Use this guide to set up action plans in a way that works for your organization, and to help managers build their plans and follow them through.
Surveys that already had actions before October 15, 2026, stay on the Action Framework, so this guide doesn't apply to them.
For more detail, see:
Decide on your action plan from survey results and AI Coach in Surveys, for the manager's side of the process
Control who can see and manage action plans and Edit, publish, and manage an action plan, for how each setting works
Move from the Action Framework to Action Plans, for what's changed
About action plans
Action plans are how teams turn their results into changes people can see.
Sharing survey results and then not acting on them can do more harm than not sharing them at all, because it breaks the expectation the survey created. Culture Amp research also shows that participation falls further in later surveys when organizations don't act on results, a pattern known as lack-of-action fatigue.
Action plans help you:
Show employees what's happening with their feedback. When a team can see its plan, people can see what was committed to and how it's progressing.
Support managers across teams. Managers see their direct reports' plans, and HR business partners with the Actions role see plans for the part of the organization they support.
Report on follow-through. You can filter plans by survey, focus area, status, and demographic, and export them to show senior leaders where action is under way.
Managers and senior leaders can easily start an action plan from within their survey report. The plan then lives on the Action plans page (Goals > Action plans, or Action plans in the navigation if your account doesn't have Goals).
Each plan records:
the survey and focus area it came from
who it's for (its target group)
its owners
its due date
The work can be broken into action items, each with one owner, and the plan's progress updates as action items are checked off.
How it works
Before results are shared:
Decide who owns action plans at each level, matching your approach to report sharing. Most plans belong to a team. Organization-wide plans are for changes that apply across the whole organization.
Decide who should see a team plan. We recommend at least the team it's for.
Decide who gets the Actions role. Allocate the role to the people who support managers, so they can see plans beyond their own team.
Brief managers on the steps, the timing, and who can see their plan.
When results are shared: 5. Managers build and publish their plan with their team.
After plans are published: 6. Set check-in points in plan owners' 1-on-1s, prompted by Assigned Topics. 7. Review progress and report to senior leaders.
Before results are shared
Managers can start a plan as soon as you share their report. Before you share, take some time to decide how plans will work in your organization and set up the Actions role, so everything's ready when they start.
Decide who owns action plans at each level
We recommend most action plans belong at the team level. Action planning at that level can lead to changes the team notices, because it responds directly to the team's own experience and focuses on what its manager can influence.
Some changes are beyond what a team's manager can make, such as updating a company-wide policy or process, so a senior leader should own the plans for those changes. Only Account Admins and people with the Actions role for the whole account can choose Everyone in the organization as a plan's target group, so one of them will need to set up these organization-wide plans and make the senior leader the owner of each one.
A senior leader should also own the plan for any focus area they lead across a division, keeping it consistent with the plans their teams are making.
Whole organization:
Who owns the plan: A senior leader
What the plan covers: Company-wide changes, such as a policy or process update
Division, or a similar part of the organization:
Who owns the plan: The division's senior leader
What the plan covers: A focus area across the division, kept consistent with the plans its teams are making
Team:
Who owns the plan: The team's manager
What the plan covers: The team's own focus. When senior leaders choose a focus area for the whole organization, each team still decides its own actions.
We recommend choosing one focus area for the whole organization. Teams or departments can also choose one more of their own if they want to.
Our results-to-action guides walk you through choosing and acting on these (see Guide to Taking Action on Survey Results).
Plan ownership should match your approach to report sharing. Plans are created from a survey report, so the managers and senior leaders you've shared reports with are the people who can create plans from their results.
Check that each of their reports has Take action turned on (see Guide to report sharing).
If you'll have organization-wide plans: decide who will set the plans up, and give that person the Actions role for the whole account if they aren't an Account Admin.
If senior leaders want a wider view: senior leaders automatically see their direct reports' plans, where managers are set up in your employee data, but not plans further down. To let them follow plans across their area, give them the Actions role scoped to that area, or agree that team plans in that area are shared with Everyone.
Decide who should see a team plan
We recommend that team plans should be shared with the team. Research shows that where results were shared but nothing was done with them, favorability was similar to organizations that didn't share results at all.
