Who can use this feature?
Available on:
All Culture Amp subscriptions that include Engagement or Effectiveness (Manager and Team Effectiveness surveys).
Welcome to our Technical Survey Review Checklist! This guide is all about helping you review the technical set up of your Attributed (Snapshot) surveys, like Engagement, before survey launch. If you would like to download a copy of this checklist, you can access it here.
Remember! this checklist is meant to be used alongside our Survey strategy checklist, which covers all the design aspects of your survey setup.
Before diving into the technical details, it's important to first go through the Survey strategy checklist. Once you've got that covered, then you can tackle the technical setup.
If you have any questions about any of the guidance covered in this checklist, just reply with "Ask a Person" in a Support conversation to speak with a Product Support Specialist.
Account setup
The first thing is to check your overall Account Settings have been set up in preparation for your survey launch. Head to your Account Admin > Settings page to get started.
Settings
☐ Primary Email Sender: Ensure your company name or internal Point of Contact (PoC) is added as the Sender for all email communications through the platform.
☐ Timezone: Double-check that your company's time zone is correctly set to avoid any scheduling discrepancies.
☐ Account Logo: This logo will be used in the survey communications, welcome screen, as well as the survey itself, unless a different logo is uploaded on the survey itself.
Notifications
☐ Slack or MS Teams Notifications: If you use Slack or Microsoft Teams for additional communications, consider integrating them with our platform for survey communications. Check out our guides below for further information:
Survey set up
Now, let's shift our focus to reviewing the technical aspects of your survey setup. Head over to your Surveys home page and select Edit survey to access your survey configuration page. From there, you can review each tab below.
Settings
☐ Survey Name: When it comes to naming surveys, some companies get creative, which can make things a bit more interesting. Another idea is to include the survey's expected timing, like 'Engagement Survey H2 2024'.
☐ Survey Logo: By default, all surveys will display the account logo. But if you prefer, you can upload a different logo specifically for your survey from the survey Settings page.
Questions:
☐ Question Design: Ensure you have worked through the Survey Strategy Checklist to cover any survey strategy and design action items before moving on.
Reporting factors:
☐ Factors: Before launching your survey, make sure to assign all rating and select style questions to a factor. This ensures they'll display in your survey reporting view. You can assign questions to factors at any time, even after the survey has launched or closed, but it's best practice to do so before launch to prevent any confusion. You can easily check which questions still need assignment under the "unassigned questions" section on your Reporting factors page.
☐ Index Factor: This designates which Factor is used in Impact/Driver Analysis, showing which questions 'drive' the index Factor. Usually, this is Engagement. To learn more about our Factors, check out our Culture Amp Training Courses.
Tip: Keep in mind that changing factors, like renaming them, removing questions, or adding custom items, can affect external benchmarking. If you remove questions but keep the factor, you can still external benchmark at the factor level. However, adding custom items will prevent this.
When comparing to your historical data (internal comparisons), you'll receive a factor-level comparison if the number of questions remains the same, all questions are matched and the factor name stays consistent. Remember, you can manually match questions when you load the comparison, if the meaning and intent of the question remains the same.
For a deeper understanding of how adjusting factors and questions can impact your ability to compare and benchmark results, check out our support guide on how scores are calculated for reports.
Demographics:
☐ Existing Demographics: If you're unsure which demographics to include in your survey, take a look at our employee data template here. It's a fantastic place to start! The demographics you select can help you analyze the data and generate reports. Consider what types of reports you'd like to create, such as by department, manager, or location. If necessary, upload new combinations of demographics to facilitate the desired filtering options for your results.
☐ Demographics: Before launching the survey, make sure to choose all the demographics you want as filters. After the survey is live, you can disable demographics if needed, but to enable new ones, you will need to reach out to our Culture Amp Product Support Team for assistance.
Note: Demographic information for all participants is copied to the survey upon launch. From that moment, the demographic data is locked in and won't update in the survey view, even if you make changes to your overall account employee data. This is called the snapshot process. Check out our support guide for more information.
Participants:
☐ Participants: By default, no one is automatically selected for the survey as a participant before it's launched. So, before you can hit that launch button, make sure you choose the survey participants. If you accidentally miss someone, don't worry! You can always add them later. Just remember, everyone you want to include must be loaded into Culture Amp as a user. For more info on selecting participants before launching the survey, check out our support guide.
Tip: Don't forget the Exclusion Date. This is handy to exclude participants based on their start date, as new hires (e.g. 4-8 weeks) are not likely to have adequate exposure to respond to the questions fully.
Confidentiality
☐ Reporting Group Minimums: Make sure to set and review your reporting group minimums before launching the survey. Once the survey is live, this info is locked and the reporting minimums cannot be changed. Remember, the reporting group minimum is the smallest number you can filter down to in reporting. The indirect reporting protection number adds an extra layer of protection on top of your minimum reporting group number. It helps to protect participant responses from indirect identification. Be sure to check out our Confidentiality Protections in Reporting support guide for more info on how these settings can impact your reporting.
Tip: Check out our video training guidance for selecting the right settings for your population size here.
☐ Raw Data: Usually, raw data remains unchecked in engagement surveys to encourage open and honest feedback from employees. If you would like a raw data extract of your survey results, make sure to check this option before launching your survey as it cannot be enabled once the survey is live. This will let participants know that raw data is enabled before they take the survey, through an additional note on the Reporting Rules page, Welcome Screen, and emails. The purpose of this message is to be transparent with respondents about how their responses may be reported.
Communications
☐ Communications: Personalize your communications by adjusting them from the surveys Communications page. You can customize all email and Slack messages, except Reporting Rules, which are non-editable. Check out our support guidance for further information:
☐ Sender Name: Like we mentioned in the Account Setup section, we recommend editing the email sender name to personalize what employees first see when they receive survey email communications.
☐ Support Contact: You can also include a Support Email and Contact Name for any participant inquiries related to the survey, such as issues with survey access. If you leave the support email blank, all queries will be directed to support@cultureamp.com.
Launch plan
☐ Survey Launch, Reminders and Closure Dates: A survey can be launched immediately, or can be scheduled for a future date and time. Learn more.
☐ Timezone: The timezone used for launching the survey, and sending reminder emails is displayed adjacent to the time, and can be changed by an Account Administrator on the Account settings page.
☐ Communicated Closure: While you can communicate closure, we recommend waiting 1-2 days before actually closing the survey (Under "Close Date"). This allows stragglers a bit of extra time before the survey actually closes.
Need further help?
Explore our Survey Strategy Checklist for detailed guidance on the design elements of your survey.
Discover answers to common questions about designing your survey in our Survey Design FAQs.
Alternatively contact your customer success coach for further help in reviewing your survey. If you don't have a coach, just reply with "Ask a Person" in a Support conversation to speak with a Product Support Specialist.
Related pages:
💬 Need help? Just reply with "Ask a Person" in a Support Conversation to speak with a Product Support Specialist.