From Candidate to Exit: Lifecycle Listening in the Moments that Matter

Organizations are increasingly turning to always-on employee listening as a means of measuring and shaping the employee experience.

Always-on surveys differ from traditional, point-in-time listening events. They are continuous in nature — meaning they don’t have a pre-defined start and stop date — and are typically triggered by key moments that matter in the employee lifecycle. (e.g., onboarding, promotion or other job change, or exit date). 

Onboarding and exit surveys are the most common always-on surveys, used by organizations wanting to gain a deeper understanding of the employee experience at the onset and conclusion of an employee’s tenure with a company. While both listening events are effective at helping to understand and address key elements of the employee lifecycle, these insights can be amplified with the introduction of other always-on surveys. Candidate, hiring manager, and quality of hire surveys, when run in conjunction with onboarding and exit surveys, can offer additional predictive power in helping to more holistically understand key points of inflection in the employee experience.

Candidate Experience

Candidate experience surveys allow an organization to take stock of the first impressions it creates with prospective employees, and the results can help inform continuous improvement of the talent acquisition process. 

At Perceptyx, we measure the candidate experience through the following categories:

• Motivation to apply
• Recruitment process
• Interview process
• After-offer experience

Motivation to Apply: The core of the candidate experience is understanding what motivated that individual to apply for the position (e.g., culture, job fit, compensation, flexible work, etc.). Gathering these insights allows a company to better understand “attraction factors” and how their employee value proposition is perceived by outside audiences – perspective that is critical to building a strong candidate pipeline.

Recruitment Process: Once a candidate enters the recruiting process, organizations should measure the recruiter’s effectiveness in providing clarity about the process. This feedback provides insight into the candidate’s experience and also demonstrates the recruiter's capabilities. Additionally, they should assess whether the candidate was provided with clearly defined expectations and responsibilities for the role in which they are being considered, in order to ensure that expectations are aligned. This is especially important in predicting the likelihood of the job being a strong fit, should an offer be accepted.

Interview Process: Taking stock of the interview process is another critical step in measuring the candidate experience. Companies should look for feedback on the interview process to assess whether candidates: 1) had the information needed to prepare; 2) felt that the process was efficient; and 3) were given the opportunity to appropriately demonstrate their qualifications.  Each of these data points is critical for creating a positive, equitable candidate experience, and increases the likelihood of the right person being hired for the role.

After-Offer Experience: Regardless of offer/no offer, it’s helpful to gauge the candidate’s sentiment on the timeliness of the entire process as an overall measure of experience. In instances where an offer is accepted, it can be helpful to assess whether a candidate feels prepared to start their new role and what support may be needed in the pre-onboarding phase. In cases where the candidate has rejected a job offer, companies can request additional feedback on factors that may have contributed to this decision — whether related to the interview process, alignment with the job requirements, flexible work arrangements, pay and benefits, etc., — all of which provide data needed to help an organization compete for talent more effectively.

Hiring Manager Experience

In addition to gathering the candidate’s point of view, hiring manager surveys capture feedback from the leader responsible for filling open positions. When paired with candidate experience surveys, organizations are well-equipped to understand and shape the recruitment process.

At Perceptyx, we measure the hiring manager experience through the following categories:

• Recruitment process
• Recruiter quality
• Candidate quality
• Hiring manager support

Recruitment Process: Gathering insights from hiring managers can help an organization assess the agility of their talent acquisition process as well as the time and effort needed to open a job requisition.  Additionally, a hiring manager survey should evaluate the systems and technology needed to support effective hiring decisions, as well as general impressions of the experience overall. 

Recruiter Quality: Just as candidate satisfaction surveys measure a candidate’s experience with a recruiter, organizations can expand this data by asking similar questions of the hiring manager. Understanding whether the recruiter set clear expectations, demonstrated an understanding of the role, and kept the manager informed are critical inputs to ensuring that a manager is effectively supported through the hiring process. Gathering this data from both candidates and hiring managers helps to strengthen the reliability of the results, and ultimately improve the experience for key stakeholders. 

Candidate Quality: A critical outcome of any successful recruitment process is attracting the best possible candidate for the job. Hearing directly from the hiring manager on whether they were satisfied with both the quality and diversity of candidates presented is critical to gauging whether the company is upgrading its talent pool with each hire. 

Hiring Manager Support: We recommend that these surveys measure the extent to which managers feel supported in preparing to lead effective interviews, and in having the information and skills needed to make informed hiring decisions — all with the goal of selecting the best possible candidate for a given role. 

Quality of Hire

While an onboarding survey measures new hire perceptions, a quality of hire survey can be triggered in parallel — often at 60 or 90 days after an employee’s start date — to take stock of a manager’s perception of how that employee is performing and acclimating to their new role.

At Perceptyx, we measure quality of hire through the following categories:

• Onboarding effectiveness
• Support
• Quality of hire

Onboarding Effectiveness: Measuring the hiring manager’s perspective of whether a new hire has successfully onboarded is a critical step in the post-hire process. By comparing results between employees and managers, leaders can discern where action may need to be taken to improve the overall hiring process.

Support:  Just as it’s important to determine where an employee may need more support during onboarding, it’s equally important to ensure that managers are well supported to effectively onboard their new hires.  Managers should be trained on the onboarding process, and have a clear understanding of their role.  They should also know where to find onboarding tools and resources, should they need more clarity.  Data often shows managers do not feel supported or equipped to navigate key moments that matter (e.g., onboarding, change). Supporting managers should become a key priority for companies in their listening and action strategies.

Quality of Hire: As the name suggests, these surveys are particularly helpful at assessing the quality of a new hire, and whether their managers believe they are making meaningful contributions commensurate with their tenure at the company. It also looks at whether, given the chance, their managers would choose to rehire the new employee into their given role. In cases where a new hire is not achieving the desired results, it’s important to understand the primary reasons why a manager would not rehire them so that talent acquisition approaches can be adapted to better screen for potential issues. 

Perceptyx Can Help You Capture Insights Across the Employee Lifecycle

Candidate and quality of hire surveys enable a company to better predict and shape the likelihood of top candidates accepting a role, while positioning them for long-term success in their new job. It also helps to offer an assessment of the effectiveness of the hiring process. Lastly, gathering feedback from hiring managers ensures that they have the resources needed to make the best possible hiring decisions, further increasing the caliber of talent across a company.

By taking a more holistic approach to listening across the employee lifecycle, organizations can better manage how they recruit, hire, and successfully onboard top talent. This begins with always-on surveys like onboarding and exit — delivered through a product like Sense — and is expanded with additional insights derived from measuring the experiences of both candidates and hiring managers.  To learn more about how Perceptyx can help your organization make the most of the moments that matter, schedule a meeting with a member of our team.