Configuring and using the Candidate Experience Survey

How the Candidate Experience Survey works

If the Candidate Experience Survey is active in your Lever environment, candidates will receive the survey via email if/when their opportunity is archived for a qualifying reason and their opportunity reached a threshold stage in your pipeline (both defined during survey configuration). The survey consists of questions asking candidates to rate different aspects of your recruitment process such as interview experience, communication clarity, and expectation setting. The survey can also be made to include open-ended questions in which candidates can provide free-form feedback about their experience. 

The questions in the survey are fully customizable, so you can tailor them to solicit precise feedback about the unique elements of your recruitment procedures. The survey can be configured to only send to candidates being considered for job postings with specific locations. The timing and body of the email that is sent can also be customized to ensure candidates are being asked for feedback at the right time and the survey is being positioned to them with proper context.

Configuring the Candidate Experience Survey

Users with Super Admin or Admin level access can enable and configure the Candidate Experience Survey for their Lever environment. To locate the survey editor:

• Navigate to Settings > Company > Surveys
• Click Configure survey on the 'Candidate Experience Survey' block

The survey editor is divided into three sections, each allowing you to configure a different aspect of the survey. Select from the tabs at the top of the editor to navigate between the different sections.

Questions

If you are setting up the Candidate Experience Survey for the first time, you will find questions preconfigured in the editor. These out-of-the-box questions ask candidates to rate their level of satisfaction with the various aspects of their recruitment experience including communication, expectation setting, and overall treatment.

Click into a question block to edit the question stem or add/modify a question description. To add a new question, scroll to the bottom of the editor and click the Add Another Question button. The Candidate Experience Survey supports two question types:

• Rating questions - ask candidates to provide a satisfaction rating on a 5-point scale, including a 'Prefer not to answer' option
• Paragraph questions - provide candidates with a text box in which they can type their response

Use the up and down arrow keys on the question block to reorder questions on the survey. Click the ellipses button in the upper-right corner of a question block to reveal options to duplicate or delete a question. In this section you can also edit the survey title and instructions in the fields at the top of the editor.

Locations

In this section you will need to select the posting locations that will serve as the geographic limit(s) for which candidates receive the survey. If you select 'All locations' then all archived candidates will receive the survey, provided their opportunities meet the delivery criteria configured in the next section.

If you opt to 'Choose locations...' and select specific locations from the list, only archived candidates that applied to postings based in those locations will receive the survey if their opportunities also meet the delivery criteria configured in the next section. 

Multi-location postings

For multi-location postings, the applicant will be sent the Candidate Experience Survey based on their preferred location. The preferred location can be selected by the applicant on the application page or assigned manually in Lever the application is submitted. 

If no location is selected by either the applicant or manually within Lever, the applicant will be sent Candidate Experience Survey based on the primary location of the job posting. 

For details on preferred locations, view our help article on creating and managing multi-location postings.

Delivery

In this section, you will define the delivery criteria for the survey. There are two variables in the set of criteria you will need to configure:

Archive reasons

A candidate's opportunity must be archived for one of the selected reasons in order for them to receive the survey. Note that 'Hired' is included in the list of selectable archive reasons. If this reason is not selected, hired candidates will not receive the survey.

Threshold stage

A candidate's opportunity must have reached or surpassed this stage in the pipeline in order for them to receive the survey.

Note that both of these variables make up a single set of delivery criteria, meaning both conditions (the archive reason and threshold stage) must be met in order for a candidate to receive the survey.

If the toggle below the delivery criteria is moved to the 'on' position, candidates with multiple archived opportunities (that meet the criteria) will only receive the survey once, for the first archived opportunity in a 90-day period.

Next, configure the time at which the survey will be sent to the candidate relative to their opportunity being archived. The survey can be configured to send immediately or at a point in the future (one day later, two days later, one week later, or on the next weekday following the archive).

Finally, you can customize the email containing the survey link that gets sent to candidates in the email fields at the bottom of the editor. Text in both the subject line and email body fields can be edited, including the inserting of auto-text tokens to pull in the candidate's name and/or the title of the posting for which they were being considered. Note that the {{Survey link}} token must appear in the body of the email or it will be automatically appended to the end of the email.

Click the Save Changes button at the top of the editor to save your configuration. To activate the survey in your Lever environment, flip the toggle on the Candidate Experience Survey block in your Company Settings to the 'on' position.

Reporting on Candidate Experience Survey results

To download results from the Candidate Experience Survey:

• Navigate to Visual Insights via the platform header.
• Click the Exports icon (⇩) in the left-side navigation and select Surveys from the export menu.
• Select the Candidate Experience tab and define the parameters for the export.
• For more information on exporting Candidate Experience Survey data and the fields included, please refer to our help article on Visual Insights exports.

Frequently asked questions