A Lifecycle Survey is an ongoing survey with no set end date, designed to capture feedback over time and provide trend data. This is particularly useful for tracking responses at key employee moments, such as onboarding and offboarding. Here's how to set up and configure a Lifecycle Survey and its corresponding dashboard.
Setting Up a Lifecycle Survey
In the Survey Wizard's first step:
Leave the End Date blank in the first step of the Survey Wizard. This ensures the survey is open-ended.
Fill in the other survey details as normal, such as the title, description, and questions.
Using default Lifecycle Models:
If you'd prefer a quicker setup, you can choose from our available Lifecycle Models. These models provide pre-configured surveys tailored to common lifecycle events like onboarding and offboarding.
Survey dates and live status:
By leaving the End Date blank, the survey will automatically be set to Open-ended, allowing for continuous feedback collection.
Why Open-ended Surveys Matter:
Open-ended surveys provide ongoing insights by tracking feedback over time. This enables the Trend Report, which gives a time series chart showing how responses evolve, focusing on key questions and survey topics.
Setting Up the Dashboard for Lifecycle Surveys
Automatic Trend Report Configuration:
Once you've set your survey to Open-ended, the Trend Report will automatically be included in your dashboard setup.
You don't need to manually select a trend report type—this is configured based on the open-ended survey type.
Trend Report Insights:
The Trend Report shows a time series chart, tracking responses and question performance over time.
Important: The results in this report can only be compared across different time periods within the same Lifecycle Survey. They are not comparable to external benchmarks or past surveys that were not open-ended.
Anonymity Considerations for Lifecycle Surveys
Since Lifecycle Surveys tend to gather lower volumes of responses over time, consider lowering the anonymity threshold to ensure meaningful data while still protecting employee privacy.
Automating Survey Management with HRIS Integration
For efficient management, we recommend integrating your Lifecycle Survey with an HRIS (Human Resource Information System). This allows for automatic addition of Joiners and Leavers to your survey, ensuring the right employees are included continuously.
Converting an Existing Survey to Open-ended
If you are running a survey with a set end date, you can convert it to open-ended. Doing so will enable the Trend Chart on your dashboard, providing valuable time series insights over the course of the survey.
By following these steps, you'll have an open-ended Lifecycle Survey with automatic trend reporting and insights to track responses and performance over time.