What To Ask In A Candidate Experience Survey

Whether due to a scheduling miscommunication, a biased interviewer, or a misleading job description, most of us have had at least one terrible candidate experience throughout the course of our professional lives.

In fact, Gartner research confirms this: When applying for a job, two-thirds of candidates report having at least one negative experience.^[1]

As a hiring manager or recruiter who is looking to fill roles during a talent shortage^[2], this should be a concern for you. A negative candidate experience can cause applicants to drop out of the interview process, reject your offer, or post a review of their unfavorable experience with your company on a public job site—all of which put a damper on your hiring process.

But if you don’t know exactly what’s going wrong with your candidate experience, you can’t make the improvements necessary to turn it into a positive one, which is why every growing organization needs to incorporate candidate experience surveys into their talent management strategy.

What is a candidate experience survey?

Candidate experience surveys are a tool used to solicit feedback from applicants in order to identify areas that need improvement within an organization’s recruiting process. Typically, these surveys are managed by the HR department and administered with the help of recruiting software or survey tools.

An example of a candidate experience survey administered through Lever (Source)

Why does candidate experience matter?

Research shows that your candidate experience has a direct influence on your organization’s offer acceptance rate and employer brand reputation. If a job seeker applies and interviews for a position with your organization and has a less-than-favorable experience, they’re not just going to pass up an opportunity to work for your employer, they’re also going to tell their peers about it.

In Gartner’s 2021 Candidate Experience Panel, over 700 individuals were surveyed in order to understand how they responded to different negative experiences they’ve encountered while pursuing a role.^[1]

Of those surveyed, 10% reported that they had experienced an interviewer or recruiter being rude or inconsiderate to one of their sources, and within that group, 85% took action:

This is just one of many examples of negative experiences reported by candidates. In fact, it’s not even the most common negative experience that was reported by candidates:

Based on the graphic above, you might be thinking that the percentage of candidates who have had these experiences is relatively low. And while that is true, the consequences of them are high: On average, 64% of survey respondents who have had a negative experience take action, whether that entails dropping out of the application process, rejecting a job offer, or leaving a negative review on an employer site.

To put it simply: Even if only a small percentage of your applicant pool have a bad experience, there’s a high chance that those that do will respond in a way that will negatively impact your business.

What should you ask in a candidate experience survey?

We’ve covered the why behind candidate experience surveys. Next, we’ll detail the what, who, and when, starting with what kind of questions you should include in your survey.

We’ll expand on each of these sections below, as well as provide examples of questions you can include in your survey.

1. Recruiting tools and technology

According to Gartner’s research, 30% of candidates back out when the application process is more difficult than they feel is necessary.^[1] This is notable considering that technology troubles (such as having to navigate a cumbersome portal or reenter information already on the applicant’s resume) are among the most common negative experiences reported by candidates. Because of this, collecting feedback on the navigability of your applicant tracking system and careers page is essential.