Rosie Greaves
What Interview Candidate Feedback Should You Gather?
And How Do You Go About Collecting It?
If you’ve read a few of our previous blog posts, you’re probably starting to get a feel for how vital gathering candidate feedback is for enhancing the candidate experience.
So, in light of that, we’re going to reveal some of the questions you should ask candidates, and how you can go about retrieving that all-important interview candidate feedback.
You’ll be amazed at how integral collecting and using this feedback is for enhancing the quality of your interviews and for improving your recruitment process more generally.
With that in mind, let’s dive straight into the nitty-gritty of this blog post!
Why Should You Bother Collecting Interview Candidate Feedback?
Collecting candidate feedback enables you to better understand your recruitment process from your applicant’s perspective. If prospective recruits are dropping out after your interview stage, why is that? Are candidates engaging with your interviewers? If so, why? Or why not?
These are kinds of questions your candidate feedback surveys should aim to answer.
- Based on your experience thus far, how likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague?
- Did you have the opportunity to convey your personality and experience during the interview?
- Were you treated well by the interviewer?
Then, with these answers at your fingertips, you can set your sights on improving your candidate experience. It’s concerning that as many as 60% of job seekers have a poor candidate experience and that 72% share that experience. Needless to say, you don’t want to be the brand contributing to the problems experienced by that 60%. And if you are…you need to do something about it!
By asking candidates for feedback, you’re allowing them to air their grievances with you directly. This could make all the difference between leaving a slightly sour taste in their mouths and them posting a full-blown rant about you online!
Not only that but with what you’ve learned from their feedback, you can then make whatever changes necessary to ensure other candidates don’t endure the same lousy experience.
At this point, it’s worth noting, there are tons of positive knock-on effects to improving your candidate experience.
- Boosting candidate engagement
- Increasing employee referrals
- Hiking your net promoter score
- A stronger employer brand
With all that in mind, if you’re on the fence about whether to bother collecting candidate feedback, we hope we’ve convinced you that it’s certainly worth your time and effort.
So, How Do You Ask for Candidate Feedback?
- Keep it brief. If you’re sending candidates a survey, keep it short. Job seekers are time-poor and don’t have time to engage with something overly long and complicated. As a general rule, stick to a maximum of six questions.
- Keep your questions concise. On a similar note, make sure your questions don’t waffle on…just get to the point.
- Give them a heads-up. You’ll enjoy a higher response rate when you tell candidates to expect to receive a survey after their interview.
- Get the entire picture. By, this we mean, send your survey to both rejected and successful candidates.
- Make it anonymous. Candidates are more likely to say what they really think when they can answer your survey anonymously.
- Offer an incentive. Who can resist a giveaway? Perhaps offer participants a voucher, discount or gift to entice them into providing their feedback. If you’re on a tighter budget, consider a prize draw, where you only have to distribute one freebie?
- Leave space for general comments. If a candidate feels incredibly passionate about something, they’ll want to tell you about it.
Example Questions to Ask Candidates After Interview
With all of the above in mind, you’re probably wondering what questions to ask in your candidate feedback survey.
- On a scale of one to ten, where one is entirely disorganized, and ten is the height of professionalism, how would rate the interview process?. Alternatively use the Net Promoter Score question to get an understanding of how likely it is the candidate will recommend you to a friend or colleague.
- On a scale of one and ten, where one is ‘never’, and ten is ‘always’, how would you rate the promptness of your communications with your recruiter before your interview?
- On a scale of one to ten where one is utterly disorganized, and ten is exceptionally well-prepared, how would you rate the preparedness of your interviewers?
- On a scale of one and ten, where one is completely inconsistent, and ten is exceptionally consistent, how was the job description presented to you throughout the recruitment process? I.e., from seeing the job ad through to (and including) your interview?
Are You Ready to Start Gathering Candidate Feedback After Your Interviews?
We hope having read this blog post, you now have a clearer idea about how to start gathering interview candidate feedback.
For more information on how to enhance your candidate experience, download our free eBook today: ‘The Ultimate Guide to the Candidate Experience’ – Enjoy!
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