Configuring & Managing Conversations

Contents

• Enabling Conversations
• Anytime Conversations
• Configuring Anytime Conversations
  • Step 1: Enter a conversation name
  • Step 2: Decide on a format
  • Step 3: Permissions
  • Step 4: Notifications
  • Step 5 & 6: Direct report & manager questions
  • Step 7: Deploy conversation
• Scheduled Conversations
• Configuring Scheduled Conversations
  • Step 1: Name this conversation
  • Step 2: Select Participants
  • Step 3: Decide on a format
  • Step 4: Permissions
  • Step 5 & 6: Direct report & manager questions
  • Step 7: Notifications
  • Step 8: Schedule conversation cycles
  • Step 9: Conversation deployment
• Manager Changes (Taking Ownership)
• Requests to Edit: Submission, Approval & Denial
• Export A Conversation
• Reporting
• Downloadable Resources
• Conversation AI Assist
• FAQs

Enabling Conversations

Enable conversations for your organization by going to:

Admin → Program Management → Conversations → Settings

There are two types of Conversations:

• Anytime Conversations
• Scheduled Conversations

Anytime Conversations

Anytime conversations allow managers and their direct reports to select a template and have a 1-on-1 at the time of their choosing. The default due date of anytime conversation is 28 days from launch (as determined by the conversation template). This means the conversation will display in the participants' 'Current' conversations list for 28 days, then move to their 'Past' conversations list:

Configuring Anytime Conversations

Step 1: Enter a conversation name

The description is a great opportunity to give participants some context around the conversation as well as to provide links to any relevant company resources. 

Note: The conversation title will be visible to all participants.

Although we highly recommend that you add a description when creating the template, the description can be added or edited after the template is deployed, and while conversations using the template are in progress. Changes to the description will be visible immediately after clicking "Save."

• Request employees to confirm they met: Enabling this option ensures that the conversation includes a 'Confirm Meeting' button that either participant can click after sharing responses. If this option is enabled, the conversation will not be recognized as complete in the Betterworks user interface or in conversation reports until one of the participants has clicked the button. When the 'Confirm Meeting' button is clicked, it will turn into a confirmation message ('Your meeting is complete') next to a ticked checkbox. If the 'Confirm Meeting' button is clicked by mistake, the participant can simply untick the box and the confirmation message will revert to its previous state as a 'Confirm Meeting' button.  
  
  
• Enable employees to create goals from inside this conversation: Enabling this option will all participants to create goals without leaving the conversation. This is ideal if you know that the associated conversation will result in action items. 
  
  
• Only managers can initiate this template: Enabling this option ensures that only a manager can trigger the conversation from their end. Direct reports won't see that template in the drop-down menu when clicking the 'Create' button in the Conversation module. If all of the anytime conversation templates are configured so that only managers can initiate the conversation, direct reports will not see the 'Create' button in their Conversation module at all. 

Note: Conversation names have a 64-character limit. 

Step 2: Decide on a format

Conversations can be one-directional or bi-directional. One-directional conversations are great for self-reflection. 

Step 3: Permissions

• No access: Conversations are not accessible.
  
  
• Can view: Conversation responses for the manager and direct report will be visible once shared.
  
  
• Can edit: Managers' responses can be viewed and edited before being shared. Direct reports' responses can be viewed before being shared, but not edited. 

Step 4: Notifications

Determine if you'd like conversation participants to be informed that the conversation has begun.

Note: If system notifications are completely disabled, this notification will not be sent out.

Steps 5 & 6: Direct report & manager questions

Questions can be optional or mandatory. They can also be cloned by clicking the double-screen icon to the right of the question:

• Question: Character limit of 512.
• Paragraph: Open text.
  Paragraph answers can be configured to have a hard word limit that is less than the default 10,000-character limit.
  
  
• Scale: 1-2 through 1-25.
  
  
• Star Rating: Up to 5 stars.
  Historically, the rating only went up to 4 stars. Reporting for conversations completed before the rating change will not be impacted and still have a maximum of 4 stars. However, to avoid confusion when comparing historical and current reports, the maximum rating will be indicated (i.e. '# out of 4 stars' or '# out of 5 stars').
  
  
• Multi-select: Up to 25 options and up to 250 characters per option.

Step 7: Deploy conversation

The default number of days that participants have to complete a conversation is 28 days, but this can be changed. The minimum is 1 day and the maximum is 300 days.

Toggle deployment on and 'Save'. If the conversation template has not been deployed it will not be available to users. 

Note: If deployment is toggled off while the conversations using that template are in progress, all related conversation data, including responses, will be lost. This applies to the data in the Conversations module as well as in conversation reports.

