Candidate experience survey: how-to guide and 20 questions

When you think about building a world-class brand, what comes to mind first? Creating a style guide? Delivering outstanding customer service? Or perhaps hiring and recruitment?

Hiring, especially the candidate experience, is a key part of brand building that is often overlooked. Yet, it is incredibly important.

Prioritising this experience prepares candidates for success, whether or not they are ultimately hired. A positive experience can also result in candidates who become enthusiastic advocates for your company.

A candidate experience survey improves the hiring and recruitment process. It enables hiring teams to gather feedback, refine their strategies and strengthen the company brand.

In this article, you’ll learn how to craft an effective candidate experience survey, when to send it and how to interpret the feedback.

A candidate experience survey is a questionnaire used to gather feedback from job applicants about their interview experience.

A typical candidate experience survey covers several key stages of the recruitment process, including:

By gathering comprehensive candidate experience feedback, companies gain invaluable insights into their hiring processes, revealing strengths and highlighting specific areas for improvement.

This in-depth analysis enables organisations to improve their overall recruitment strategy and create a more positive candidate experience, strengthening their employer brand and attracting a more engaged talent pool.

Programmes connect multiple surveys to show you trends. Available on Advantage plans and higher.

Creating a candidate experience survey can be tricky, especially when choosing the right questions. Using a template, such as our candidate experience survey template, can help you build a professional survey that garners high response rates. Platforms and tools such as SurveyMonkey AI also let you create surveys precisely tailored to user goals.

Here are 20 questions to help you get started with your candidate experience survey.

Gathering comprehensive feedback on candidate experience is essential for improving and refining your recruitment process.

Job candidates are a valuable source of insights about their experiences that HR professionals may not fully capture or understand.

This kind of feedback helps you identify areas for improvement and develop strategies to create a more positive candidate journey. This will enhance your organisation’s reputation and attract future candidates in a competitive job market.

Here are several reasons why candidate experience surveys matter.

Candidate feedback enables you to identify potential issues with your hiring and recruitment processes.

For instance, candidates might highlight unclear job requirements or slow communication. By resolving these issues, organisations can address friction points, speed up the hiring process and create a better candidate experience for future applicants.

Additionally, candidate feedback surveys can help teams identify biases within the hiring process.

By collecting candidate experience survey data, organisations can create a fairer and more inclusive hiring process and measure their progress, resulting in a more diverse and productive workforce.

Hiring is an excellent strategy for enhancing and elevating your brand's presence and reputation in the market.

When candidates take part in the hiring process, they assess not only their suitability for the role but also the company culture and the overall experience your organisation offers. Whether or not they are hired, candidates often share their impressions with friends and on social networks.

A positive hiring experience can turn candidates into passionate brand ambassadors who actively promote your company and its values.

Such advocacy reinforces your brand image and can have a major impact on how potential candidates and clients see your business, strengthening your position in the industry.

Candidates want to feel respected throughout the hiring process.

Emphasising a positive candidate experience boosts your brand reputation and promotes valuable word-of-mouth marketing.

This improved reputation can greatly increase the number of top candidates keen to apply for future roles at your organisation.

Ultimately, building a thorough and respectful recruitment process benefits candidates and strengthens your organisation’s talent pipeline in the long term.

Creating a positive candidate experience during the hiring process can greatly boost employee morale and improve retention rates.

When potential employees go through a thorough hiring process, they feel valued and are more likely to report satisfaction and loyalty in their roles. This increased sense of job satisfaction usually leads to a stronger commitment to the company’s values and mission, resulting in a more dedicated and motivated workforce.

As a result, creating an outstanding candidate experience can bring long-term benefits for both individuals and the organisation.

Receiving and delivering a rejection is never pleasant, but it needn’t be a negative experience. Rejections can actually be an opportunity to build relationships.

When candidates feel valued, they are more likely to apply for future roles and recommend your organisation to friends and colleagues. Even candidates who are not selected can still become effective brand ambassadors.

Additionally, a positive rejection experience reduces the likelihood of candidates leaving negative reviews or online comments. Addressing concerns and providing constructive feedback can help protect your employer brand.

Related reading: Creating a rewarding candidate experience with interview feedback surveys

Carrying out a candidate experience survey is essential for measuring candidate experiences and improving your hiring process. Here are eight clear steps for conducting candidate surveys effectively.

Conducting a candidate experience survey starts well before you press "send".

It’s important to take the time to clearly define the objectives for your survey. What specific insights are you hoping to discover?

Are you aiming to gain a broad understanding of the overall candidate experience, or are you looking to explore specific aspects in more depth? For example, do you want to examine the application process for potential bottlenecks, or analyse the nuances of the interview stage to improve candidate engagement?

