Learning from the experiences of others can make a big difference, and that’s what this chapter is all about. We’ve collected some Candidate Experience survey best practices from Talent Acquisition experts who have successfully used feedback to improve their recruitment practices. We hope that their success stories will inspire you!
The Importance of Candidate Experience Surveys
Think of a Candidate Experience survey as your secret weapon for understanding how candidates truly feel about your hiring process. It's more than just a tailored questionnaire for those who have recently navigated your recruitment journey. It's a way for you to uncover the areas where your strategy might be lacking.
The goal of the survey is clear: to gather data that allows recruitment teams to level up their game. Candidate Experience surveys help identify specific areas needing improvement, for example, the interview process or application experience. It’s your chance to see the hiring process through the eyes of top talent, pinpointing what’s hitting the mark and what’s missing.
Measuring candidate satisfaction can provide valuable insights into the entire hiring journey. This includes everything from the initial contact with your company on the career page through the application, interview process and onboarding.
Providing positive Candidate Experience not only benefits the candidates but also can lead to:
- Improved offer acceptance rate
- More efficient hiring pipeline
- Better quality of hire
- A strengthened Employer Brand
HelloFresh, the world’s leading meal kit company, is known for putting their candidates and customers first. In a webinar with Starred, Greta Dubauskaite, Head of Global Talent Experience at HelloFresh, explained:
“We ask TA leads to keep everyone accountable around Candidate Experience. Good Candidate Experience equals a good Employer Brand. Even if someone didn’t get the job, they still should have a good perception of the brand. It is really important for us to leave that good long-lasting impression.”
Check out the first chapter of our ebook where we cover the basics of candidate surveys.
Best Practices for Candidate Experience Surveys
Now, let’s hear from the Talent Acquisition experts! Get ready to learn all of the best practices inspired by our customers' success stories. This section will cover:
- Crafting Effective Candidate Experience Survey Questions
- Becoming Data-Driven
- Creating a Positive Candidate Experience
- Improving Internal Alignment
1. Crafting Effective Candidate Experience Survey Questions
One of the most important aspects of crafting effective surveys is asking stage-specific questions to get a full view of the candidate's journey. The questions should be relevant to the steps your job applicants will take in your hiring process, as this will allow you to collect in-depth Candidate Experience data.
- Gorillas is an on-demand grocery delivery company who have succeeded in delivering a human-centric and data-driven Candidate Experience. Kateryna Myronenko, Candidate Experience Partner at Gorillas, shared her tips on asking the right questions in the surveys:
Ask Questions Based on Your Applicant Tracking System
Using the candidate's interactions with your ATS system as a starting point will allow you to understand the points of contact they will have. By being able to leverage Starred’s native ATS integration, Starred Connect, Gorillas measure 6 different touchpoints of their application process:
- Rejected after CV Screen
- Rejection after Peer/HM Interview
- Rejection after assessment
- Rejection after technical interview
- Final interview
- Withdrawn candidates
Utilize Both Quantitative and Qualitative Data
Kateryna highlights the importance of collecting quantitative data and allowing room for qualitative comments in the surveys. With the help of Starred's comment analysis, the comments are labeled into key themes, which allows them to discover the main topics candidates are discussing. This provides Gorillas with a complete picture of candidates' sentiments and helps identify concrete action points.
Read the full case with Gorillas to learn more about their journey.
Find more relevant tips in the following chapters:
- Chapter 4: Candidate Experience Survey Questions (+ Free Templates)
- Chapter 6: What to Ask in an After-Interview Survey?
2. Becoming Data-Driven
Collecting survey data is the first step of a successful Candidate Experience. But what happens after? The next move is to analyze the data and look for trends, patterns, and key takeaways. Data analysis will transform survey results into meaningful insights, taking what candidates perceive about their experience into actionable next steps. By sharing these findings with your hiring team and implementing changes, you will create a recruitment process that job seekers genuinely appreciate and remember.
- Boskalis is a global maritime services provider, whose TA team has made a switch to a data-centric recruitment strategy. In a recent webinar with Starred, Thijs Wanders (Corporate Recruitment & Recruitment Analytics at Boskalis), shared his tips on becoming data-driven:
“For Boskalis, the reason for becoming more focused on data is because if you want to make good decisions for recruitment activities, it is necessary to underpin this with data.” –Thijs Wanders, Corporate Recruitment & Recruitment Analytics at Boskalis
Identify Key Metrics for Your Business
In addition to tracking the standard recruitment metrics, including time-to-fill, cost-per-hire, days to recruit, source-of-hire, and others, Boskalis places a strong emphasis on the Candidate and Hiring Manager Experience. They use Starred to measure cNPS, gaining valuable insights into various aspects of the process. They measure the speed of responses, interview preparation, the relevance of questions asked, and the quality of feedback provided after phone screenings or job interviews.
Make Your Data Digestible
To make complex data more accessible and useful across the entire organization, Thjis recommends using clear data visualization assisted by a contextual explanation. Infographics, graphs, and charts can turn complex numbers into clear visuals, while a concise one-pager often communicates insights better than lengthy reports. Providing a narrative around the data helps stakeholders interpret insights meaningfully, connecting data points to actionable decisions.