Scheduled Conversations

Allows administrators to create a template and launch it to their entire organization or a predefined list to take place within a certain timeframe.

Configuring Scheduled Conversations

Step 1: Name this conversation

The description is a great opportunity to give participants some context around the conversation as well as to provide links to any relevant company resources. Changes made to the name and/or description of a conversation template that has a cycle in progress will be applied immediately and pushed out to all participants. 

Note: The conversation title will be visible to all participants.

 

Although we highly recommend that you add a description when creating the template, the description can be added or edited after the template is deployed, and while a cycle is in progress. Changes to the description will be visible immediately after clicking "Save."

Enable employees to create goals from inside this conversation: Enabling this option will all participants to create goals without leaving the conversation. This is ideal if you know that the associated conversation will result in action items. 

Note: Conversation names have a 64-character limit.

Step 2: Select participants

When it comes to conversations in your organization, you may have varying needs across departments and employees.

Each department may need to have separate conversations based on their goals. Each manager may need to have a conversation with their director about their team. All new hires may need to have a career planning conversation with their manager

Include all employees:

• This option will deploy the conversation to all users in your organization's Betterworks instance including those who may be added to the application while the cycle is in progress (i.e. new hire).

Specific departments or groups:

• Departments — If a department contains sub-departments (i.e. the child department to a parent department), users in each of those sub-departments will be included in the conversation. For more information about departments as it pertains to user management, see this article.
  
  
• Groups — These are predefined by a Super Admin and based on attributes that users share (i.e. location). For more information about groups as it pertains to user management, see this article.
  
  
• Custom participant list — Upload a CSV file. Feel free to use this simple template. Your file should only include the email addresses of the direct reports who will be participating. The Betterworks application will automatically pair these direct reports with their respective managers based on the reporting structure defined by user management.

Allow managers to invite additional contributors: 

• This is a great option for organizations where project leads are common and need to provide input on a direct report's performance.
• Managers can invite up to 3 contributors to the conversation with their direct report.
• Contributors will complete the same set of questions as the manager. If confidential questions are enabled, additional contributors will only be asked the first set of manager questions and not the confidential questions.
  
• Direct reports will not know the identity of contributors unless 'Allow contributors to view direct reports' responses' is also enabled. If that option is also enabled, the direct report will be informed via a note at the top of their conversation form (i.e. 'After you share, [Contributor(s)] will be able to see your answers.'). Direct reports will not be able to view the contributors' responses.
• Managers can see the additional contributors within the conversation module, but direct reports will not see the contributors listed in the module itself. However, if 'Allow contributors to view direct reports' responses' is enabled, direct reports will be able to view the contributors when they click into the conversation.
• The additional contributor option is not available for conversations where only the direct report responds.

Allow contributors to view other contributors' responses:

• Leaving this option blank will hide Contributor A's responses from Contributor B and vice versa which can help prevent the responses of one contributor from impacting others. 
• Enabling this option will not only show Contributor A's responses to Contributor B and vice versa, but both contributors will be able to view the manager's responses. However, additional contributors will not be able to view manager responses to confidential questions

Allow contributors to view direct reports' responses:

• Leaving this option blank will hide the direct reports' response from contributors.
• If the ‘Allow contributors to view Direct Reports responses’ option isn't enabled, and a direct report was recently assigned to a new manager who was previously a contributor with this direct report, they will not be able to see this past conversation because the system still sees them as a contributor for this past conversation and doesn't acknowledge their new role as a manager.
  

Note: Administrators cannot add contributors.

Step 3: Decide on a format

Conversations can be one-directional or bi-directional. One-directional conversations are great for self-reflection.

Enable confidential questions: The responses to these questions are only visible to Super Admins and HR Admins (scope applied), not to the other conversation participant. If a new manager has taken ownership of a conversation, they will not be able to view the previous manager's confidential answers. A manager's confidential questions can be used for calibration. Also, although the conversation template's description can be added and/or edited while a cycle is in progress, the confidential questions description cannot be. Updating the confidential question description while a cycle is in progress will not change the description for the participants in the cycle, but rather for the next cycle.

Note: Additional contributors cannot view confidential questions or responses. 

Step 4: Permissions

Note: Template permissions can be changed upward (i.e. changed from 'Can view' to 'Can edit') while a conversation using the template is in progress. 

Permissions allow administrators and/or skip level managers to access the conversations that were created using the template. With the applicable permissions, skip level managers can view the conversations of managers who report to them. This helps give leaders in an organization a better idea of what types of conversations are happening on the teams that they manage, where they can better support the managers who report to them, and wow they can best steer the organization toward better performance. 

