Rolling Out Candidate Experience Surveys
Rolling Out Candidate Experience Surveys
Rolling Out Candidate Experience Surveys
A practical guide to rolling out Candidate Experience surveys so your team can collect structured feedback on the candidate experience, uncover opportunities to improve your recruiting process, and strengthen employer brand over time\.
!Designed visual of Candidate Experience surveys from Ashby showing a 10-point rating scale.
How to use this Playbook
Use this playbook as a step\-by\-step guide to plan and launch Candidate Experience Surveys in Ashby\.
Follow these sections in order, or click directly into the step that matches where your team is today using the navigation panel on the left\.
Who this playbook is for
- Talent Leaders and Recruiters who want to understand how candidates experience their process
- Recruiting ops and admin owners configuring surveys and automation in Ashby
- Teams responsible for employer brand, process improvement, and candidate feedback
What we'll cover
- Introduction to Candidate Experience Surveys What to consider before building the survey
- Plan your rollout[](~/80682c2e-2b48-47e9-b879-c2f781881528/) Key considerations before you launch
- Set up the survey Step\-by\-step configuration guidance
- Engage with stakeholders Templates and best practices for rollout
What are Candidate Experience Surveys?
Card BackSurveys that collect structured feedback from candidates at any point in the hiring process\.
Card FrontWhy do they matter?
Card BackCandidate Experience Surveys help you understand how candidates experience your hiring process beyond pipeline metrics\.
That feedback helps you identify what’s working, uncover friction, and improve candidate trust and your employer brand\.
Before you dive in
📚 This playbook focuses on rollout: how to scope the program, align stakeholders, set expectations with your team, and decide how your team will review and use the data once it starts coming in\.
If you're looking for a deeper dive into Candidate Experience surveys, including guidance on a practical setup and reporting in Ashby, check out the Candidate Experience Surveys course in Ashby Academy\.
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Introduction to Candidate Experience Surveys
Introduction to Candidate Experience Surveys
Candidate Experience Surveys help you understand how candidates experience your hiring process beyond pipeline metrics, so you can identify what’s working, uncover friction, and improve candidate trust and your employer brand\.
Candidate Experience Surveys are available on all plans\.
Candidate Experience Surveys Overview
Why implement Candidate Experience surveys?
Candidate Experience surveys in Ashby provide the structure and data that support:
- Continuous improvement
- Tracking trends over time
- Spotting experience gaps early
Review each option on the right to learn more\.
Continuous improvement
Candidate feedback helps your team identify what’s working, uncover friction, and improve communication, scheduling, and interview structure\.
Tracking trends over time
Net Promoter Score \(NPS\) gives your team a consistent way to track candidate sentiment over time and understand whether the experience is improving\.
Spotting experience gaps early
Candidate feedback can help your team spot negative experiences early and follow up before they affect candidate trust or your employer brand\.
The following components outline how you capture feedback on the candidate's experience and report on it in Ashby\.
Note: To dive deeper into each of these components, review the Candidate Experience Surveys course in Ashby Academy\.#### Configure the Survey Form
Surveys are configured in Admin > Candidate Surveys > Candidate Experience\.
You can create multiple surveys with standard question types, plus NPS Rating and Linear Rating questions unique to this survey type\. Surveys include a default NPS rating question that powers the platform's Candidate NPS reporting\.
As a best practice, we recommend keeping the NPS question on every form\.
#### Configure the Survey Settings & Automation
Determine the submission mode that allows candidates to opt in to anonymous submission or to enforce full anonymity\.
Automate the delivery of survey requests to trigger when a candidate moves to a new stage, is hired, or is archived\.
#### Candidate Submits Survey
Candidates receive an email with the survey link, which they use to complete the survey\.
#### Report on Survey Requests and Responses
Once surveys are submitted, results are available in Ashby's reporting suite\.
Results are available in the Candidate Experience Surveys report view and can be included in custom reports\. The Candidate NPS Score report template tracks sentiment over time using the standard NPS formula\.
Components of Candidate Experience Surveys in Ashby
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Step 1: Plan Your Rollout
Plan Your Rollout
Step 1
Before configuring your surveys, take time to align your team on goals, which candidates you want feedback from, and how you'll act on the feedback\.
A clear plan helps you survey the right candidates at the right point in the process and collect feedback your team can act on\.
Before You Build
Key questions to answer before you launch
Work through each area below before you start building\.
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Stakeholder Alignment
Begin by aligning your team and broader organization on the purpose of the survey\. Consider:
- Align as a team and organization: Discuss how survey results will contribute to your specific organizational goals, whether that's tracking overall sentiment, identifying detractors, or improving specific interview stages\.
- Define who will use the feedback: Ensure that key stakeholders, including TA leadership, recruiting managers, and hiring managers, understand how the feedback will be used to foster continuous improvement and strengthen the candidate experience\.
- Involve stakeholders early: Engage stakeholders in the planning process\. Consider holding a kickoff meeting to discuss the goals of the surveys, address any concerns, and gather input on how the results should be interpreted and acted upon\.
Customization Needs
Review the default survey content and tailor it to your organization's needs\. Consider:
- Decide what signal you need: Start with the core outcome you want to measure\. Many teams use the NPS question for an overall signal, then add a small number of follow\-up questions to understand what shaped that experience\.
- Choose the right candidate group: Be intentional about which candidates should receive the survey\. For example, do you want feedback only from candidates who reached onsite, or from both hired and archived candidates who completed a meaningful portion of the process?
- Think through survey settings before launch: Decide whether you want responses tied to the candidate, optional anonymity, or fully anonymous submission\. Also consider whether your questions will work well for the stage and audience receiving the survey\.
