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Bulk Upload Participants to Your Survey

A how to guide for bulk importing your surveys participant list

Jared Ellis avatar
Written by Jared Ellis
Updated over 2 months ago

What can I learn from this page?

A how to guide for bulk importing your surveys participant list

Who is this guide for?

Account Admins, Survey Admins, Survey Creators

Overview

The Participant Import option in Attributed (Snapshot) surveys allows you to easily add multiple participants at once. This can be especially helpful if you have a large number of participants.

To determine which surveys are considered attributed (snapshot), check out our support guide for an overview of our survey templates.

📌 Note: Bulk importing participants to your survey is a separate process from importing users to your account. Before you bulk import participants to the survey, you need to add your employees as users at the overall account level first. Then, you can separately add them to the survey.

Preparing your file for import

Before you begin the import process, you will need to prepare your file. The structure of your file will depend on the unique identifiers (e.g., email/employee id) you use for your employees.

  • If all employees have an email address, include one column in your file titled "email".

  • If all employees only have an employee id, have one column titled "employee_id".

  • If employees have a mix of email addresses and employee ids, in your file have two columns: "email" and "employee_id". You only need to provide the relevant identifier for each participant.

  • Ensure your file is in CSV format.

⚠️ Note: Your file should only include the “email” and “employee_id” columns or their uppercase variations: “Email” and “Employee_ID.” Please remove any other columns before importing.

email only file example: All participants have email only

👆 email only example: All participants have email only

Mixture of email and employee id file example where some participants have email only and others have employee id only

👆 employee id only example: All participants have employee id only

A file where some participants have only an email, and others have only an employee id.

👆 Mixture Example 1: A file where some participants have only an email, and others have only an employee id.

A file where some participants have only an employee id, while others have both an employee id and an email.

👆 Mixture Example 2: A file where some participants have only an employee id, while others have both an employee id and an email.

Starting the import process

To start importing participants, go to the Participants page in your survey configuration. Click on Import participants to begin.

Import participants button

.

Choosing an Import Type:

Next you'll be prompted to select between two import options:

  • Add: Adds employees from your file to any existing participants.

  • Overwrite: Adds employees from your file, replacing any existing participants.

⚠️ Note: The overwrite import type is disabled when the survey is live to prevent any accidental removals.

Once you’ve added your file, click validate.

selecting an import type and file to upload

Validating your file

Before you import, we'll validate your file to check for any issues. If all columns and rows are good to go, you'll see a green confirmation message letting you know your file is valid. Then, you can proceed with the import.

successful validate file screen

If your file has any minor issues, like including employees who aren't added as Culture Amp users yet, we'll notify you with a yellow notification and provide a list of errors for download. You can choose to proceed with valid rows or fix the errors and restart the import process.

Unsuccessful file validation screen. File has some minor issues to review.

If your file has any critical issues, like incorrect headers, you'll see a red error message. In this case, you'll need to correct the problem and begin the import process again. Once you've fixed any errors, you can proceed with importing your file.

Unsuccessful file validation screen. File has some critical issues to review.

📌 Note: The validation process may take some time (up to 15-20 minutes), especially for larger participant lists.

Importing your file

Click Import, and the import wizard will close. You'll see a progress indicator on the Participants page.

Import progress status page

While the import is running, the rest of the functionality on the Participants page will be disabled - this is to ensure we don’t run into any conflicts between the import and any manual participant selections that happen while the import is processing.

Once the import finishes, you'll see a green "Import Complete" message confirming that the employees from your file have been successfully added as participants.

Import complete success message

If you’re adding participants to a live survey, you’ll need to click the Confirm new participants button to complete the invitation process.


💬 Need help? Just reply with “Ask a Person” in a Support Conversation to speak directly with a Product Support Specialist.

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