• No access: Conversations are not accessible.
  
  
• Can view: Conversation responses for the managers and direct reports will be visible once shared.
  
  
• Can edit: Managers' responses can be viewed and edited before being shared. Direct reports' responses can be viewed before being shared, but not edited. 

Skip level managers can only view and/or edit confidential question responses for managers who report directly to them (one level down). If skip level managers are granted edit access, they will be able to edit manager responses before and after the responses have been shared by the manager. Alternatively, if skip level managers are only granted view access (and the cycle has an Admin Review Period for manager questions) they will not able to view responses until the review period is over and the manager shares. To learn more about how skip level managers can view and/or edit conversations, see this article. 

Administrators can view and/or edit conversations by going to:

Admin → Program Management → Conversations → Settings → Review Conversations

Administrators cannot access the responses of the other participant in their own conversation(s) before those responses are shared and they cannot view the responses to confidential questions in their conversations at all. For example, John is a Super Admin who has a conversation with his manager Jane. John will not be able to view his conversation with Jane via the Admin module until Jane has shared responses. Also, John will not be able to see Jane's responses to confidential questions at all.

Note: HR Admins with the scope to view data based on the location of a user cannot view the conversations between two participants if the manager resides in a different country than the direct report. By default, HR Admin must have scope over both employees and managers to have visibility. However, this can be changed so that HR Admins have access to a conversation if the direct report is in scope only and not the manager. If this is of interest to you, reach out to your Program Architect, Customer Success Program, or Support Account Manager. 

Steps 5 & 6: Direct report & manager questions

Questions can be optional or mandatory. They can also be cloned by clicking the double-screen icon to the right of the question:

• Question: Character limit of 512. 
• Paragraph: Open text.
  Paragraph answers can be configured to have a hard word limit that is less than the default 10,000-character limit.
  
  
• Scale: 1-2 through 1-25.
  
  
• Star Rating: Up to 5 stars.
  Historically, the rating only went up to 4 stars. Reporting for conversations completed before the rating change will not be impacted and still have a maximum of 4 stars. However, to avoid confusion when comparing historical and current reports, the maximum rating will be indicated (i.e. '# out of 4 stars' or '# out of 5 stars').
  
  
• Multi-select: Up to 25 options and up to 250 characters per option.

Step 7: Notifications

Note: If system notifications are completely disabled, conversation notifications will not be sent out.

Step 8: Schedule conversation cycles

A cycle must be set during which the conversation will run. If you set a conversation cycle to start on the same day, it will launch at the top of the following hour. However, the 'Conversation start' notification (referenced in the section above) will not go out. Also, the end date cannot be the same as the start date.

Note: If you would like a conversation cycle to start the same day, contact your Customer Success Manager or Program Architect as they need to do this on your behalf. 

• Request employees to confirm they met: Enabling this option will ensure that the conversation includes a 'Confirm Meeting' button that either participant can click after sharing responses. If this option is enabled, the conversation will not be recognized as complete in the Betterworks user interface or in conversation reports until one of the participants has clicked the button. When the 'Confirm Meeting' button is clicked, it turns into a confirmation message ('Your meeting is complete') beside a ticked checkbox. If the 'Confirm Meeting' button was clicked by accident, the participant can simply untick the box and the confirmation message will revert to its previous state as a 'Confirm Meeting' button.

Note: Once the conversation cycle is finished, the conversation will be locked. If participants haven't confirmed their meeting, the conversation won't be marked as 'complete', and the data won't appear in your reports. It's essential to make sure this confirmation is done before the conversation end date.

• Set the number of days unlocked questions will remain editable: This allows you to set a grace period where participants who miss the original deadline can still submit responses. You can end a grace period while a conversation cycle is in progress by calculating the # of days from the current date to the cycle end date, then entering that value in the grace period field and saving. Additional contributors can complete their responses during the grace period (unless the manager has already shared their responses).

Additional lock options

• All answers lock when shared: Enabling this option will ensure that participants cannot edit their responses after they've shared them unless they submit a request to edit.
  
  
• Some answers lock on an earlier date: Enabling this option will allow you to lock individual questions before others (i.e. setting direct report questions to lock before manager questions). The lock date can be extended while the conversation cycle is still active. If a request to edit was approved beforehand, and the new lock date is sooner than the new response deadline, responses will be due on the new lock date. Users with approved requests will still see the old response deadline, but they should disregard it and share their responses by the new lock date (if it's earlier than the new response deadline). 
  

Note: When configuring additional lock options, confidential questions will always be excluded. 

