How do I add my own questions?

Under the Questionnaire tab of you survey, you can add your own questions. You can either associate the questions with one of the standard scales, or you can create your own custom scales (menu: My Survey, Scales).

You can add questions to Personal/Professional/Reseller surveys. You cannot add custom questions to the free surveys.

There are too many questions, can I delete some?

Yes, you can remove all the questions you like. They are removed from the survey in the Questions tab. The questions are not deleted permanently and you can add hem later if you cannot delete questions from free surveys.

How can I use my own skills/competencies model?

Skills and competencies are measured using Parameters. You add/modify parameters under your survey's Reports tab.

You can either add parameters by selecting single questions or simply by pasting the text of the questions into a text area.

Each question can be assigned a weight between 25% and 100%, since some questions might contribute less to a certain skill than others.

Parameters are part of reporting and can be added and modified at any time during the survey. If you make changes to your parameters they online reports will reflect this right away.

Are the responses anonymous?

Yes, the survey manager cannot see who has answered what. There is no "backdoor" for this and Atlas will not supply this information to anyone. However, be aware that as with any survey, true anonymity lies in numbers. If you are the only manager giving feedback, it will be obvious who gave the feedback.

How do I pay?

You can pay with credit card or a PayPal account. We use PayPal for credit card processing and we do not store credit card numbers of any kind on our servers. For larger orders (+500 €) we can send you an invoice and you can pay by international bank transfer.

How can I import participants from our own system?

You need to export all the participants in one comma-separated (csv) file with the following structure:

1. The name of the subject
2. The email address of the subject
3. The relationship of the respondent to the subject
4. The name of the respondent
5. The email address of the respondent

Example:

John Smith, js@example.com, manager, Julia Arden, ja@example.com

You can read more about the import format under the Paticipants/Import tab of your survey

You can only import participants in Professional and Reseller surveys

Further you have the option of letting the subjects add their own respondents, minimizing the workload for the survey manager. Read more here.

Is it possible to obtain an extended contract or confidentiality agreement?

Yes of course. Just contact us.

Can I request a feature?

Sure. We are always very interested in hearing ideas for new features. In some cases we will like the feature so much, it will be implemented as soon as possible, free of charge. Or it could be that we like the idea, but it's too complex or only benefits a narrow band of people. It his case, we can still implement the feature for you for a fee.

So just contact us with any idea or feature request you have, we'll work something out.

How much do you charge for custom features?

Well, it depends.. Is this feature only for you, or can it be reused be other customers? How much complexity is added to the system (we like to keep it clean!). Is it a big feature or a small one?

In any case, we will give you fair offer, either based on an hourly rate or fixed price.

I changed the text of my skills/parameters, but the graphs are not updated?

The graphs are probably cached by your web browser. Reload the page with the Shift key pressed down will clear most browsers' image cache.

How can I customize the reports?

Professional and Reseller reports can be customized by choosing, ordering and configuring standard report elements. You can use basic HTML to format the reports to your needs. See here for more.

How can I make one "Standard" survey from which to copy questions?

When creating new surveys you have to option of copying questions and skills from another of your existing surveys, from the Atlas standard surveys, or you can choose to add questions at a later time.

Why is my free Atlas 360 deleted?

We delete the "unused" free Atlas 360 surveys that has not been answered after 14 days. Once a survey has been answered it will never be deleted.

If your survey has been deleted due to inactivity, please create a new survey.

How do I track the progress of the respondents?

There are a couple of ways you can track which of the respondents have answered the questionnaires:

Participants tab
Go the participants tab, select Respondents. The Submission Progress column shows the individual progress for each respondent:

• Not started
• Started
• Completed

Send emails tab
Go to Send Emails tab, select the Respondent Reminder email. Click "Go to Send Page".

• All respondents that have not yet answered the questionnaire are now selected and you can send them a friendly reminder.
• You can fine-tune the list of recipients and alter the email text before sending.

If I upload/import a new participant list, does existing participants get overwritten?

No. Only the full name and the respondent role associated with a certain email address are updated. No response data can be deleted by uploading a participant list.

How do I resend invitations to people who have lost them?

You fine-tune the list of recipients when sending a reminder.

