone.
For subsequent survey rounds, the system automatically detects the time zone of each employee that doesn't already have a time zone on their employee record. Going forward, the detected employee time zone is used for each employee, unless you override this on their employee record.
Note
Using VPN tools can make the survey detect the incorrect time zone for employees, due to the IP address appearing elsewhere. In such cases we recommend manually adding employee record time zones.
When to enable time zone specific schedules
As a rule of thumb, you only need to create time zone specific schedules if both conditions are present:
- You have geographically dispersed employees that are more than 8 hours apart from each other.
- They must receive the survey at 09:00 in their local time.
Explanation: The survey round opens at 00:30 in the time zone of the survey schedule, and schedules the survey emails of the schedule. If the schedule contains employees more than 8 hours ahead, their local 09:00 send out time may already be in the past.
Example: If the survey opens on the 1st of June at 00:30 in London, it's already 11:30 in the morning in Auckland. Employees from Auckland will be notified immediately, but it's not possible to notify them at 09:00 on this schedule.
Follow the below table as guidance on how to manage time zone aware schedules if these conditions apply to your organization.
| Use case | Solution | Considerations |
|---|---|---|
|
Create separate schedules with different time zones, targeting employees by their segments. | This approach gives you the chance to have different types of schedules. Example: Company, new starters, specific regions.
You can still combine multiple time zones in each schedule by setting the time zone on each employee record. If you don't have employee record time zones, the survey automatically detects them for each employee after their first survey. |
|
Create separate schedules without setting the schedule time zone. Set the company time zone to most eastern time zone, and set the employee record time zones. | This approach provides the flexibility of multiple schedules, while being time zone aware due to employee record time zones. |
|
Use the main Company schedule, or create your own all encompassing schedule. Set company or schedule time zone to most-eastern time zone in your company. | This approach enables you to keep everyone on the same schedule, while also being fully time zone aware. |
Configuring time zones
Employee record time zone
Employee time zones are set on the employee record, in the Time zone field at the bottom. You can do this manually or via CSV (see Setting the employee time zone via Excel).
Schedule time zone
Schedule time zone is set on each schedule separately.
- Go to Administration > Schedules
- Pick the relevant schedule by clicking View
- Click the Survey settings tab
- Select the time zone and save changes
It is possible to combine multiple locations under one schedule, as long as the most eastern time is used as the schedule time zone.
Company time zone
The company time zone should be the HQ location and will serve as the main company time zone. Alternatively, set it as the most-eastern time zone of the company, if you need all employees on the same schedule, and they should receive the survey at 09:00 in their local time.
- Go to Administration > Account
- Choose the time zone from the drop down menu and save changes
Time zone aware emails
The time zone aware configuration only impacts the survey email and reminder emails.
| Survey send-out | ✓ Time zone aware |
| Reminder emails | ✓ Time zone aware |
| Daily digest emails | ✘ Weekdays 06:00 AM UTC for everyone |
| Low participation emails | ✘ 03:00 AM UTC |
| Schedule reminder emails | ✘ 03:00 AM UTC |
| Instant sensitive comment notification email | ✘ Could be instant or in daily digest |
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