Creating and using candidate surveys

Add custom candidate surveys for applicants to complete:

• After they submit their applications. Most commonly used to:
  • Collect demographic information from candidates based on the locations where you recruit.
  • Collect diversity and inclusion data (DEI).
• During the hiring process at any stage of your pipeline. Most commonly used to:
  • Collect candidate experience feedback (e.g., after an interview)
  • Collect feedback on your hiring process efficiency

 

Overview

Super Admins can add, edit, and delete surveys from the Settings > Candidate Surveys page in your account. Once at least 10 candidates have responded to a survey, the anonymous results will appear on your Reports page in the Candidate Surveys report. Workable requires 10 responses to preserve candidate anonymity.

When creating or editing a survey, you'll be prompted to:

• Design it by adding questions, descriptions, and answer choices. Currently, Workable only supports multiple-choice (single-select) answers. 
• Choose how the survey will be delivered to candidates - when applying for a job or during the hiring process.

 

Creating a new survey

If this is your first time adding a survey, click Add the first survey. Otherwise, click Add survey in the upper right corner.

Follow the three-step wizard to complete the survey setup:

1. Survey Details

• (Mandatory) Set an internal name for the survey. Candidates won't see the survey name. It will be used in Workable for reporting. 
• Write a short welcome note to the survey, which candidates will see. We recommend letting candidates know why you're requesting this information and that their answers are anonymous. Their responses are not tied or traceable to their application.

2. Questions

Add questions and answer choices to the survey. Currently, Workable only supports multiple-choice (single-select) answers (more field types coming soon). Each question and answer has the option to include a description. The description can clarify the question/answer more to help guide the candidate.

Each survey question is optional, but you may want to consider including answers like "Prefer not to say", "Other" or "Two or more of the above options". Note that all questions are optional, so candidates can simply choose not to select any response to a given question.

Save and preview the survey when you're ready. You'll see what the candidate sees on both desktop and mobile, and you can go back and make changes at any time.

3. Delivery options (after application / during hiring process)

Here, you can choose how the survey will be delivered to candidates.

After application

With the first option, candidates are asked to complete the survey when they apply for the job. You can also assign the survey to specific job locations. While you can add multiple surveys to your account, only one survey can be used for a given job. Surveys are tied to job locations and are automatically connected to jobs based on all job locations.

One survey could be for an entire region, e.g., California, which would encompass jobs in specific locations throughout the state. A different survey could be for a specific location like San Francisco. The survey used for a job will be the one that best fits the job's locations.

For example, if a candidate survey is set up to be sent to candidates for jobs in the United States, then if any of the job locations are in the US, then the survey will be triggered.

During the hiring process

With the second option, users can send the survey to the candidates via messages or automated actions at any stage during the hiring process. Generic surveys are independent of location, so no location choice is made. 

Check the below section explaining how to use generic surveys. 

 

Using generic surveys (any stage)

Include in a message

Include survey links in your messages to engage candidates effectively. There will be a new placeholder [survey_link] to select:

 

Add to your communication templates

Create communication templates or update your existing ones to include a survey link. Once you add the placeholder, you will be prompted to select which survey to include. Note that the list only includes enabled candidate surveys of the generic survey (or mixed) type. Once you are done, click Save.

Once your template is ready, you can use it to send emails individually, in bulk, or via automated actions.

Automate using templates

Create or modify your automations to include a communication template with a survey link.

 

Editing and disabling surveys

You can edit any part of a survey by clicking the three dots to the right of the survey in your account settings. If you reword a question or answer, any reporting about those fields will be updated. To best preserve your data when making major changes, we recommend creating a new survey and disabling the old one.

All your disabled surveys will appear at the bottom of the page with options to Preview, Edit, Enable, or Delete. We do not recommend deleting surveys. Reporting and responses will be deleted if this is done and are not able to be recovered.

 

What will candidates receive?

After application survey

Candidates applying through the Workable application form will get to see this optional survey after applying, provided that any of the job's locations fit the survey audience. 

Candidates applying through a job board will receive the survey invitation via email instead. Currently, this email is not customizable.

Generic survey

The candidates will be sent the messages you have set up manually or via a template inviting them to submit the survey.

 

Viewing results

Once at least 10 candidates have responded to a given survey, the Candidate Surveys report keeps a tally of their answers. The answers for the selected survey can be viewed by:

• Current pipeline stage
• Pipeline stage sent
• Pipeline pass-through
• Source

Survey results can be shown for all jobs on which a particular survey was used or for a specific job, department or location.

 

FAQs

Can I send candidate surveys at different stages of the hiring pipeline?

Yes. In the Delivery Options setup step (step 3), you can choose to send a generic survey to the candidates via an individual/bulk message or automated actions at any stage during the hiring process.

Can I save a survey as draft?

Yes, if you click 'Cancel' while creating a survey, you will be prompted to save this version as a draft or exit without saving.
Draft surveys will display a relevant tag, indicating they are not finalized, so they can't be used. Edit a draft survey and complete the setup to enable it for use.

Will survey links work for all job statuses?

No. Survey links are functional only for published and internal jobs. For confidential or archived jobs, the links will not function.