# Choose who gets a survey

> On the Employees step of Create survey, send the survey to all eligible employees, to employees matching conditions such as Department is Sales, or to specific people. Every survey needs at least 5 employees.

- Product: Pulse › Run 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/run-surveys/choose-who-gets-a-survey/

You choose who gets a survey on the **Employees** step of **Create survey**. Under **Who receives this survey?** there are three tabs: **All eligible employees**, **Employees matching conditions** and **Specific employees**. Whichever you pick, the survey has to reach at least 5 employees.

## All eligible employees

Everyone who can take Pulse surveys gets it. The step shows how many that is, for example "2,140 eligible employees". People who join later are added to the survey automatically after it starts.

Employees whose invitation to Vantage Circle is still pending aren't included, so they aren't counted either.

## Employees matching conditions

Use this to survey one department, country or other group.

1. Select **Employees matching conditions**, then **Add a condition**.
2. In the row that starts with **Where**, choose an attribute, such as **Department**.
3. Under **Choose values**, tick one or more values, such as **Sales**. The count updates as you go.
4. To narrow it further, select **Add a condition** again. Extra rows start with **And**.

![The Employees matching conditions tab with one condition, Where Department is Sales, and 285 eligible employees](https://cdn.vantagecircle.com/image/upload/q_auto,f_auto/v1792133385/vantagecircle/help-centre/en/pulse/run-surveys/survey-audience-conditions-0d3a4f2d3f8eb1b4.png)

How the rules combine:

- Values in one row are "or". **Department** is **Sales** and **Support** reaches both teams.
- Separate rows are "and". **Department** is **Sales** and **Country** is **India** reaches only the Sales team in India.
- Each attribute can be used once.

The attributes you can pick come from your employee records. Pulse can offer **Department**, **Sub Department**, **Business Unit**, **Grade Group**, **Employee Type**, **Country**, **City**, **Gender**, **Tenure**, **Reporting Manager**, **Designation**, **HRBP**, **HOD**, **Confirmation Status** and **Marital Status**. An attribute only shows if at least one employee has a value for it. If you can't find a group, check the employee details in your company account first.

People who join later and match your conditions are added to the survey automatically.

You can't exclude a group. To leave one department out, add a **Department** condition and tick every department except that one.

## Specific employees

Use this for a named list.

- **Find employees** searches by name, email or department. Pick each person from the results.
- Or upload a CSV. It needs one column named **email**, with one work email address per row. The file must be a .csv of 2 MB or less. **Download sample CSV** gives you the layout.

The CSV upload hides once you've picked people from search. It comes back if you remove them all.

Pulse checks the addresses against your employees once there are at least 5 of them. Addresses that don't match anyone are listed as "did not match an employee and will be skipped".

This list is fixed. People who join later aren't added.

## Before you continue

The **Response privacy** choice sits on the same step, below the employees. See [Create a Pulse survey](/en/help/pulse/run-surveys/create-a-pulse-survey/) for what **Anonymous** and **Names shown** mean.

If you made the survey with **Duplicate**, its employees aren't copied. The step says "Employees are not copied from" the original, and you choose them again.

## If something goes wrong

**"This audience is too small. A survey needs at least 5 employees so responses stay anonymous."**
Widen your conditions or add more people. The server checks this again when you launch, so a survey for fewer than 5 people can't be created.

**"Add at least one condition, or choose all eligible employees."**
You picked **Employees matching conditions** but haven't finished a row. Add a value, or switch tabs.

**"Finish the condition you started, or remove it."**
A row has an attribute but no values. Choose values, or remove the row with the cross.

**"No email addresses matched an employee."**
None of the addresses in your list belong to an employee in your company account. Check you used work email addresses.

**"Employee email addresses could not be checked. Try again."**
The check didn't finish. Wait a moment and continue again.