Survey templates are the foundation for every employee survey in Workable's HRIS, from annual engagement surveys to 30-day check-ins for new hires. As an HR Admin, you can create, edit, and duplicate survey templates directly from Settings, using the same question builder as performance review templates. This article walks through building a survey template, choosing question types, and managing existing templates.
Survey templates are located in the Employee management section of Settings, grouped with performance review templates. To get started, go to Settings and select Survey templates.
Note: Access to Survey templates requires the Create and manage survey templates permission. Building, editing, and duplicating survey templates are available on every plan, even before you add Employee Surveys. Only creating, editing, duplicating, and opening an actual survey requires the Premier & Enterprise HR plan or the Performance & Engagement add-on on the Standard plan.
Default survey templates
Three default templates are available, covering the most common feedback moments across the employee lifecycle:
- Employee engagement survey: an annual or semi-annual survey covering morale and engagement
- Pulse survey: a short, frequent check-in on a specific topic
- Onboarding survey: post-onboarding feedback that captures how new hires are settling in.
Use a default template as a starting point and adapt it to your needs, or build a new template from scratch.
Creating a survey template
To build a new survey template:
- Select Add template in the top right of the Survey templates list.
- Enter a name for the template, for example "Annual engagement survey" or "30-day check-in".
- Add one or more sections to organize your questions into logical groups.
- Add questions to each section, choosing from the following question types:
- Paragraph: an open-text response
- Star rating: a star-based rating scale
- Numeric rating: a numeric rating scale
- Custom rating: a rating scale you define yourself
- Single choice: one answer selected from a list of options
-
Multiple choice: one or more answers selected from a list of options
- Apply scoring to individual questions where relevant. In survey templates, scoring is set at the question level.
- Once your template is ready, select Save.
Your new template appears in the Survey templates list, along with the number of sections and questions it contains.
Managing survey templates
Use the search bar to find a specific template. Select the three-dot menu next to a template to access the following options:
Edit a template
Update a template's name or content at any time from the Survey templates list.
Duplicate a template
Create a copy of an existing template so you can quickly build a variation without starting from scratch.
Delete a template
Permanently remove a template you no longer need.
Preview a template
Take a moment to preview the template and see how it will look for employees when they begin filling it out. The preview is read-only, so any changes you make while previewing won't be saved.
Note: A template that is in use by an active survey, or that has already been used in a closed survey, cannot be deleted. This protects historical survey data.
Once your templates are ready, use them to create a survey from the Employee Survey Hub.