Risk surveys

Surveys collect risk information from employees, partners, or the public. Authorized managers can analyze responses and convert them into draft risks.

Survey lifecycle

  • Draft — editable and not accepting live responses.
  • Active — available to its configured audience during the active period.
  • Closed — no longer accepting responses, but can be reopened.
  • Archived — retained for reference.

Draft surveys can be cloned or deleted.

Create a survey

  1. Open Risk Surveys and select Create.
  2. Enter a name, description, respondent instructions, and contact email.
  3. Choose an active period: a number of days, specific dates, or until manually closed.
  4. Choose the audience:
  5. Anonymous — no sign-in or identity required.
  6. External with identity — name and email are required.
  7. Application users only — sign-in is required and roles can be targeted.
  8. Add questions and arrange them in the intended order.
  9. For each question, set its label, help text, required status, and field type.
  10. Preview the survey.
  11. Activate it when ready and copy the public link when applicable.

Image needed: Survey builder showing audience, active period, question ordering, Preview, and Activate.

Question types include short text, long text, number, yes/no, single choice, multiple choice, date, and rating.

Survey administration requires Risk.ManageSurveys. Converting responses into risks also requires Risk.Submit.

Before you activate

  • Choice questions need at least two different options. A single- or multiple-choice question with fewer shows respondents no answer box at all, and two identical options record the same answer whichever is picked. Options that differ only in spacing count as duplicates. You can save a half-built question and return to it; RiskVault stops you only when you activate, and names the questions that need options.
  • Save before you activate. If you select Activate Survey with unsaved edits, RiskVault won't publish a version missing them. You get a reminder with a Save changes button, and can activate straight after.
  • A failed save counts as unsaved. If a save returns a list of errors, your edits exist only on screen and the stored survey is the older version. RiskVault blocks activation with the same reminder and warns you before you navigate away. Correct what's listed, save successfully, then activate.

Review responses

Open the survey's Responses area to review individual submissions, organize groups, filter, view question analysis, and export CSV or Excel. Preview and respondent views use the same basic form presentation.

Convert responses into risks

  1. Select one response or a response group.
  2. Choose the conversion action.
  3. Preview the proposed drafts and duplicate warnings.
  4. Review titles and mapped data.
  5. Resolve exact duplicates or decide whether an authorized forced creation is appropriate.
  6. Confirm conversion.
  7. Open the created drafts from the Risk Register and complete normal intake.

RiskVault records the source submission and prevents the same submission from being converted twice.

Each resulting draft lists the answers in its description as a readable list, followed by a line saying which survey the response came from, when it was submitted, and by whom. The risk is tagged survey-converted so you can find these drafts later; the link back to the original submission is kept on the record itself rather than as extra tags.

If the response named a risk owner who isn't set up to own risks yet (see Who can be a risk owner), the conversion still goes ahead. It leaves the owner blank and adds a note to the description. Assign a suitable owner once the risk has been submitted.