Additional Admin Review Period options:

This advanced option can help facilitate a more formal review process (i.e. a performance review cycle) and may not be needed for a recurring check-in or other, more frequent conversation types. Enabling this option replaces the 'Share' button with a 'Submit' button so that conversation participants can submit their responses for review. Participants who submit their responses by the Submit Deadline can still make changes during the review period. They'll just need to click the 'Save Answers' button.

The administrators will then be able to see those changes from within the Admin module. Participants who do not submit their responses by the Submit Deadline can still add responses during the Admin Review Period. However, those responses will not be visible to the administrators from within the Admin module. The administrators will need to generate a Conversation Answers Report to view the participant's late responses. For more information about administrator reports, see this article.

After the Review Deadline has passed, participants will need to click the 'Share' button by the cycle end date for the other participant in the conversation to see their responses. Unless a grace period has been added, participants who do not click the 'Share' button by the conversation cycle's end date will be locked out of the conversation and need to submit a request to edit. Super Admins can edit the Submit Deadline and/or the Review Deadline while the conversation cycle is in progress as long as the respective dates have not already passed. However, an Admin Review Period cannot be added to a conversation cycle that doesn't already have one. If a conversation has additional contributors, they will be able to share their responses with the manager before and during the Admin Review Period.

Note: When configuring the Admin Review Period options, confidential questions will always be excluded. Also, you can change the cycle end date, 'Submit Deadline' of an Admin Review Period, etc. while a conversation cycle is in progress as long the date has not yet passed. For example, if the cycle end date is 01/31/2024 and you'd like to change it to 02/29/2024, you'll have until 11:59 PM (your organization's timezone) on 01/31/2024 to change the date.

Step 9: Conversation deployment

Toggle deployment on and 'Save'. If the conversation template has not been deployed it will not be available to users when the start date arrives.

Note: If deployment is toggled off while the conversations using that template are in progress, all related conversation data, including responses, will be lost. This applies to the data in the Conversations module as well as in conversation reports.

Manager Change (Taking Ownership)

Note: For a new manager to take ownership of a scheduled conversation, the new reporting structure must be defined via user management. 

In some cases, a conversation participant may be assigned to a new manager during a scheduled conversation cycle. When this occurs, the new manager can take ownership of the conversation by going to: 

1. Conversations

2. Clicking on the direct report's name in the left-side panel

3. Opening the applicable conversation

4. Answering 'Yes' to the ownership prompt

Administrators cannot complete these steps on behalf of the new manager.

Note: Depending on the configuration of system notifications, the new manager may receive a notification prompting them to take ownership. They can then take ownership as long as the previous manager didn't share responses and the conversation cycle hasn't ended. If the conversation cycle was configured with a grace period, managers can take ownership during the grace period. The new manager can view, edit, and even delete responses that were saved, but not shared by the previous manager. However, all responses to confidential questions (completed by the previous manager) will be cleared, whether they were shared or not. Also note that the previous manager may receive a notification of the changes made if they are still an active user.

Requests to Edit: Submission, Approval & Denial

If a participant has missed the deadline to share their part of a conversation, they'll need to submit a request to edit by going to their Conversations module, selecting their conversation, and clicking the settings icon at the top-right corner of the conversation form. This will trigger the drop-down menu from which they can select 'Request to edit': 

This action will add the participant's name to the list of requests that are sent via automated email to Super Admins and HR Admins (scope applied) at approximately 5 PM (your organization's time zone). Clicking the 'Manage Request(s)' button in the email will redirect you to the edit request page (Admin → Program Management → Conversations → Settings → Requests to edit). From there, you can select 'Allow' (approve) or 'Deny':

If a request is approved, the participant will receive an automated email informing them of the decision. They'll then have an additional 7 days to complete their part of the conversation. If the request is denied, no email will be sent given that an administrator will likely reach out to that participant directly and discuss the policy and/or reason.

However, if you'd prefer not to receive these notifications and will instead check the Request to edit tab daily, you can disable the notifications by going to:

Admin → Program Management → System Notifications → Conversation Edit Requests

Export A Conversation

Administrators with Super Admin or HR Admin permissions (scope applied), can export a conversation from Betterworks by going to:

Admin → Program Management → Conversations → Settings → Review Conversations

Once you've located and opened the applicable conversation, click the print icon at the top-right corner of the conversation form:

 

Reporting

To view Conversation reports, go to:

Admin → Program Management → Reporting → Reports → Conversations

You'll be able to choose between 2 reports:

• Conversation Adoption Report
• Conversation Answers Report

Downloadable Resources

• Admin Settings for Conversations

Conversation AI Assist

Conversation AI Assist leverages an API integration with OpenAI ChatGPT version 3.5 turbo. The outputs and explanations are those provided by this integration. However, it is an opt-in-only feature. Your organization will not automatically be enrolled. Please contact your Program Architect or Customer Success Manager to enable Conversation AI Assist. For more information about the feature, see this article. 

