--- title: Workflow Steps: Survey slug: workflow-steps-survey createdAt: 2026-09-11T08:15:25.015Z --- A **Survey** step in Ashby People Workflows sends an automated survey to a specified recipient at a defined point in your workflow, enabling you to collect structured data or feedback. Recipients can include an employee, their manager, a buddy, or any other stakeholder defined in the workflow. This article covers how to add and configure a Survey step, including recipients, notifications, and survey form setup. For guidance on setting the step's delay, filters, and dependencies, see [Configure your Workflow Steps](docId:58jSO5IfDvlsM2Ld-Bb7p). :::hint{type="warning"} Ashby's People Ops module is currently available through restricted early access. The following documentation is provided for design partners participating in that program. ::: # Permissions and access To add a Survey step, you need view and edit access to the workflow. Your permission set grants this access to either all workflows or specific workflows. :::hint{type="info"} Learn more about Ashby's People Ops permission sets: [Configure Permission Sets](docId:7apvU1qei2QWWO4SL6UOI). ::: # Adding a Survey step Navigate to Ashby's People Ops module and complete the following steps: 1. Navigate to **Workflows** 2. Open the workflow, select `Edit Workflow Template`, then select `Add Step` in the appropriate section. 3. Select `Survey` from the step type dropdown. 4. Configure the recipient, notification settings, sender, due date, and survey form as described below. 5. Set the step's delay, filter, and dependencies. See [Configure your Workflow Steps](docId:58jSO5IfDvlsM2Ld-Bb7p) for details. 6. Publish your changes. See [Publishing Workflow Updates](docId:2FhDHLP6NBxYng5UXlpSE) for details. ![Screenshot of the Add Step panel in the People Ops workflow editor.](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/0p8tQ--ZZOxRtkVp6Qr-e/xPOD9DEjGe0m0jCtY-wHb_screenshot2026-08-12at54433pm.png) # Configuring the Survey step ## Recipient Set who receives the survey: the new hire, a workflow role, or a specific employee or user account. If the step lives in the new hire profile completion section of the workflow, the recipient is always the new hire and can't be changed. If you assign a survey to a group role, such as IT, every member of that role receives the survey on their task list, but only one person needs to mark it complete for it to clear from everyone's list. If the same survey needs to be completed by more than one person, create separate steps rather than relying on a single shared task. ## Notify immediately `Notify Immediately?` controls whether the assignee gets a standalone notification the moment the step is assigned, or whether it appears silently on their task list. - **Enabled:** The assignee receives a notification with a hyperlink directing the assignee to the survey step within their **Ashby People Ops** task list as soon as the step's delay and dependencies are met. - **Disabled:** The task appears on the assignee's task list right away, and the assignee also receives it in the weekly **People Ops** digest email, sent every Wednesday, along with any other outstanding tasks. Enable `Notify Immediately?` for assignees who receive relatively few tasks and aren't otherwise monitoring their task list, such as hiring managers or IT team members. Consider leaving it disabled for assignees like People Ops Coordinators, who may receive many tasks across every employee and don't need an individual notification for each one. If several tasks land on the same assignee at once, consider sending one email or Slack message directing them to their [task list](https://app.ashbyhq.com/people-ops/home/tasks) instead of notifying them for every individual task. :::hint{type="info"} When `Notify Immediately?` is enabled, you can choose to deliver the notification by email, Slack, or SMS (where enabled for your organization). When it's disabled, the task only appears on the task list and in the weekly digest, so no delivery channel applies. ::: ## Sender The **Sender** field sets who the task appears to come from when `Notify Immediately?` is enabled: your organization, or a specific person or workflow role. When `Notify Immediately?` is disabled, the weekly **People Ops** digest email includes the survey rather than an individual notification, so the sender field doesn't affect delivery in that case. Selecting a sender controls sender tokens. Any token referencing the sender resolves to the user you select, so a message that opens with `{{Sender First Name}}` reads as though it came from that person, even if it doesn't go out via a notification channel. ## Due date Set a due date relative to a reference point, such as the new hire's start date. The due date is primarily for visibility, helping you identify overdue tasks in reporting and on the task list. ## Message template The title serves as the email subject line when Ashby delivers the task by email, or as the task name on the assignee's task list. Use **Instructions** to describe exactly what the assignee needs to complete, and include tokens to pull in relevant details, such as the new hire's name, team, or shipping address collected earlier in the workflow. The email editor supports the following features: - Text formatting - Code lines and blocks - Numbered and bulleted lists - Hyperlinks - Substitution tokens - Write with AI (more on this at [AI Content Assistant](docId\:gVifM7N4yBa4cYPjJxx4Q)) ### Add substitution tokens Substitution tokens allow you to pull information about the workflow enrollee into the title and instructions. To add substitution tokens, click the `T` icon in the toolbar next to the title line or below the instructions body. From here, you can search for the specific token you need. ![Screenshot of the substitution token selector in the message template toolbar — update with descriptive alt text](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/0p8tQ--ZZOxRtkVp6Qr-e/bOnfVi6bm78vkPTljGed7_screenshot2026-08-12at72712pm.png) ## Building the survey form Each question you add to a survey step uses a question type that controls how the recipient answers it and how Ashby stores the response. To add a question, select `Add Question`, then choose a type from the list. A survey step supports the following question types: - **Short Answer:** A single line of unformatted text. - **Long Unformatted Answer:** Multiple lines of unformatted text. - **Long Formattable Answer:** Multiple lines of formatted text, including bold, italics, and lists. - **Phone:** Only domestic or international phone numbers. - **Email:** Only valid email addresses. Can be used to collect any email address. - **Employee's email:** Sets the employee's work email. You can add this question only once per form. - **Multiple Choice:** Select a single option. - **Checkboxes:** Select multiple options. - **Date:** Only dates selected through a date picker. - **Yes/No:** Yes, no, or, if the question is not required, no answer. - **Number:** Only integers (for example, 1 or -3) or decimals (for example, 1.5 or -0.34). - **Currency:** An amount and a currency code. - **Score:** Select a value between one and four. - **Linear Rating:** Select a value between zero and 10. - **File:** Upload a single file. - **URL:** A clickable link to any website. - **Employee's location:** Sets the employee's location. You can add this question only once per form. - **Other location:** A location with a custom name, such as "What is your hometown?" This question type does not link to the candidate's location. - **Assign a workflow role:** Select the user to assign to the employee workflow role. ![Screenshot of the survey configuration popover.](https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/0p8tQ--ZZOxRtkVp6Qr-e/_p_gTaWXXi-l8OH_GycRA_screenshot2026-08-25at92804am.png) # Using survey responses elsewhere in your workflow Survey responses become available as tokens you can reference in later steps, for example, pulling a tracking number collected in a survey into a follow-up email, or pulling a role assignment, such as an onboarding buddy selected via survey, into a downstream step's recipient field. You can also set survey completion as a dependency on a later step, ensuring the workflow waits until the information is collected before continuing. You can also use responses from surveys as filters on downstream steps. In these cases, we recommend setting a dependency on the survey being completed alongside a filter that uses a response collected in the survey. # FAQs ### What does the `Pending Submission` status mean on a survey step? `Pending Submission` is specific to Survey steps and means the survey has been assigned and is awaiting a response from the recipient. (The equivalent status for a Task step is `Pending Completion`.) If a step has an unmet dependency or is scheduled to trigger in the future, it shows `Future Step` until that dependency resolves or the future date is met. ### Can I assign a workflow role using a survey response? Yes. Use the `Assign Workflow Role` question type to assign a workflow role, such as having a hiring manager select an onboarding buddy who then becomes the assignee on later steps.