This year was exceptionally rich in terms of changes in our system. Work has progressed in many areas: from new functionalities and improvements in the user interface to server infrastructure and security issues.
Today, we present a list of 10 major changes in 2018.
1. 360 HR surveys
Frankly speaking, HR surveys might have been done with us even earlier, but what has changed is the method of distributing surveys and managing relations between employees. You do not have to worry that the survey system will make the subordinate of your boss. Yeah, I know It’s quite a nice prospect, but trust me, it is better when surveys reach the right people.
From now it’s on SurveyLab to guard 360 feedback research from distribution errors. Of course, together with the correctly collected questionnaires, the reporting module had to be expanded. To see the complete employee’s assessment, just click on the link to his report. No more manual combining of results in Excel. Everything is clearly presented in reports. You can find more information in our help.
2. Flexible survey logic
If you need something more than just two questions in the survey, you will certainly be interested in our logic module. Animating of the questionnaire is the key to correct results in case you conduct multi-stage research.
This year, our logic has become not only more user-friendly but, above all, more flexible. The effects you can achieve are limited only by your imagination.
3. Carry forward type of question
That is a dynamic building of questions based on the answers given in the previous question. Every researcher who got complaints from respondents like “why do you ask me about how often do I eat chocolate when in the previous question I told you that I do not eat chocolate” knows how useful this type of question is.
4. Ability to compare reports
Have you ever wondered why people so willingly compare to each other? This question probably will not find a full answer here, but the context may be a clue. Some data becomes useful only in context. And so the information that I earn X dollars is not important to anyone until they know that my neighbor earns twice as much in the same job. Do you understand what I mean?
While comparing reports to each other, it is much easier for us to draw conclusions, catch anomalies, and process large amounts of data.
5. Dashboards
They say that what you see depends on where you stand. Sometimes it is better to look a little wider at some things. If I had to compare dashboards to something, it would probably be a panoramic photo. A well-structured Dashboard enables you to see at a glance if something is wrong in the results of your research. This way you will also receive information if everything is fine in your company.
6. Report filters
They are now simpler and more flexible. Copy your report, add the appropriate filters to it, and check your report periodically to see only the things you are interested in.
7. Survey invitations
Sometimes you have to ask more than once to complete a questionnaire, because someone forgot, because someone was on leave, because the SMS is more direct than an email. At the end don’t forget to send a “Thank you” message.
8. Security
We have disabled the option of distributing encrypted surveys. You used to need it on older devices, but today there is no such need and therefore we increase the level of security of your surveys. All surveys are encrypted using the TLS 1.2 protocol and TLS 1.3 will appear soon.
In addition, we implemented the HSTS mechanism. We encrypt and digitally sign (DKIM mechanism) all invitations to surveys sent to your clients and employees.
To make email communication secure, we also introduced SPF and DMARC. Besides, we check for updates for our servers daily and then implement them.
9. Speed
This is what tigers like the most. 🙂 We have included this year’s CDN service based on SSD disks, which are scattered around 21 points around the world. Our performance specialists do their best to make your surveys responsive and therefore more willingly completed. So this year we managed to reduce the time of loading the survey twice.
10. Mobile App
In times when there are applications for everything, we definitely had to launch our app for collecting answers. Essential detail – our application also works offline (yes, yes without an Internet connection).
All you need is to log in when you have access to the internet and you are ready to go offline. All surveys are saved on the device and when you have access to the Internet, all results will synchronize with the server. Someone might think “What for? The internet is everywhere!”. Well, not really.
Here are some examples: the plane, basement, Africa, even in the United States it could be difficult to access the internet. So our mobile application is the answer to your real needs.
Summarizing
As you can see, a lot of things happened in 2018. I provided you only with the most important changes here, but there are also a lot of smaller improvements and corrections. Well, our changelog contains over 400 points.
What will the new year bring us? We certainly do not slow down the pace. The first major change will be simplifying the survey design. The change, which you’ve been asking for and which you can expect already in January.