Building a Survey

GOOD TO KNOW  An activity holds one survey. If you need a genuinely separate survey, that means a separate activity.

HEADS UP  Without survey write access the Composer opens read-only — you can read the survey but every field is locked and the save button is disabled.

HEADS UP  The survey composer does not autosave. Building a survey takes a while and there is no draft recovery here — press Save Survey at every natural break point. See Autosave & Drafts.

Field

What it does

Activity Survey Title

The title respondents see at the top of the survey.

Expiry Date

The last day the survey accepts responses, chosen from a date picker.

HEADS UP  Once the expiry date passes, anyone opening the link sees The Survey Expired and cannot respond. Set the date with room to spare.

PRO TIP  Set the expiry a week beyond your intended close. Response rates always tail in late, and an expired link is a far worse problem than a survey that stayed open a few extra days.

Section

Holds

Demographic

Questions about the respondent — department, level, site, tenure, employment type.

Cultural Pattern

Rated questions feeding cultural pattern analysis and the CPRO report.

Safety Culture

Rated questions feeding safety culture analysis.

Other

Questions that do not belong to the analytical categories above.

GOOD TO KNOW  A question's section is fixed by its category in the question pool — you cannot move a question between sections here. If a question is in the wrong section, it was filed under the wrong category when it was created, and an administrator needs to publish a corrected copy.

HEADS UP  Demographic questions are what make the report breakdowns work. A survey with no demographic questions still produces results, but the demographic comparison charts will have nothing to compare.

HEADS UP  Only published questions appear. If a question you expect is missing, it is likely still an unpublished draft, has been deprecated, or belongs to another utility. That is an administrator matter.

PRO TIP  Build the survey from questions that have been used before wherever you can. Reusing the same questions across assessments is what makes the Trending Report meaningful.

PRO TIP  Help text is the cheapest quality improvement available to you. Where a question uses a term your site reads two ways, define it here rather than hoping respondents agree.

PRO TIP  Put demographic questions first. Respondents answer them quickly, which builds momentum, and it means that if someone abandons the survey part-way you still know who they were.

GOOD TO KNOW  Deleting a question removes it from this survey only. The question stays in the pool for other surveys to use.

PRO TIP  A short text block before each section tells respondents what is coming and why. Surveys that change subject with no warning get rushed, inconsistent answers in the questions immediately after the switch.

PRO TIP  The header is where response rates are won or lost. Say who is running the assessment, why it matters, roughly how long it takes, and how responses will be handled.

GOOD TO KNOW  Use the footer for what happens next — when results will be shared, and who to contact with questions.

HEADS UP  Clear Survey Question Data removes all the questions you have assembled. It is not an undo — you will be rebuilding the survey from the pool.

HEADS UP  There is no autosave and no draft recovery on this page. Save often.

PRO TIP  Always preview before sharing the link. Ordering mistakes, missing help text, and a section that reads abruptly are obvious in the preview and invisible in the composer.

Action

What it does

Copy

Copies the link to your clipboard.

Open

Opens the survey in a new tab.

GOOD TO KNOW  Fixed in PROD Round 1. The generated link is now clean and ready to paste. It previously came wrapped in angle brackets, which some mail clients and chat tools carried through into a broken link. If you have an old link saved with < and > around it, regenerate it.

HEADS UP  If you see Survey Link Unavailable — "The survey link could not be retrieved. Please ensure the survey has been saved and try again." — the survey has unsaved changes. Save Survey first, then request the link.

GOOD TO KNOW  The link carries a language. It is generated in your current language, so switch language before generating if you need the other one.

PRO TIP  Respondents need no account and no sign-in — the link is all they need. That is what makes it safe to circulate widely, and also why you should treat it as public.

What you see

What it means

Composer opens but nothing can be edited

You have survey read access without write.

Create Survey greyed out

No write access, or a survey already exists.

Survey Link Unavailable

Unsaved changes. Save the survey, then try again.

The pasted link does not work

Regenerate it. Old links were wrapped in angle brackets some tools carried through.

A question is missing from the pool

Unpublished, deprecated, or another utility's. Ask an administrator.

A question is in the wrong section

Its pool category is wrong. An administrator must publish a corrected copy.

Respondents see The Survey Expired

The expiry date has passed. Extend it in the composer.

Cannot change the rating scale

Responses already exist — the scale type is frozen.

Everything read-only including the title

The activity is locked.

Link is in the wrong language

It follows your current language. Switch, then regenerate.

Lost work after a session expiry

The composer does not autosave. Save as you build.