You might also want to explore candidates’ perceptions of your company’s culture and values or gather feedback on communication practices throughout the recruitment journey.

By clearly defining these areas of interest, you’ll not only shape your survey questions but also collect targeted feedback that can enhance your hiring strategy.

Defining your areas of interest will shape your candidate experience survey questions and ensure you collect actionable feedback to improve your hiring strategy.

Once you have a clear understanding of your objectives, you can confidently create a tailored candidate survey that fully addresses the questions you want answered.

When contacting the candidate, it’s important to clearly explain the reasons for conducting the survey.

Explain that the survey is designed to gather valuable insights into their experience and perceptions, with the goal of improving the recruitment process and enhancing overall candidate engagement.

By explaining how their feedback will be used, you create a constructive foundation for dialogue. For example, feedback might inform recruitment strategies, improve communication methods or enhance the candidate experience.

It’s essential to keep your questions concise and to the point; candidates are much more likely to complete a short, easy-to-understand survey.

Consider including a range of survey question types to make your survey more effective. These might include:

By using this varied approach, you’ll collect a comprehensive dataset that delivers valuable insights for your objectives.

Empower candidates to share their views honestly through an anonymous and confidential candidate experience survey.

Anonymity means that respondents’ identities stay private even after the survey is completed. Confidentiality limits who can access the survey responses.

Ensuring that responses, whether they reflect positively on or are critical of the recruitment experience, can make respondents feel comfortable sharing their true experiences.

Related reading: How to get better insights with a solid survey design plan

Many platforms offer a range of user-friendly survey templates and integrated analytics tools to simplify and enhance the overall user experience.

The level of customisation available should be considered, as this flexibility lets you tailor your projects to specific needs and preferences.

Assessing data analysis capabilities is key; powerful analytical features help users extract valuable insights from their data, supporting informed decision-making and strategy development.

SurveyMonkey meets these needs with an expert-designed candidate experience survey template to collect valuable feedback on the recruitment process.

Alongside templates, SurveyMonkey offers comprehensive analytical tools that enable organisations to interpret survey data, uncover insights and make informed decisions based on the feedback received.

Will you send your survey to every candidate who applies for a job, or will you take a more selective approach?

Some teams only send the survey to candidates who have completed the recruitment process, gathering feedback from those who have been more engaged with the company.

Alternatively, some teams only survey shortlisted candidates who meet certain criteria to gain more relevant insights. 

As you plan your approach, think about what you hope to achieve with the survey. Are you looking to collect comprehensive feedback on the application experience, or are you more interested in insights about the interview process?

By carefully considering your aims, you can tailor your survey distribution to reach the right audiences and ensure responses address your interview questions.

The timing of your experience survey can have a big impact on response rates and the quality of feedback you receive.

You should schedule the survey around key touchpoints in the candidate journey.

Consider sending the survey straight after the recruitment process, when candidates are most likely to have strong impressions and detailed thoughts fresh in their minds.

This approach increases the chances of higher response rates and encourages candidates to give more meaningful, detailed feedback.

Implementing this strategy is likely to provide insights that will help you improve your hiring practices and candidate experience.

After collecting the survey responses, the next step is to analyse the data.

Look for patterns in candidates’ responses. Are there particular areas where candidates agree? Did several candidates use similar words or phrases?

Identify the areas where your organisation excelled, as well as those that may need improvement.

Related reading: How to analyse survey data

The main goal of a candidate experience survey is to improve and refine the overall hiring process.

Collecting feedback from candidates provides valuable insights for meaningful improvements. These changes might include strategies such as providing comprehensive training programmes for hiring managers.

It’s also important to keep open lines of communication with all stakeholders about the improvements you’re implementing. This transparency helps everyone understand the reasons behind the changes and encourages a collaborative environment focused on enhancing the candidate experience.

After you’ve made changes to the hiring process, it’s essential to follow up with candidates to maintain a positive relationship.

Begin by thanking candidates for their feedback and for taking the time to participate in the selection process. Be clear about the improvements you’ve made as a result of their suggestions. Emphasise that their input was valuable and played a key part in shaping the updated process.

This follow-up not only demonstrates your commitment to offering an excellent hiring experience but also shows candidates that their opinions matter. By doing so, you strengthen your brand perception, helping attract future talent and foster goodwill in the job market.

Follow these tips to boost response rates and get the most from your candidate experience surveys.

Candidate experience is just as important as customer experience. It’s a vital part of your brand and deserves strategic focus.

Candidate experience surveys can improve your hiring process, helping you attract top talent and build positive relationships with applicants.

Ready to get started? Try the SurveyMonkey candidate experience survey template today and transform your hiring process!