FAQs

What if a user is on leave when a scheduled conversation launches? 

If the scheduled conversation template is configured to include all employees (or, if the user meets the participant criteria), they will be included as participants. 

When do scheduled conversation cycles launch? 

By default, scheduled conversation cycles launch at approximately 12 midnight (your organization's time zone) on the cycle start date. This means the conversation will be available in the participants' Conversations module from that point forward. You can find/change your organization's time zone by going to:

Admin → Platform Configuration → Operational Settings → Time Zone

What time do scheduled conversation cycles end?

By default, scheduled conversation cycles end on the cycle end date at approximately 11.59 pm (your organization's time zone). 

What happens if a user who has no manager is included as a participant in a scheduled conversation cycle?

A conversation will not be created for them. However, if the user is assigned to a manager during the conversation cycle, a conversation will be created at the top of the following hour. 

If I have the Admin Review Period enabled, what time do the Submit Deadline and Review Deadline take effect?

The Submit Deadline and the Review Deadline are 11:59 PM (your organization's time zone) of the date that you enter in the respective fields. This means the next phase of the scheduled conversation cycle begins at 12 midnight (your organization's time zone) the following day. You can find/change your organization's time zone by going to:

Admin → Platform Configuration → Operational Settings → Time Zone

Can I add a participant(s) to a scheduled conversation cycle that is already in progress?

New users are automatically added to a cycle if they meet the eligibility requirements configured in the conversation template. However, if the participant list was determined by a CSV upload, a Super Admin will need to upload a new CSV that includes all existing participants as well as the new participant(s). If the participant list was determined by a department or group, the participant needs to be added to the applicable department or group. The user's conversation will launch at the top of the next hour.

Note: Participants can only be added until the cycle end date (not during the grace period).

Are additional contributor responses included in conversation reports?

Yes. Additional contributor responses are included in the Conversation Answers Report. 

Can additional contributors respond via the Betterworks mobile app?

Not at this time. 

Does the conversation cycle's grace period apply to additional contributors?

Additional contributors must be invited by the manager before the cycle end date. Additional contributors can respond to questions through the end of the grace period. Our recommendation is for managers to invite additional contributors and encourage them to respond to questions before the cycle end date. This way, the manager has through the end of the grace period to complete and share their own responses.

Can I change the permissions of a conversation that is already in progress?

Yes. Conversation permissions can be changed at any time. 

If the administrator or skip level manager permissions are changed on an anytime conversation template, will it impact previous conversations that used the template?

No. These permissions will only be applied to future conversations and those that are in progress.

Can a conversation cycle be extended after deployment?

Yes, but only if the original date (or grace period) has not yet passed. 

Are there character limits for questions and answers?

• Questions: 512 characters
• Answers: 10,000 characters
• Notes: 4,094 characters

Note: Paragraph answers can be configured to have a hard word limit that is less than 10,000 characters.  

How do I clone a template?

Super Admins can clone a template by going to:

Admin → Program management → Conversations → Settings → [Select template] → [Click the double-screen icon under the 'Actions' column]

Note: Please be sure to review the template and change any necessary sections (i.e. template name) before saving it.

Are anytime conversations included on the Performance Snapshot detailed print view?

Yes. Anytime Conversations are included in the detailed print view. To learn more about the Performance Snapshot, see this article.

What will happen if I delete a conversation template?

Assuming that a conversation cycle using that template isn't in progress: 

1. Any conversations that used that template will still be viewable from within the Conversation module by users, managers, skip level managers (if granted access), Super Admins, and HR Admins (if granted access and scope applied). 
2. Administrator reports for that particular template will no longer be accessible.
3. Conversation responses will no longer appear in the Performance Snapshot. However, the conversation will still be counted in the quarterly totals. Also, a link to view the conversation will still appear when clicking on the total number.

Can I modify the dates in a scheduled conversation template after it goes live?

Yes! Once the template is live, you can adjust all dates within the template—except the start date—provided the dates haven’t passed. Please note that changing dates may impact your template notifications.

Note: Please note that changing dates may impact your template notifications.

Why can't the skip-level manager see the conversation responses?

The skip-level manager may not be able to view the conversation responses for two possible reasons:

1. They don’t have the necessary access enabled (see the image below for reference).
2. The responses haven’t been shared yet. Both the direct report and the manager must share their conversation responses before the skip-level manager can view them.

If the issue persists, ensure the correct access settings are enabled or check if both parties have shared their responses.