One of the best ways to improve in anything is through feedback. Consider it a gift when colleagues, mentors, and clients go out of their way to give you a piece of their mind, may it be a positive or negative critique. As for your recruitment agency, it will definitely experience substantial growth when you consider creating or improving your feedback gathering process to learn more from both your clients and applicants.
Your recruitment process should have a candidate feedback process in place so that applicants can say something about their experience because they are at the receiving end of the firm’s efforts. A survey showed that out of 60% of job hunters that went through a negative hiring experience, 72% of them have spoken about it.
In instances like this, you would prefer that they direct their feedback to you and not elsewhere. One of your goals then in managing candidate experience is that applicants share their feedback to you first as candidly as possible, be it delightful or harrowing.
But more than getting candidate feedback is the know-how on what to do with them. Lack of knowledge of how to handle candidate experience feedback is tantamount to having no feedback at all.
Be ready to ask for feedback.
Some companies make the mistake of treating candidate feedback-gathering as an afterthought. They give generic surveys and only action feedback that are repetitive or are from disgruntled clients or candidates.
But all feedback can be useful: positive candidate experience may be channelled to improve your firm’s recruiter brand, while if you are hell-bent on improving your processes, you will use even the slightest criticism to improve your process. That is why when building or streamlining your feedback gathering process, some brainstorming and preparation is essential.
Inform candidates that feedback will be requested.
Instead of surprising the applicant with a survey, tell them beforehand that feedback will be asked of them. As you explain the hiring process to them, mention that a short survey will be given at the end. Promise them that it won’t take a lot of their time.
Timing is key.
When is the best time to give a survey? Right before a decision is made. You wouldn’t want the decision to affect the outcome of the survey. Even if the company eventually hires the candidate, asking for a survey just before the decision allows the respondent to focus on the process, not the outcome.
Give an oral or written option.
Knowing that they can give their feedback via phone or in-person loosen up inhibitions during feedback gathering, especially with positive feedback. But of course, sending an electronic survey is also fine. After a slew of interviews, candidates may want to give their voice a break. Some just have a better knack for conveying their thoughts through written feedback.
Reward feedback with incentives.
Remember that candidate feedback is no longer a requirement, so you are basically asking for extra effort from applicants who may have no time to spare. They have a job hunt to return to, after all. But tokens like online shopping vouchers or limited-time access to apps or websites work in incentivizing the feedback gathering process. It gives an impression that their thoughts about the recruitment process are needed and valuable.
Make your feedback gathering process succinct yet extensive.
Remember, you are asking candidates a favor by requesting feedback. Those who say yes to it and ready to give their input would want efficiency. So, make sure your survey can collect the information you need without taking too much of the respondent’s time.
Also, take note of how you’ll process data after. You wouldn’t want the time spent on the survey to go to waste. Immediate action and keen processing of information are imperative to identify process improvements and whatnot.
Prepare questions that encapsulate the whole process.
Start from how the candidate heard about the job posting, all the way to the last interview. For questions about the recruitment proper, such as testing and interviews, you may include items that ask about the length of time and clarity of instructions. Replace yes-or-no questions with scale or rank questions (e.g. on a scale of one to five) to better estimate the respondents’ sentiments.
Keep the survey easy to answer and open-ended.
Sure, a set of yes or no questions saves time for the applicant, but will it really say a lot about the process? Five to seven questions that identify a phase in the recruitment process will do. It’s also recommended that the survey touches on the following:
- how they heard about the job posting
- the demeanor of your recruitment personnel
- were communications clear
- will the applicant recommend your agency
Lastly, open-ended spaces to give them a chance to say whatever would be a nice way to end.
Identify action items.
Before the survey, make sure that the recruitment team has specific information to look out for. This makes the evaluation of surveys easier and quicker; action items can be red flags for improvement or positive indicators worthy of highlight and praise. For example, ratings of two stars out of five mean that the applicant’s hiring process didn’t go well, so it’s best to take a look at that specific process with additional scrutiny.
Good feedback adds to a good reputation.
If your recruitment firm has an efficient and deliberate feedback gathering process, you’ll have enough input for improvement. Also, one use of candidate reviews is to uplift your recruitment brand. Publishing positive reviews on your website and social media handles will invite new clients over, and future applicants going through your process will be confident they are in good hands.
Efficient handling of feedback also means negative critiques can be immediately corrected so that you can apply an improved set of steps with the next applicant. But what can you add to the mix to make feedback processing faster?
A recruitment and experience management platform is here to streamline the feedback gathering process. Great Recruiters can provide the necessary software to aid in collecting and collating surveys. The real-time requests sent to candidates enable them to give feedback about the firm’s efforts fresh out of the experience. Your firm can also attend to negative criticisms right away by identifying action items and revisiting the process as soon as feedback is read.
Are you interested in a timely and well-composed feedback system for your recruitment agency? Book a demo now.
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