Businesses that would like to build a solid reputation in the labor market, buying them more opportunities to not only acquire top talent but also retain their top performers, have to pay attention to two fundamental factors in the recruitment process: Employee experience (EX) and candidate experience. Employee experience (EX) has a great impact on any organization, directly influencing multiple aspects of business and operation, such as productivity, employee engagement, turnover rates, etc. If EX can make or break your business from the inside, candidate experience can also do so from the outside. Simply put, if a company is not able to deliver a positive experience to their job applicants, they will hardly be able to win them over, regardless of how good their employment offer may be. With this in mind, it is essential for businesses to focus on creating a positive candidate experience and also to constantly strive to improve it. And an efficient survey is the most optimal way to study candidate satisfaction and get genuine insights at a fraction of the cost.
Candidate Experience Survey, What Is It?
A candidate survey or candidate experience survey is defined as a research study that is undertaken with the purpose of measuring how satisfied or dissatisfied job applicants are with the experience they had during the interview process. Anonymous feedback on such a survey can help businesses understand what aspects of their recruiting process entail improvements in order to make it more favorable for candidates.
Additionally, a candidate experience survey can also be used as a tool for employer brand. If the hiring team is able to deliver a great experience to its job seekers, it is more likely that word will spread and the business will be perceived in a positive light, which can attract more high-quality candidates in the future.
Why Include Candidate Experience Surveys in the Hiring Process?
Measuring candidate experience is the key to efficient recruitment and later employee engagement and satisfaction. Businesses, especially the large ones, may think they get the best hiring process in place, but the fact is human resources management is an ever-changing landscape. Without constant refinement, you will soon be left behind in the competition of the “war for talent.” Even worse, poor recruitment experience may result in more damage to your business sales and revenue.
How come? The case study of Virgin Media – a household brand – taught us a lesson the hard way. Each year, Virgen Media fails approximately 150,000 candidates, and 18% of them are the company’s existing customers. There is nothing to say if the company did not lose millions of pounds when a number of its customers, also the rejected candidates, turned back and canceled contracts with the company in 2015. Sincere to say, a bad hiring process not only harms a company’s reputation in the eyes of its candidates but also repels customers.
Identify and Correct Pain Points within the Candidate Journey
60% of job seekers are likely to abandon the recruitment process halfway when they find it too time-consuming and more complex than necessary. This is an alert for all hiring managers to technically assess their current procedures as well as their recruitment best practices. By surveying candidates, you are able to identify the areas of improvement so that you can make the necessary changes to reduce the dropout rate and increase candidate satisfaction right from the application process to the whole selection process. In other words, candidate surveys give you the basics to refine your recruitment funnel after each interview.
Boost Employer Brand
More than 80% of applicants would be willing to share their good candidate experience with their networks and peers. 82% of job seekers take employer brand and reputation into account, and 70.5% conduct their research into a company before submitting applications. Last but not least, 88% of candidates do not hesitate to re-apply for a company if they have a positive experience the first time.
This means a good candidate experience will reflect well on your company’s employer brand. On the flip side, poor recruitment experience may jeopardize it. Through candidate feedback, the hiring manager and team understand which key touch points make applicants have a positive perception of your company and which ones make them doubt their decision to work for you. This is the key to a successful Employer Value Proposition (EVP), greatly adding value to a strong employer brand. Keep in mind that a reputable employer brand can buy you advantages to attract top talent but also retain your top performers as well.
Attract More Referrals
Employee referral programs are one of the most effective recruiting strategies as they help you approach more potential talent who may not be actively seeking a new job. Candidates who have had great e experience during the recruitment process are more likely to refer someone they know to apply for an open position at your company, and so do your current employees. Survey results can help you identify the factors that turn candidates into promoters so that you can replicate those throughout your recruitment process.
Optimize Time-to-Hire
A positive candidate experience will result in lower time-to-hire as it will reduce the number of dropouts and increase the number of referrals. By using survey results to improve your recruitment process, you will be able to make it more efficient and save time on sourcing and screening qualified candidates. Additionally, you will also be able to make better hiring decisions as you will have an in-depth understanding of the skills and qualities your ideal candidate should possess compared to the entailments of the job description.
ROI on Your Recruitment Budget
Conducting an experience survey for candidates can help you assess the return on investment (ROI) of your recruitment budget. By understanding which parts of your recruitment process work well and which ones need improvement, you can spend your resources on the areas that will give you the biggest ROI. For example, if you find out that most of your dropouts happen during the interview stage, you can invest in training your interviewers to help them deliver a better experience to candidates.
Reduce Turnover Rates
What’s the connection between candidates’ experience and the turnover rates here? Well, it all starts with the hiring process. If your recruitment funnel is not up to par, you will end up hiring the wrong people for the job, which will lead to a high turnover rate. On the other hand, if you’re able to deliver a great experience to candidates and hire the right people for the job, they are more likely to stay with your company for a longer period of time. By conducting regular candidate surveys, you can track any changes in turnover rates and identify the key areas that need improvement.
It’s Free
Why candidate surveys? Why not? Conducting a candidate survey is a win-win situation for both employers and job seekers. You can learn about the true feelings of your candidates and optimize how you are recruiting, and it is completely free of charge. Currently, there are a lot of online tools that enable users to create surveys easily for free. Google Forms is the most commonly used if you ask.
bravoSURVEYS – The Easiest Way to Craft a Great Candidate Experience Survey
Exceeding your expectations for a survey tool, bravoSURVEYS is a one-stop software for survey creation and customization. bravoSURVEYS does more than only craft a basic survey with questions and answers. It simplifies the features to the fullest to ensure users can build their customized surveys effortlessly. Also, beautiful designs and clear UI/UX make surveys easier for both surveyors and respondents.
Another advantage of bravoSURVEYS over other tools is the speed. This tool can help you build surveys in a flash and get results analyzed in minutes, collecting actionable data and high-quality information. More than only candidate experience, bravoSURVEYS facilitates surveying in any kind of field (education, healthcare, e-commerce, etc.) and serves any purpose, ranging from customer satisfaction, HR communication, and market research to marketing activities and more. All you need to do is to come up with a list of insightful candidate experience survey questions and get started. A little tip for a winning candidate survey is to combine open-ended questions and closed questions wisely to encourage respondents to speak their honest opinions. If you want “bravo surveys,” use bravoSURVEYS!
