Onboarding timeline example

Onboarding surveys need to be run at a specific point in an employee's journey with you. The following example shows the sequence of activities required to ensure the survey is sent to the right person, at the right time.

We've chosen a 1 month sending period for this example, but you can choose other sending periods like 1 week, 3, 6 or 12 months.

If you have automation turned on

This is the sequence of activity for a 1 month check-in:

Before the employee starts: You need to enter the employee's start date into your participant library.
1 month after the start date: The employee is automatically added to the survey and sent an invitation to take it. This invitation is sent by email or text.

💡 If you add the employee's start date late, here's what happens (using a 1-month sending period as the example. The same logic applies for 1 week, 3, 6 or 12 month periods):

If they started less than your sending period ago (e.g. less than a month ago for a 1-month check-in), no action is needed. They'll be picked up automatically when the sending period mark arrives.
If they started a bit over your sending period ago (within the last week beyond it), they'll be picked up on the next daily run, usually within 24 hours.
If they started more than your sending period plus a week ago (e.g. more than five weeks ago for a 1-month check-in), you'll need to add them to the survey manually. The invitation will then be sent within 10 minutes.

If you have automation turned off

This is the sequence of activity for a 1 month check-in:

Before the employee starts: You need to manually add the employee to the survey and enter their start date.
1 month after the start date: The employee is automatically sent an invitation to take the survey. This invitation is sent by email or text.

💡 If you add the employee to the survey after the 1 month mark, they'll be automatically sent an invitation within 10 minutes of that action.

Will I be notified when the participant completes the survey?

This depends on how you've set up your survey.

If you'd like to be notified when someone completes your onboarding survey:

Go to Surveys and find your onboarding survey.
Select the three dots to open the survey menu.
Select Edit and then the Communications tab.
Scroll down to the question: Who should we notify when someone completes this survey? and select an option or enter your details.

Why a participant might be missed

Even with automation turned on, a participant with a start date in the library can occasionally be missed. The most common reasons are:

Start date entered too late. Auto-add looks for participants whose start date was between 30 and 37 days ago (for a 1-month sending period). If you enter someone's start date when their actual start was more than five weeks ago, they won't be picked up automatically.

Example: Alex's first day was 1 March. Their manager only entered the start date into the library on 15 April - six weeks after Alex began. The auto-add job runs once a day and (for a 1-month sending period) only looks at start dates from 30 to 37 days ago. So when it runs on 15 April, it's looking at start dates between 9 March and 16 March. The next day, 16 April, the window slides forward to 10 March – 17 March, and so on. Alex's start date of 1 March falls outside the window on every day from 1 April onwards, so they're never picked up. The manager needs to add Alex to the onboarding survey manually.
A respondent already exists with the same email or mobile number. If someone with a matching email or phone is already a respondent on the survey, the duplicate is skipped to avoid sending two invitations.
No email or mobile number on the participant record. Auto-add needs at least one way to send the invitation. Participants with neither will be skipped.
The survey is closed. Closed surveys won't auto-add anyone.

Tip: Enter start dates into the library before the person begins, or as soon as you can after - this way auto-add catches them reliably