- Pilot and iterate: Test the survey with a narrower audience first so you can validate the timing, questions, and quality of responses before expanding the rollout\.
Best Practices for Rollout
Keep these principles in mind as you launch\. Consider:
- Be intentional about when surveys are sent: Launch with a clear plan for survey timing so candidates are asked for feedback after they have enough experience to reflect on the process\.
- Use feedback to improve the process: Position the surveys as a way to identify trends and improve the candidate experience over time, not as a one\-off exercise or a tool for reacting to individual comments in isolation\.
- Create a review cadence: Decide in advance how your team will review responses, what types of themes you'll look for, and how you'll turn those findings into concrete process changes\.
- Continuous communication: Share learnings with the people who can act on them, whether that's recruiters, interview teams, or leadership\. The value of the survey comes from what changes after the feedback is collected\.
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Step 2: Set Up the Survey
Set Up the Survey
Step 2
With your goals and design defined, you're ready to configure in Ashby\. The steps below walk you through the key setup points\.
For full details at each step, review the Candidate Experience Surveys course in Ashby Academy\.
Build and Configure Your Survey
Slide 1
How to Configure Candidate Experience Surveys
!Screenshot of a branded Candidate Experience survey form in Ashby showing the candidate's view.
Follow these steps to create your survey form, configure anonymity settings, and set up automation in Ashby\.
Slide 2
Create the survey form
Start by building the form candidates will complete\.
Slide 3
!Screenshot of an admin's view building the Candidate Experience survey form in Ashby.
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Configure the survey questions
Start by building the form candidates will complete\.
💡Survey design best practices:
- Keep the candidate NPS question on every form as it drives NPS reporting in Ashby\.
- Favor structured questions over open\-ended ones\. Structured questions are faster to complete and easier to report on\. Open\-ended questions are useful for context, but they should be used sparingly\.
- Keep forms short\. In most cases, four or five questions is enough\. Completion rates drop once forms get longer, especially if every question feels optional or vague\.
Slide 4
Configure the survey settings
Determine the candidate's submission mode\.
Slide 5
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Enable Automation
Set up rules to send surveys automatically\.
💡Automation conditions are evaluated on every stage transition\.
Once a candidate meets your criteria, the survey request is scheduled and won't be sent again if they move to another matching stage\.[](https://www.ashbyhq.com/resources/terms-ai-features)
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Step 3: Engage with Stakeholders
Engage with Stakeholders
Step 3
Before you launch Candidate Experience Surveys, make sure internal stakeholders understand why you're collecting candidate feedback and how the team will use the results\.
Use the templates below to communicate ahead of your go\-live date\.
Stakeholder Communication
A few things to keep in mind before you sendCommunication templates
- Make sure the recruiting team and other internal stakeholders know which candidates will receive surveys and when those surveys will be triggered\.
- Set expectations for how and when the team will review results together\.
- Clarify who owns monitoring detractor responses, surfacing key themes, and deciding whether any follow\-up is needed\.
- Be clear that the goal is to improve the recruiting process over time, not to treat individual survey responses in isolation\.
Email 1: Announcement
Subject: We're Launching Candidate Experience SurveysHi Team,
I'm excited to share that we'll be rolling out Candidate Experience Surveys in Ashby over the coming weeks\. These surveys will allow us to collect structured feedback from candidates about their experience with our recruiting process\.
We'll start by sending a short survey to candidates who reach the Onsite stage and are then hired or archived\.
Over time, we'll use this data to understand candidate sentiment over time, identify areas to improve, and track trends in the feedback
More details on the setup and what to expect from the data coming soon\.
Please let us know if you have any questions\!
Email 2: Candidate Experience
Subject: How Candidate Experience Surveys Will WorkHi Team,
Here's what to expect ahead of launching Candidate Experience Surveys:
Surveys will be sent automatically via email to candidates who reach the Onsite stage and are then hired or archived – you don't need to take any action for surveys to go out\.
Manual sends should be used for exceptions, such as when we want to request feedback outside of the standard automation\.
Responses will be reviewed by \[team/owner\], who will monitor for key themes, detractor responses, and any feedback that may need follow\-up\.
Please reach out if you have any questions\!
Email 3: Reminder before go-live
Subject: Candidate Experience Surveys Going Live Next WeekHi Team,
Just a reminder that Candidate Experience surveys are going live next week\.
Starting then, eligible candidates will automatically receive a survey after they reach the Onsite stage and are hired or archived\.
As a reminder, the goal of this program is to help us understand how candidates experience our process and to give us data we can act on\.
No action is needed for eligible candidates to receive the survey — the automation will handle sends based on the rules we configured\.
We’ll review early responses together after launch and use them to identify any themes or friction in the process\.
Thank you all for your support in getting this launched\.
💡These email templates use an example where surveys are sent to candidates who reach the Onsite stage and are then hired or archived\.
Update the copy to match the survey automation settings you configure\.[](https://www.ashbyhq.com/resources/terms-ai-features)
A thoughtful Candidate Experience Survey rollout helps you collect actionable feedback, spot patterns in the recruiting process, and turn candidate sentiment into improvements over time\.
A few things to carry forward:Key Takeaways
Plan first & align
Build your survey with intention
Plan for action
Your goals shape the rollout\. Before launch, align on why you're collecting candidate feedback, which candidates should receive the survey, and how the team will use the results\.
Choose a focused set of questions that match the stage of the process you're evaluating\. Keep the survey short, decide how you want to handle anonymity, and make sure the design supports the kind of feedback you want to act on\.
Decide in advance how you'll review responses, monitor detractors, and share themes with the people who can improve the recruiting process\. The value of the program comes from what changes after the feedback is collected\.
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