• Go the the Send Emails tab
• Select subject/respondent reminder
• Click "Go to send page..." DO NOT click the send button yet.
• If you don't see the recipients, click the orange link "Recipients (number)"
• Fine-tune the recipient list. You can select/deselect all in the upper left corner of the table
• If needed, modify the header and body of the email
• Click "Send Emails to Selected"

Why is a respondent link is not working?

When respondents are deleted after they have been sent an invitation, there is no way to recall that invitation.

Respondents clicking a non-working link in the mail are met with this page, telling them what have happened and that they can safely ignore the email.

How to I add my company logo?

You can use your company logo for Professional and Reseller surveys.

Add the logo under My Account -> Branding. Make sure it's not larger than 200 pixels wide by 150 pixels tall, otherwise it will be resized by the system and not look that good.

The logo is visible when answering the questionnaires and in the reports.

How are the standard report values calculated?

The parameters are calculated by a weighted average of all answers. The base of the calculation is different, depending on what report and which table you look at. Please look at the documentation here.

Explaining the standard report

This is an individual report, so all numbers concern respondents for this individual only.

In Skill Overview, click the Details button. Stress Management (3.5) is the average of all people answering for this subject, including self.

In Skills by Role, Stress Management: C+ (3.5) is the 3.5 from above, the total average. Self (3.8) is the average of the subjects own answers to the 7 questions comprising "Stress Management". Manager, Customer etc. are the values for these groups.

Spread and Gap to Self are important. Spread says something about how much people agree about the answers. Small spread means most people think this way. Large spread means there is some controversy. A small gap means that the subject is realistic and knows where she stands. A large gap means that the subject might not be so much in touch with the respondents as she thinks.

What does the % figure means when creating parameters?

The percentages are for fine tuning. You can just allot 100% to the questions belonging to the parameter. Setting to 0% removes the questions again.

Questionnaries have been aswered. What are the next steps?

Create a custom report (if you've used custom questions)

Define your parameters
You need to group your questions into high-level concepts like "Communication skills" or "Team work". As you go along, you can see example reports, by generating example data.
Since you have used custom questions, this process is not automatic. (We have pre-defined Parameters for our standard survey). Visual graphs are only generated for parameters, but the reports do contain the numeric data for all questions.

Create a custom report
Once you have defined your parameters, you must create a custom report to use the parameters.

Please also see the documentation for parameters and reports.

Once you are satisfied with how the reports look, you can send a mail to the subjects with a link and password to their personal report.

Which 360 survey plan is for me?

• Free Our 100% free option for individuals that want the easiest personal 360 degree evaluation on the web.
• Personal For individuals that want to ask their own questions, create their own reports.
• Professional For companies that wish to survey many people at once.
• Reseller For HR consulting agencies that needs to run a branded survey for a client

What is the Spread?

The Spread is the standard deviation (a widely used statistical function) of all answers, not including self-answers.

• A small spread indicates that the respondents agree on the answers. The value of the parameter is what the respondents agree on.
• A medium spread indicates that the respondents mostly agree on the answers, but not everyone thinks the same.
• A large spread indicates that the respondents does not agree on the answers. The value of the parameter is a simplification of what respondents think. In case of a large spread, the Details section should be expanded.

Expanding the "Details" section shows how exactly answers are distributed.

Definition of what is small/medium/large depends dynamically on the questions that are included in the parameter.

The formula for calculating spread is found here on WikiPedia

What is Gap to Self?

Gap to Self is the difference between the average of the self-scoring and the rest of the respondents.

• A small gap means that the subject is realistic and in touch with how her colleagues percieves her.
• A medium gap means that there is a small difference in what the person thinks herself and what the colleagues think. It is normal that individuals rank themselves higher than others do, so no need to concern for medium gaps.
• A large gap means that there is a large difference between self-perception and what others think. The person could be over- or underestimating her own performance, and maybe need a reality check. In case of a large Gap, the Details section should be expanded.

Definition of what is small/medium/large depends dynamically on the questions that are included in the parameter.

What's the difference between invitation and reminder?

Invitation:
This mail is being sent to all respondents that has not yet received an invitation.

Reminder:
This mail is being sent to all respondents that has not yet answered, but have already received an invitation or reminder.

The content of the invitation and reminder as the same, except "Reminder: " is prepended to the email subject of the reminder mail. You can always edit the text of the emails before you send them out.