Updating the coworkers' database during an ongoing survey

Are you about to update your database or modify the information of an employee while a survey is in progress? It's possible! We walk you through what's involved here. 

In this article: 

• What impact does this have on your ongoing surveys?
• Can I add participants to an ongoing survey?

What impact does this have on your ongoing surveys?

You can update your coworkers' database with peace of mind! It will not affect your current surveys except for four exceptions:

• Deleting a coworker: the coworker will no longer have the opportunity to take the ongoing survey but will still be counted among the surveyed coworkers.
• Changing from active to inactive status: the coworker will still have the possibility to take the ongoing survey but will not receive reminder emails. The reverse (from inactive to active) has no impact on the survey.
• Changing the language: the participant will access the survey and reminder emails in the newly selected language.
• Editing the email address manually: the coworker will receive the reminder emails and will be able to take the survey via the newly entered email. 

⚠ This change can only be effective on an ongoing survey if it's done manually, from the user's profile.

For the other cases (adding new coworkers or editing analysis filters) the list of recipients is frozen at the survey launch. Therefore, the surveyed coworkers remain the same, and their answers will be attached to the characteristics (analysis filters) that defined them when the survey launched. 

For example, if you change a coworker's department from Marketing to Sales after a survey launched:

• his or her responses for the ongoing survey will be affiliated with the Marketing department (the one filled in at launch) - even if he or she responds after the change has been made. 
• their responses for the next survey will be attached to the Sales department.

Why this rule? It allows you to freeze the characteristics of the coworkers at the date of the survey launch. No more doubts about which teams received the survey! It is your recipients' list as it was at launch.

In the previous example, the survey launched when the coworker was still part of the Marketing team, so their responses will be attached to Marketing.

Can I add participants to an ongoing survey?

No. Unfortunately, you cannot include new participants once the survey has launched. 

If only a few coworkers did not have the opportunity to participate, reassure them: they'll get the chance to express themselves for the next survey. However, if the number is large, you may want to ask your account manager for advice. Sometimes it's best to stop the ongoing survey and start fresh with a new launch. 🚀

You might want to include them by forwarding your link or manually sending the survey email, but that would skew your results. Here we explain which practices to absolutely avoid and why: 

❌ Never forward your survey link

Each survey email contains a unique link that allows coworkers to access their Supermood interface to take ongoing surveys. So when a coworker forwards their survey link, they give access to their personal interface and maybe letting their coworkers take the survey on their behalf. The original recipient will no longer be able to take the survey and the responses sent will be aggregated based on their characteristics instead of those of the actual respondent.

❌ Do not send the email from the preview to a coworker not initially included

If you send a survey manually via the email preview (in normal mode) to a person who was not included in the list of recipients when the survey was launched, the coworker will be able to answer but their answers will not always be aggregated according to the characteristics that define them (analysis filters). Furthermore, the coworker will only be counted among the surveyed coworkers if they answer. So you can't rely on your participation rate! 

💡Tip: You may be wondering how to resend the survey to one of the recipients? You can direct them to their Supermood interface – the surveys that are waiting for their responses are there. 

If you have any questions, please let us know at hello@supermood.com - we'll be happy to answer them!