# Set up onboarding and work anniversary surveys

> Create survey → Onboarding survey or Work anniversary survey sets up a survey that goes to each employee by itself, a set number of days after they join or on a work anniversary. You set it up once, and it keeps running until you end it.

- Product: Pulse › Lifecycle and exit surveys
- Who can do this: Super admins, HR admins
- Plan: Pulse
- Where: Admin dashboard
- Last checked: 15 Oct 2026
- Web page: https://www.vantagecircle.com/en/help/pulse/lifecycle-and-exit-surveys/set-up-onboarding-and-anniversary-surveys/

Onboarding and work anniversary surveys pick their own employees. Each one is tied to a milestone, such as 30 days after joining or a 1-year anniversary, and goes to every employee who reaches it. You set it up once.

## Before you start

- Pulse uses the joining date in each employee's record. Employees without one never get these surveys. Check your employee details in your company account first.
- Each milestone can have only one live survey. To replace one, end the old survey first.

## Steps

1. Go to **Pulse → Surveys → Create survey**. Choose **Onboarding survey** or **Work anniversary survey**, then select **Continue**.
2. **Template.** Select one or more templates. Each one is sent at its own milestone, so picking three onboarding templates sets up three surveys. Choose **Create your own** instead to start with no questions.
   - If a template has no milestone of its own, you're asked "When should employees receive this survey?". Choose an **Employee milestone**.
   - Milestones that already have a live survey can't be chosen.
3. **Questions & invitation.** There's one card for each milestone.
   - If you chose **Create your own**, first answer "How long after joining is it sent?" or "Which work anniversary is it sent on?". Pick 7, 15, 30, 45, 60 or 90 days, or 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 or 10 years. To use another, type it in **Or enter another day** (1 to 330 days) or **Or enter another year** (1 to 100 years).
   - Give each survey a **Survey name**. It must not match another survey's name.
   - Choose the **Response privacy**. **Anonymous** is selected by default.
   - Check the **Questions**. Use **Edit questions** to add or remove some. Changes apply only to this survey, not the template.
   - Check the **Invitation**. Under **Start from**, pick the email to start with, or choose one under **Or a saved invitation**. Then edit the **Subject**, **Message** and **Email sign-off**. Saved invitations come from **Pulse → Emails**.
4. **Review & launch.** Check each survey. Select **Edit** to go back to a section. Then select **Create survey**, or **Create 3 surveys** if you set up three milestones.

## What happens next

Each milestone becomes its own survey in **Pulse → Surveys**, with the type **Lifecycle** and the schedule **Automated**.

Every day, Pulse finds the employees who reach each milestone that day. They get the survey at 10:00 AM in their own time zone, with all its questions at once. Employees who passed the milestone before you created the survey don't get it.

The survey keeps running until you end it. Use **End survey** from the survey's menu to stop future sends. That also frees the milestone for a new survey. **Pause survey** stops new employees getting it until you resume it. See [Manage running surveys](/en/help/pulse/run-surveys/manage-running-surveys/).

You can't change a lifecycle survey's questions or invitation after it's created. To change them, end it and set up a new one for the same milestone.

For results by milestone and tenure, see the [Read results](/en/help/pulse/read-results/) hub.

## About privacy

Lifecycle surveys don't have the 5-employee minimum that Pulse surveys have. In a small company, only one or two people may reach a milestone on the same day. Even in an **Anonymous** survey, their answers and comments could be easy to place. Think about this before you add open questions.

If your company allows anonymous surveys only, **Names shown** is greyed out. The card says "Your company allows anonymous surveys only."

## If something goes wrong

**"Each selected employee milestone already has an active survey. End an existing survey or choose a different milestone."**
Every milestone you picked is taken. End the existing survey in **Pulse → Surveys**, or go **Back to templates** and choose another milestone.

**"These milestones will not be created because they already have an active survey:"**
Some of your milestones are taken. The others are still set up. The message names the survey that holds each taken milestone.

**"This survey name is already in use. Enter a different name."**
Another survey has that name. Survey names must be unique.

**"Enter a survey name for…", "Add at least one question to…" or "Enter an invitation subject for…"**
One of the cards isn't finished. The message names the milestone. Open that card and fill in what's missing.