Establish a Consistent Reporting Routine
Regular quarterly and annual reports, combined with team meetings to review insights, keep everyone accountable in the TA team. Each recruiter has access to their individual performance score, helping them identify areas for improvement. Alongside these personal metrics, Thijs has implemented regular NPS reviews and ongoing sessions about results to foster a culture of continuous improvement and high-quality recruitment processes.
Watch the webinar to learn about how data-driven decisions can earn stakeholder confidence.
3. Creating a Positive Candidate Experience
By actively shaping a positive Candidate Experience, you can show the job seekers you genuinely care about their journey, even if they don’t end up with a job offer. Let's look at how companies have used survey responses to directly improve their candidates' experience.
- JYSK is an international retail leader specializing in furniture, home decor, and sleep products. The company is committed to providing customers and candidates with exceptional value and excellent service.
"There is a lot of competition in the market and we like to be a front-runner, especially when it comes to candidates. Because we know that we have good things to offer our employees and I think that that is important for us also to show when they first meet Jysk." – Camilla Ölander, Employee Branding Manager at Jysk
Design a Transparent Hiring Process
Jysk improved their Candidate Experience by creating a transparent and personalized recruitment process. When candidates apply for a job at Jysk, they have access to a candidate portal. It establishes a closer connection with candidates, highlighting the type of company they are, their ambitions, and the positives working for them can bring. The portal provides candidates with:
- A thank you for their application.
- A guide to each step of the recruitment process.
- Videos in their native language, breaking down the recruitment process and providing clarity and guidance.
- Support with online assessments and tips on conducting excellent video and job interviews.
Take Care of Your Detractors
Deliveroo is an online food delivery company for local consumers, restaurants and grocery providers. Recognizing how Candidate Experience shapes the company’s reputation, they set out with a mission to become the top employer choice for every candidate. Deliveroo’s success story highlights how by listening to candidate feedback, it is possible to increase the efficiency of the recruitment process.
“I believe that if we get the Candidate Experience wrong, it can have a significantly negative impact on our business. But if we get it right, we can get a lot from that… because we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of applicants that go to our website just because they’re looking to apply for a role.” – Ligita Kondrataviciute, Global Candidate Experience Manager at Deliveroo
The feedback collected through Starred was a clear indicator that the interview process was a detractor for Deliveroo’s candidates. To combat this and turn the interview process into a competitive advantage, the recruitment team:
- Identified and implemented SLAs for an ideal interview timeline.
- Established and successfully executed the interview feedback submission SLA.
- Introduced global interviewer training that is being continuously monitored across locations and departments.
It brought huge success to the company decreasing time-in-interview-process by 30% in the space of one year. As a result of all their candidate-centric efforts combined, Deliveroo saw a 56% increase in their cNPS.
4. Improving Internal Alignment
Candidate surveys offer advantages beyond the Candidate Experience. The collected data can provide valuable insights into how to make your recruitment team more aligned, improve communication between different stakeholders, and help with setting meaningful goals and KPIs.
- Marqeta, a US-based fintech company, excels in using insights to improve the performance of their teams. Measuring Hiring Manager Satisfaction with Starred has allowed them to align the recruiting process and gather unique data points, for example, which groups might be underrepresented in the hiring journey.
Measure Hiring Manager Satisfaction
Hiring Managers can provide relevant feedback for continuous improvements and advocate for candidates, which will ultimately lead to a faster decision-making process, a better quality of hire, and an overall positive experience for all.
“When we started to send surveys to our Hiring Managers it gave us better insight on what they need from us as a talent partner and that has greatly helped us foster a great Candidate Experience.” –Lucas Nehemiah, Senior Manager of Talent Operations & Programs at Marqeta
Download Marqeta's Hiring Manager Best Practices one-pager here!
Marqeta is one of the highest-scoring companies within Hiring Manager Satisfaction, with a Hiring Manager NPS score of +86.
Establish Meaningful Objectives
At the beginning of the article, we introduced HelloFresh and their dedication to Candidate Experience. The HelloFresh webinar with Starred was packed with a lot of actionable insights about how they gather feedback and use the findings to drive improvement. One of the things Greta Dubauskaite explained was how they use candidate surveys to set goals within their teams. They have specific Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) for both the HR and Talent Acquisition departments, measuring NPS in different recruitment stages.
They check on these OKRs quarterly, using Starred not only globally but also for each market they operate in. This level of data granularity allows them to tailor their strategies and actions to local needs ensuring consistency across different departments and markets.
“[I am] a big fan of personalized goal setting per area (departments, for example). With Starred we filter, personalize and look into deeper insights, and can give presentations to TA teams and discuss what is happening based on specific data points from the reports.” –Greta Dubauskaite, Head of Global Talent Experience, Operations & Intelligence at HelloFresh
For example, they successfully set and reached OKRs for Hiring Manager NPS and Offered Candidate NPS by maintaining both averages above +70 in 2023.
Watch the full webinar for more tips!
What's next?
We hope you found some valuable tips from our Talent Acquisition Champions! Coming up, the next chapter is about writing effective Candidate Experience Survey Questions, and we’ve even prepared examples and free templates for you to use.