15 Questions to ask in a Candidate Experience Survey

With more companies and new entrepreneurs launching their startups, the job market is turning to be more candidate-driven. This means that candidates today have options to choose or even apply for a job of their choice from; when it comes to job hunting. 

For many businesses and HR teams, finding the right talent, and assessing and acquiring it is the best way to take the company forward. To ensure that you attract the right pool of talent you need to focus on how you can provide the best candidate experience. Based on the Candidate Experience Report: 76% of candidates indicated that a positive experience influenced their decision to accept a job offer. 52% of job seekers turned down job offers because of a poor candidate experience. 60% of candidates mentioned posting a positive online review after having a good experience.

In simple terms, candidate experience is how an applicant perceives a company throughout the hiring process. This includes all the steps starting from reading the job description to follow-up communications after being selected for the job position. Each step during the hiring process can influence the candidate’s experience. Hence, it is vital to focus on a candidate experience survey that can provide plenty of insights and feedback.

Why Take Candidate Experience Surveys?

HR teams and professionals in various companies today rely on candidate experience survey questions to analyze how they can improve their hiring process to attract the best talent. 

However, there are many other reasons why HR teams and professionals ask candidate experience questions.

#1 Know How Candidates Perceive Your Brand

While you might be working hard to improve your brand awareness HR teams need to know how candidates perceive the brand when applying for the job position. Asking the right candidate experience survey questions would allow HR teams to know more about brand awareness and perception. These perceptions evolve from the organization’s overall culture and what employees say about the brand. HR teams can find out more about how the candidates knew about the company and the job opportunities at the company. Also, they can ask why they are applying for a specific job role in the company.

#2 Refining the Recruitment Process

While most brands and companies have structured interview patterns these interviews and hiring processes are not perfect. For many HR teams, a recruitment feedback survey is a way to refine the recruitment process and iron out some of the steps that drive away potential candidates. Asking these questions would offer more transparency and encourage clear communication that will affect the overall candidate experience. Asking post-interview survey questions would help you know if the recruitment team was organized, consistent and supportive.

#3 Improving the HR Team

While taking interviews and going through the hiring process, the HR team needs to work like a collective force that offers a consistent experience to all job candidates. However, this is tough to maintain because different HR professionals and hiring managers would handle it differently.

This can seriously impact the overall candidate experience. With the right recruitment survey for candidates, you can learn more about how to coach your hiring team and focus on areas of concern to improve the hiring process to consistently hire the best talent. 

Check – How to enhance Candidate Experience Post Offer

15 Candidate Experience Survey Questions

The general idea behind asking candidate experience survey questions is to improve and optimize recruitment strategies and processes. However, you must ask the right questions that can make it easier for you to evaluate your HR team, managers, and hiring policies and processes. 

Here are 15 candidate experience survey questions examples that you can use for your company.

#1 Was the recruiter polite?

#2 Was the recruiter friendly?

#3 Was the recruiter professional?

#4 Was the recruiter knowledgeable about the job?

#5 Did the recruiter describe to you all the job details and requirements?

#6 Did the recruiter listen to and answer your questions?

#7 Did you get answers to all the questions you asked?

#8 Was the application form-filling process easy to follow?

#9 Did the career site/page answer most of your questions?

#10 What are your inputs about the company career site/page?

#11 Did the recruiter guide you through the hiring process?

#12 Were you kept in the loop throughout the selection process?

#13 Are you satisfied with the recruitment and hiring process?

#14 Would you recommend the company to others?

#15 What are the 3 things you would change to improve the hiring process?

How to Use Candidate Experience Survey Results?

While there are many ways to design a candidate experience survey you need to know how you can use the results the right way. If you are unsure about how to frame the right questions you can make use of the candidate experience survey template that would help you design the right questions. 

#1 Use the Right HR Analytics Software

To ensure that you can have the right information on the candidate satisfaction survey you need to have the best tools and programs that can help you structure and assimilate all the data. This is important because you want to collate all the survey data and details to help you with an overall picture. 

#2 Analyze the Results

When you have the results of the recruitment questionnaire for candidates you need to analyze and evaluate the results. For this, you need to be open about what candidates mentioned about their experiences. Take the feedback positively and learn more about the areas of concern and what needs to improve to provide a better candidate experience. 

#3 Expand Your Recruitment Methods

With the right candidate experience survey, you can find insights into how you can improve your recruitment methods. This is the key to growing a business and acquiring the best talent. The questionnaire would highlight certain areas where you can improve your hiring process and make it easier to follow for the candidates.

#4 Manage Your Hiring Team

A recruitment feedback survey is a great tool to improve your hiring team. This allows you to understand how you can provide training to your hiring managers and structure the entire hiring process making it a more consistent experience for all the candidates.

Conclusion

Finding the right candidates and acquiring the best talent is a constant challenge for most HR teams. However, with the help of a candidate experience survey, you can crack the code and improve your hiring process. This would allow you to make your hiring team more efficient and consistent in identifying the best talent, nurturing, guiding, and assisting them through the hiring process, and acquiring the best candidates to transform them into employees. 

With the right questions, you can optimize the use of a candidate experience survey and ensure that you make the most of the hiring process. You can also make necessary changes to the recruitment process making it a more seamless and consistent experience for the candidates. 

Recommended Reads
Creating great candidate experience with culture & data
How to create a Candidate Journey Map
Make your Candidate Experience Memorable & Captivating

FAQs on Candidate Experience Survey