Attitudes were most favorable where results were both shared and acted on (Church & Oliver, 2006). When a team can see its plan and how it's progressing, it knows its feedback is being acted on.
New plans start as Private, so the author will need to choose a setting before they publish. Here's how the options compare:
Group members (recommended for team plans):
Who sees it: The people the plan is for
When to use it: Most team plans
Everyone:
Who sees it: Everyone in your organization
When to use it: Plans for the whole organization, or if your organization shares plans openly
Specific people:
Who sees it: The owners, plus anyone the author adds
When to use it: A plan a small group is working on, or to add someone from outside the team, such as a senior leader
Private (default):
Who sees it: The owners only
When to use it: When the author wants to limit who can see the plan to its owners
Group members shows the plan to the people in its target group. When the author sets the target group, they can choose from all of your account's demographics.
This lets the plan reach the right people (such as a team, location, or job level), even when that demographic wasn't part of the report the plan started from.
ℹ️ Note: No setting makes a plan confidential. Whatever the author chooses, Account Admins, people with the Actions role, the direct managers of the plan's owners, and the owners of its action items and their managers can always see it. Authors should bear this in mind when deciding what to include.
Decide who gets the Actions role
These roles give access to other people's action plans, whatever visibility setting each plan has:
Account Admins can see, edit, and delete every plan.
The Actions role for the whole account gives the same access to plans as Account Admins, so we recommend giving it only to people who need to manage plans across the organization.
The Actions role scoped to demographics suits HR business partners and others who support particular teams. It shows them plans whose owner matches one of the demographic values you choose (for example, Region includes APAC), but doesn't let them edit other people's plans.
The Survey Creator, Survey Admin, Surveys Full, Surveys Limited, Report Owner, and Report Viewer roles don't give this access, and neither does the Goals permission.
Example: An HR business partner has the Actions role scoped to one business unit.
On the Action plans page, with View by set to All action plans, they can see published plans from three of the five managers they support.
They contact the other two to offer help, starting with the manager who is new to action planning, and suggest working through Decide on your action plan from survey results together.
Brief managers
Before results go out, let managers know:
the steps for building and publishing their plan (see When results are shared)
when you'd like plans published
who a team plan is normally shared with, and who can always see it
that your view of their plans is there to offer support
that when they add someone as an owner of the plan or an action item, they should let that person know
that if they create a plan for someone else, they should also add themselves as an owner if they want to keep seeing it after it's published
that their own manager may check in on their plan's progress in their 1-on-1s
Here's some sample wording you can adapt:
Survey results will be shared on [date]. Before you create your action plan, explore your results with AI Coach in Surveys, then talk them through with your team and agree what you'll do. Please publish your plan by [date], and share it with your team so they can see what's being done about their feedback. Account Admins, your manager, and [HR business partners] can always see your plan, whatever setting you choose. [HR business partners] use this view to offer support where it helps. If you have questions about what to include, talk to [HR contact].
When results are shared
Once results are out, we recommend managers work through these steps. You can share them as part of your briefing.
Explore the results and brainstorm possible actions.
If your account has AI Coach in Surveys, managers can use it here. It works from the report they're viewing and the context they add about their team, so its ideas start from the team's own results.
Without AI Coach in Surveys, managers can select Take action > Create action plan in their report and look through the suggested action plans. These aren't tailored to the team's results, so managers should work with their team to adapt any idea they use.
Take those ideas to the team and agree what to do.
Create the plan from their survey report.
Write the title and description.
Selecting a suggestion under Start from a suggested action plan fills in both, which the manager can then edit.
Suggestions are also a useful check for anything the team's agreed actions might have missed.
Break the plan into action items, each with an owner and a timeframe.
The plan has one due date, so add the timing to the item's name, such as "Review team priorities every second Monday".
Check that the target group matches the team, then choose who can see the plan, using the norm you agreed, and publish it.
💡 Tip: Before results go out, add your organization's own programs, such as a mentoring program or a team planning workshop, as custom inspirations, and map each one to every survey question it could help with. They'll then appear among the suggested action plans (see Tailor the Inspiration Engine).
For how to create a plan and use suggested action plans, see Create an action plan from a survey report. For action items, visibility, and publishing, see Edit, publish, and manage an action plan.
Example: A team's results show workload as a high-impact focus area.
