Results Release settings

Francisco Cirigliano

October 29, 2024 13:18

Sharing survey results with relevant stakeholders is a crucial step in the employee listening journey. My Effectory offers two powerful features to help you manage this process, ensuring that the relevant insights reach the right people at the best time. By seamlessly integrating Results access and Results release settings, you are given the ability to tailor the release of your survey results to your organization's specific needs.

What are the Results release settings? This article will cover everything you need to know about the Results release settings, which let you configure when and how the results are being shared. For more information about the Results access settings, which enable you to determine who should have access to your survey's response rate and results, please refer to this article instead.

The benefits of the Results release settings

The benefits of the Results release settings include:

Aligning the release of your survey results with strategic initiatives and milestones to maximise their impact.
Targeted distribution of insights, ensuring relevant stakeholders receive only what they need.
Fostering collaboration and dialogue among stakeholders by facilitating the timely sharing of survey results.
The possibility to only share survey results when you're really ready for it.

How to set up the results release

Once a survey is active, either the survey creator and Central or Project coordinators can access these settings:

Log into My Effectory and access your project from the Projects tab.
In the Survey status tile, click on View all surveys.
Select the running or completed survey for which you want to manage access to the results.
In the Results settings tile, click on Results release.
> A side panel opens, presenting three options:

Understanding the three options for results release

Option 1: Response rate only

This is the most restrictive option. When enabled, the survey results are not shared with any users. However, the response rate is always visible to users with access, including:

All Central Coordinators.
The project's Project Coordinators.
Local or Result Access Coordinators linked to groups within the survey.

Note: Survey participants cannot see survey response rates in My Effectory.

Option 2: Release to everyone

This option lets you share the survey results with all users with access at once. This includes:

Coordinators linked to one or more groups within the survey, managed via the Results Access settings.
Participants who can access My Feedback (if enabled by your organization).

The Release to everyone option can be enabled either before or after survey results are calculated:

Before calculation: Results are automatically shared with all users as soon as calculations are complete. My Effectory will show an estimated release date based on the survey end date, but the actual release date may vary.
After calculation: Results are made available immediately to all users with access.

Option 3: Phased release to selected users

This is the default setting, meaning it is enabled by default for all newly created surveys. It enables you to release the survey results in phases that you can tailor to your organization's needs by selecting specific users and release dates.

Default access

When enabling Phased release to selected users, My Effectory will automatically generate a phase called Default access, which includes:

The survey creator.
All Central Coordinators.
The project's Project Coordinators.

These users gain access to the survey results by default as soon as the calculations are complete. However, the Default access phase is fully customizable: you can adjust the release date and the number of users included, or remove the phase altogether (you will find it back in the suggested phases if you change your mind).

Note: Any Central or Project Coordinators added to your survey later on are automatically added to this phase, if in use. No manual intervention is needed to share the results with them!

By default, users who gain access to the survey results through this phase are not notified. Would you like notification e-mails to be sent out? Simply click on the three-dot icon next to the phase name, select Edit, and then tick the Send e-mail notification box in the pop-up window.

Creating a new phase

You can create additional release phases by clicking + Add phase. For each new phase, you can determine:

The name of the phase.
The release date (which must come after the survey closing date).
Whether or not e-mail notifications should be sent out.
The users that should be included.

Note: Custom phases are exclusive to coordinators! Survey participants gain access to My Feedback at once based on the date set in the Participants phase (see next section).

Suggested phases

When creating a new phase, My Effectory suggests some pre-defined phases:

All remaining users with access: Includes any coordinators with access not included in other phases. This release phase must always come after any other phases.
Participants: Includes all participants who have access to My Feedback. This phase will only be available if your organization uses My Feedback.
Default access: If this phase has been removed from the survey's active phases, it will be back here. It includes the survey creator, all Central Coordinators, and the project's Project Coordinators.

Editing a phase

You can edit phases as long as their release dates are in the future. To do so:

Open the Results Release settings.
Click the three-dot icon next to the right phase.
Select Edit.

> A pop-up window will appear where you can adjust the phase's name, release date, and notification settings.

If you wish to add or remove users from a phase instead, click on the phase name: the overview of all current users included in the phase will appear alongside a search bar you can use to add more users.

Note: Editing the users included in the Participants and All remaining users with access phases is not possible!

Removing a phase

You may remove any phases as long as they are still in the future. To do so:

Open the Results Release settings.
Click the three dots next to the right phase.
Select Remove phase.
Confirm by clicking Remove phase in the pop-up window.

Note: In some instances, users from a deleted phase may be moved to other phases. My Effectory will notify you and provide a detailed overview if this happens.

Survey extensions

When extending a survey, phases are not automatically updated. You must manually adjust the dates of previously configured phases to ensure the release of the results and notifications are correctly scheduled.

If the dates are not adjusted, access for all the coordinators or participants that belong to phases in the past is automatically granted, and e-mail notifications are sent immediately once the calculation of the results is complete.

Changing the results release settings

You may switch between settings by selecting a different option from the Results release side panel. When doing so, some business rules apply:

Changing your setting to Response rate only will erase any previously configured phases.
Once groups have been granted access to the results, reverting to Response rate only is no longer possible.
Changing your setting to Release to everyone after the survey calculations have been completed will immediately release the survey results to all users with access. If in use, e-mail notifications are sent with a delay of 15 minutes.

Revoking results access: You cannot revoke access to a survey's results by changing your Results release settings. You can grant or revoke access rights for your survey from the Results access settings only.

E-mail notifications to view the results

If e-mail notifications are enabled, users are automatically notified shortly (~15 minutes) after the survey results are available for them. You can configure this setting per phase:

Open the Results Release settings.
Click the three dots next to the right phase.
Select Edit.
Use the Send e-mail notification box to adjust the setting for the current phase.

If the e-mail notifications are enabled, once the results are calculated and the scheduled date arrives, participants and (selected groups of) coordinators gain access to the survey results and are notified via e-mail accordingly.

Warning messages

My Effectory may display information or warning messages about your result release schedules:

Results are still being calculated: The calculations are in progress. Once they are completed successfully, the results will be ready to be released when the release date arrives.
Results are delayed due to a pending calculation: The release of results is delayed because the calculation is still pending.

We recommend reaching out to our Helpdesk to investigate the issue and initiate a new calculation process. Once the calculation is finalized, the survey results will be ready for release.
E-mail notifications failed - Results are released: Although the release date for the results has arrived and the calculations were successful, notification e-mails could not be sent for technical reasons. The results, however, are available and can be accessed by logging onto My Effectory.

If you encounter this issue, please get in touch with our Helpdesk for assistance. Our team will investigate the matter and ensure that new notification e-mails are promptly rescheduled.