Polls

Polls is mizuiro’s group decision and response tool. The core mechanic is always the same: someone poses a question, people respond, results are tallied. The poll type determines the form that takes.

• Who can use it: configurable. By default, managers and supervisors can create polls; all tiers can respond to polls they’re invited to.
• Where: Sidebar → Polls.
• Default: off. Enable it at Settings → Modules.

mizuiro includes eight poll types. You choose the type when creating a poll, and the form adjusts to match.

The general-purpose type. A question with two or more options, and respondents pick one (or multiple, if you allow it). Good for decisions like “which charity should we support this quarter?” or “what colour should the new office walls be?”

Sign-up for a group meal. Respondents pick a category (appetizer, main, side dish, dessert, drinks, plates and utensils, or other) and describe what they’re bringing. Results are grouped by category so you can see at a glance who’s covering mains, who’s doubling up on dessert, and where the gaps are. If Kikubari is enabled, allergy and dietary information for the group is surfaced on the poll page so nothing gets missed when people are deciding what to bring.

Vote on where to eat. You add the restaurant options; respondents vote for one or more. Results show the vote count for each option. Each restaurant can carry its own website and menu link so people can look before they vote. If Kikubari is enabled, dietary and allergy information for the group appears on the poll page so the choice can take everyone’s needs into account.

Collect individual orders for a group meal from a specific restaurant. Respondents type their order as free text. The result is a clean name-and-order list, ready to hand off to whoever’s placing the order - no chasing people down or trying to remember who wanted what. If Kikubari is enabled, allergy information is surfaced so the person ordering can double-check before confirming.

Find a time that works for everyone. You pick the dates and a time window, then choose which one-hour slots to offer. Respondents tick every slot that works for them. A colour-coded grid shows the overlap at a glance, with a Best slot line naming the time the most people can make.

A simple attendance check for events. Respondents pick Yes, No, or Maybe. If your event involves food, tick the Includes food checkbox when creating the poll - this surfaces Kikubari allergy and dietary information for attendees on the poll page. You can also let people say they’re bringing a plus-one. Results show who’s coming and who isn’t, by name, because you need to know who’s actually coming.

Prioritize multiple options. Respondents drag the choices into their order of preference - favourite at the top - rather than picking just one. Results are weighted scores - first place gets the most points, second gets fewer, and so on - with ties broken by most first-place votes. Useful when “pick one” is too blunt and you want to understand the shape of the group’s preferences, beyond the winner alone.

Collect preferences and personal details directly from employees - allergies, dietary restrictions, food preferences, coffee order, shirt size, and more. Unlike a regular poll, responses here write directly to each person’s Kikubari profile automatically, so you’re building a useful record of your team’s preferences without any manual data entry. It’s also the only way employees can contribute to their own Kikubari profile, since profile editing is otherwise a manager and supervisor action.

1. Go to Sidebar → Polls.
2. Click Add poll.
3. Select a poll type. The form adjusts to that type.
4. Fill in the title and options (or questions, depending on the type).
5. Set the audience: company-wide, specific teams, or specific people.
6. Optionally set a response deadline. When the deadline passes, the poll closes automatically.
7. Configure the notification options - whether to email invitees, send a reminder about a day (24 hours) before the deadline to people who haven’t voted yet, and whether to email results when the poll closes.
8. Click Create poll.

Respondents get a bell notification immediately. If email invitations are turned on, they also get an email.

Open the poll and fill in the form. While the poll is open, you can come back and change your answer: the form shows what you said last time, and submitting again replaces it rather than adding a second vote.

For potluck, restaurant, team lunch, and food-related RSVP polls, mizuiro automatically shows a food safety panel at the top of the poll page when Kikubari is also enabled. This panel surfaces any allergies and dietary restrictions on file for the people in the poll audience, so you don’t have to remember to check separately.

Warning

The food safety panel doesn’t replace asking. Kikubari profiles are only as current as the last time someone updated them. If you’re planning an event with food and allergies are a concern, the panel is a good starting point, but a quick check with your team is always worthwhile.