The manager explores it with AI Coach in Surveys, adding that the team took on two new projects this quarter.
They take the ideas to a team meeting, where the team agrees to review priorities together every two weeks and to pause one lower-priority project.
When the manager creates the plan, they see the organization's team planning workshop among the suggested action plans and add a third action item to book the team into it.
Each action item has an owner, and the plan is shared with the team.
After plans are published
Change takes time, so we recommend setting check-in points after plans are published so actions aren't forgotten between surveys. The 1-on-1s between plan owners and their own managers are a natural place for these.
The manager can ask how the plan is going, what's getting in the way, and what support would help, much like an accountability partner (see Guide to Accountability (Over Compliance) When Taking Action on Results).
Culture Amp 1-on-1s are included with Engage subscriptions. If your organization uses them, you can prompt these check-ins with Assigned Topics (see below).
Prompt check-ins with Assigned Topics
Assigned Topics let you add a discussion topic to the manager-employee 1-on-1s of everyone who matches the demographics you choose, now or on a date you schedule. We recommend using one to prompt these check-ins:
Choose one or two check-in points for the survey cycle, such as halfway to the due date (about six weeks in, for a plan with the default three-month due date).
Match the topic to the plan owners.
Choose demographics that cover the people who own plans, such as a demographic that identifies managers, combined with the departments or locations where plans were published.
Check the Owners column in the action plans export, and use View list to confirm who will receive the topic.
Keep the prompt broad.
The topic appears in each owner's 1-on-1 with their own manager, so write it to fit any plan: how it's going, and what support would help.
Example: Six weeks after plans are published, an HR team schedules an Assigned Topic for plan owners.
Title: Progress on your team's action plan.
Note: This might be a good time to talk through how your team's action plan is going and any support that would help.
For more on writing and targeting Assigned Topics, see Best Practices for Using 1-on-1 Assigned Topics.
Review progress and report to senior leaders
Set a regular time to review plans, such as checking the plans due soonest on the Action plans page each week, so you can offer support before a due date passes.
When you report to senior leaders, use the filters and Export action plans to show which teams have published plans and how far through them they are. We recommend reporting on whether plans were made and achieved, rather than on how much scores changed in the next survey.
FAQ
Should managers start with AI Coach in Surveys or a suggested action plan?
Should managers start with AI Coach in Surveys or a suggested action plan?
We recommend starting with AI Coach in Surveys, which works from the team's own results and the context the manager adds. The manager then agrees the actions with the team. Suggested action plans are a useful check, and a good starting point if your account doesn't have AI Coach in Surveys, as long as the manager rewrites the suggestion with their team.
Can senior leaders see plans across their part of the organization?
Can senior leaders see plans across their part of the organization?
A senior leader sees their direct reports' plans automatically, where managers are set up in your employee data. For plans further down, the Actions role scoped to their area shows every plan whose owner is in that area.
Who should be able to see a team's action plan?
Who should be able to see a team's action plan?
We recommend at least the team it's for, using Group members. Everyone suits plans for the whole organization, and organizations that share plans openly.
If a plan is Private, who can see it?
If a plan is Private, who can see it?
Its owners can see it, along with Account Admins, people with the Actions role, the direct managers of the plan's owners, and the owners of its action items and their managers. Private limits who else can see the plan, but it doesn't make the plan confidential.
How do HR business partners see plans for the teams they support?
How do HR business partners see plans for the teams they support?
Give them the Actions role scoped to the demographics they support. They'll see plans whose owners are in those demographics, without needing access to each report.
How do we keep plans moving after they're published?
How do we keep plans moving after they're published?
We recommend setting check-in points in the 1-on-1s between plan owners and their own managers. You can schedule Assigned Topics to prompt check-ins partway through a plan, and managers check off action items in the plan as they're done. A weekly look at the plans due soonest on the Action plans page helps you spot plans that need support.
Which surveys use action plans?
Which surveys use action plans?
From October 15, 2026, new surveys and existing surveys without actions use action plans. Surveys that already had actions stay on the Action Framework, and those actions aren't moved.
Can an action plan be linked to a goal?
Can an action plan be linked to a goal?
No. Action plans and goals are separate in Culture Amp.
➡️ Next steps
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