By gathering feedback before and after a recruitment process has been carried out, organisations can build an understanding of how they are perceived and how their recruitment process affects that perception. However, the method a company chooses to measure their candidate experience can significantly affect the accuracy, impact and influence these results have on their recruitment strategy and within the wider organisation.

As with all data gathering, the data collated is only as strong as the methodology or technology that gathered it. This is also true of the analysis. It is, therefore, essential that the tool used for this process is specifically designed to measure and analyse the candidate experience.

Measuring the candidate experience is very complex. Its success can be affected by a variety of factors whilst its influence is felt across a number of levels throughout the organisation. The easiest and most effective way to monitor this is by gathering feedback from those that it directly impacts - the candidates. But here another difficulty can arise: how do you ensure applicants provide honest feedback to a company who they are trying to impress? And how can unsuccessful candidates be encouraged to give feedback once they have no link to the company?

The answer is in the details…

The solution to successfully monitor the candidate experience is in the thought behind the measurements collected. To develop technology that effectively does this, there must be a real understanding of all the factors that contribute to, impact and influence the candidate experience. This understanding must then be fed into how the technology measures the experience and how it analyses it.

Here at Mystery Applicant we provide an innovative candidate research tool that does just this. Our tool was specifically designed with the candidate experience, and the impact it can have on a company, in mind. There are several ways that we have designed this tool to be as user friendly, reliable and detailed as possible to ensure that users can easily monitor their recruitment process.

When designing the tool it was important to consider how it would be used from both a candidate and company perspective. Our key considerations were:

How usable is it?

Candidate concerns:

          Are the feedback formats quick and easy to fill out?

It takes only 2-3 minutes to give feedback. This limits the drop-off rate and encourages participation.

          Are they accessible?

Mystery Applicant’s online feedback forms can be accessed on any device, so feedback can be given whilst on the move. We have designed a consumer-style feedback form not unlike those found on Amazon and TripAdviser that candidates are immediately familiar with, and this familiarity encourages completion.

From a company perspective:

          Do employees understand how to use the technology?

Our comprehensive training package is tailored to each individual organisation ensuring the technology is used to its full potential.

          Is the analysed data easy to interpret and relate to current strategies?

The Mystery Applicant dashboard categorises and presents the data in a fully-filterable dashboard that monitors candidate motivators, company perceptions, process improvements and gives clear actionable data against your KPI’s.

          Are the questions specifically tailored to suit your organisation’s needs and targets?

The Mystery Applicant team are all experienced employer branding, research and resourcing professionals. We have specifically designed our questions to ensure that they highlight the key factors that contribute, influence and impact the candidate experience. We can also create bespoke questions should an organisation want to specifically monitor one area which can all be automatically triggered depending on what stage the job applicant reaches in the process.

How can we ensure the data is reliable?

          Are candidates certain that their answers won’t affect their chances of employment?

As a third party and independent organisation, all Mystery Applicant data is collated anonymously so candidates are reassured that their answers are given in confidence and will not affect their application. This allows them to answer openly and ensures the data collected is confidential. All data is aggregated with many hundreds and thousands of candidate responses.

          Is the data as up-to-date and accessible as it can be?

Like our online feedback forms, the dashboard is accessible on all devices so that users can refer to it from any location. To add to this, all our data filters into the dashboard in real-time: so there’s no time wasted waiting for a quarterly report. The data can be used to support on-going strategies and implement change as soon as it’s necessary.

These are just some of the considerations behind a tool that has been developed with both the candidates and the company’s best interests in mind. The candidate experience can only be measured effectively and reliably by a system that not only offers easy interaction, specifically tailored questions and real-time analysis but also the certainty that these answers are anonymous. By doing this, companies are able to reliably identify areas of improvement, understand what motivates their candidates to apply and the impact their recruitment process has on the brand of the company. Through refining their understanding of this, organisations go on to not only improve their candidate experience, but also their candidate attraction, quality of hire, employer brand and overall company performance.

[Sourced from: http://www.mysteryapplicant.com/2013/03/05/measuring-your-candidate...]