Running multiple survey schedules in different timezones

It is possible to configure your schedule in a way that accommodates the send-out of survey emails in different timezones.

• How it works
• When to enable timezone specific schedules
• Configuring timezones
• Considerations

How it works

The schedule will recognise 4 different timezone options:

• Company timezone
• Employee timezone
• Schedule timezone
• UTC timezone

On the date of the survey launch, the survey officially opens at 00:30 AM in the timezone set in the schedule. To read more about the timeline of a survey round refer to the Survey status and timeline section in About Peakon surveys and how they work.

After the survey round opens, Peakon begins to schedule the emails to be sent out in the company timezone.

If there are geographically dispersed employees, their timezones should be set on the employee record. If there are geographically dispersed employees that are 8 hours ahead of the company timezone, and it is important for them to receive their survey at 09:00 their local time, a separate survey schedule could be created for them and the schedule timezone should be set to the most eastern time for those employees. The rest of the company should remain on the company schedule.

Timezone selection per employee

In terms of the first round, this is the order of preference the system will follow regarding timezones for each individual employee:

• If the employee has a set timezone, the system will pick this
• If no timezone is set for the employee, the system will default to the Schedule timezone
• If the schedule does not have a selected timezone, the system will then fall back to the Company timezone
• If an account does not have a Company timezone defined, the system will default to the UTC timezone

For subsequent survey rounds, if employees did not have a set timezone at the time of the survey, the system will have detected each employee's local timezone in order to send the survey email at their local timezone.

When to enable timezone specific schedules

In most cases, it is not necessary to set a schedule timezone; the company timezone and the employee time one will suffice. 

Use the below flowchart as a guide to take you through the necessary steps for your organisation:

Configuring timezones

Employee timezone

Employee timezones 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 timezone via Excel).

Schedule timezone

Schedule timezone is set on each schedule separately, and will only apply to the relevant schedule. A separate schedule for a timezone should only be created when it is 8 hours ahead of the company timezone. To set the schedule timezone:

1. Go to Administration > Schedules
2. Pick the relevant schedule by clicking View
3. Click the Survey settings tab
4. Select the timezone 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 timezone. Doing so ensures that the other locations within the schedule are behind that timezone rather than ahead, and therefore will receive the survey email at their local 09:00. For example, if the schedule covers Tokyo and Auckland, Auckland would be the most eastern timezone of the two, so Auckland time should be used as the schedule timezone.

Once this is saved, you will see a yellow banner on the main page of your schedule, stating the schedule timezone.

Company timezone

The company timezone should be the HQ location and will serve as the main company timezone. To set up the company timezone:

1. Go to Administration > Account
2. Choose the timezone from the drop down menu and save changes

Considerations

The timezone aware configuration only impacts the survey email and reminder emails.