Hiring staff is an extremely complex task, requiring a delicate balance between the need for talent and the fear of choosing the wrong candidate, all within time and budgetary constraints. A hiring mistake can cost up to 6 months of potential salary, not to mention wasted time and resources. This is why employers tend to look for ways to optimize their hiring procedures, ensuring they lock onto talent as quickly as possible. Further complicating the issue is the worry that competitors may poach potential candidates while the employer is still studying the candidates’ qualifications. For these reasons, fine tuning your candidate experience is a necessary part of the hiring process, and candidate experience surveys can help.
Survey questionnaires help HR professionals and employers get to know their candidates better. They also provide invaluable feedback for the organization’s HR procedures, helping improve and revamp hiring practices.
Another important reason for experience survey questions is gauging the company or organization’s reputation. Bad candidate experiences may seem banal but can affect the company’s standing with the public. Unsatisfied candidates don’t tend to internalize their disaffection. They can spread the word, damaging the company’s reputation as well as influencing potential talent and steering them away.
When formulating a candidate experience survey, we recommend that you keep it as short as possible. Six to twelve questions should be the maximum. This should ensure that candidates fill out the questionnaire and that you receive useful information.
Provide the questionnaire to all candidates, whether they’ve been hired or not. You can learn much more from angry criticism than from the praise of successful applicants.
So, what are the best kinds of questions to ask? Read on…
Use open questions:
When formulating an experience survey, it’s important to start with open questions. Consider: “How would you describe your hiring experience at (company name)?”
An open question like this will allow the candidate to express their opinion in their own words and be honest.
Rating questions:
These are important because they help provide a clear picture of the experience. An example might be: how do you rate your hiring experience at (company name)? Rate from 0 to 5 with (0) being very unsatisfactory and (5)being excellent.
Ask about referrals:
How did you find the position? Where you referred by someone? Did you find us online? Knowing how the candidate found the position can help you discover your strengths and weaknesses when seeking candidates.
If the candidate was referred by someone else, this could mean that your organization has a good reputation and you’re attracting talent by word of mouth. If few candidates are finding you online, it may also mean that you would benefit from revisiting your social media presence.
A great follow-up question is: “Would you refer an acquaintance to us?”
Suggestions:
End your questionnaire by asking how to improve your hiring process. You could ask: “do you have any suggestions to improve our recruitment practices?” Answers can offer you a fresh perspective from the candidate’s point of view and help steer you in the right direction.
A candidate experience survey is a fairly simple way to obtain valuable information on how your hiring process is performing. It is an invaluable tool that will not only help improve your HR practices and brand perception, but also help improve the quality of your business by ensuring that you get the right talent.