By default, tallied results are private - only you (the person running the poll) and managers can see them. Tick Show results to voters on the poll form when you want everyone who responded to see the tally too. Pick the right one before publishing: turning it on after the fact is fine, turning it off after people have already seen the results isn’t.

A few types override this setting:

• Potluck and team lunch: responses are always visible, because the reason they exist is knowing who’s bringing what and who ordered what.
• RSVP: responses are always visible, because you need to know who’s coming.
• Get to know you: answers are never visible to other respondents, because they’re personal data. Each person sees their own. Managers see everyone’s, and supervisors see the answers from people on their teams - the same people whose Kikubari profiles they can already open. That holds even for the person running the poll: an employee who creates a get to know you poll sees their own answers, not their coworkers'.

You can close a poll manually at any time from the poll page. If Email results on close is ticked, everyone who responded gets a bell notification (and an email, if poll emails are on) saying the results are in, with a link to the poll. That’s only sent when voters can actually see the results, so it never points someone at a page that says they can’t.

You can reopen a closed poll. If its deadline had already passed, reopening clears the deadline (otherwise it would close again within the hour); edit the poll to set a new one. Moving a deadline also re-arms the reminder email for the new date.

Closed polls are archived automatically after 90 days. They’re still there, under Archived polls at the bottom of the list; they just stay out of the main list.

Settings → Polls

Who can create polls

Choose whether only managers, managers and supervisors, or everyone can create new polls. Defaults to managers and supervisors.

Default audience for new polls

Company-wide, or one of the narrower audiences, pre-selected on every new poll. Creators can still change it per poll.

Email defaults

Pre-fills the email notification toggles (invite, reminder, results on close) when creating a new poll. These are per-poll settings that creators can still override; the defaults just save a few clicks.

Widget colour

Sets the accent colour for the Polls dashboard widget.

Can I change the options after a poll has been created?

Yes, until the first response comes in. Click Edit on the poll page to add, rename, or remove options. Once anyone has responded, the options are locked, because changing them would lose or misattribute the votes already in. You can still edit the title, description, event details, deadline, and settings.

What happens when a deadline passes?

The poll closes automatically. If you ticked Email results on close, respondents hear that the results are in. Late respondents see “this poll is no longer accepting responses” when they open it.

Can employees see each other’s responses to a get to know you poll?

No. Get to know you poll responses are never visible to other respondents. Managers see everyone’s answers; supervisors see the answers from people on their teams.

Does the get to know you poll replace what’s already in someone’s Kikubari profile?

New responses add to existing profile data - they don’t wipe it. If someone already has “vegetarian” in their dietary restrictions and responds to a new poll confirming it, the data stays consistent. If they update their response to remove something, the old value is replaced with the new one.

Note

How to read this: ✓ can see it, ✗ can’t, ○ depends on a setting or condition (explained under the table). As a manager, you always see everything in your company.

• ○ Supervisor (polls): in shared scope, supervisors see all polls. In assigned scope, supervisors see company-wide polls, polls targeting their teams, polls they were individually invited to, and polls they created.
• ○ Employee (polls): employees see company-wide polls, polls targeting their teams, polls they were individually invited to, and polls they created.
• ○ Results: each poll has a “results visible” toggle set by the creator. When on, everyone who can see the poll sees the full results with individual responses. When off, only you and the poll creator can see results. Potluck, team lunch, and RSVP responses are always visible; get to know you answers never are (see Results and visibility above).
• ○ Manage: the person who created a poll can edit, close, reopen, and archive it. Supervisors and employees can only create polls if Who can create polls allows it.
• Allergies and dietary needs in the food safety panel are shown by name only to people who could already see those profiles (managers, and supervisors for their own teams). Everyone else, including an employee organising the poll, sees the list of needs without names.
• Who can create polls is a separate setting: managers only, managers and supervisors, or everyone.