What Is a Candidate NPS?

A candidate net promoter score (CNPS) indicates how likely candidates are to recommend your hiring process to a friend or colleague.

The CNPS is similar to the NPS survey customer success teams use in that it’s measured on a scale of zero to ten. A seven or above means that candidates were generally impressed with your hiring experience and would encourage their peers to apply to your organization.

How to Track Candidate NPS

If you don’t already, it’s worth creating a Candidate NPS form to send to every candidate who goes through your hiring process. The survey should only have one question: “On a scale of 1 - 10, how likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or colleague?” An ideal score is 7 or above.

Some survey tools you can use are:

• SurveyMonkey
• SurveyGizmo
• Typeform
• Google Forms

Regardless of which tool you use, you should make sending the candidate NPS a part of your interviewing process and automate it, if possible.

What Affects Candidate NPS

Although the CNPS is only one number, there are a variety of factors that play into that score. When candidates answer your survey, they might be thinking about your company brand, how your recruiters communicate over email or the phone, how easy it was to submit an application, how interviewers treated them, or how promptly they moved through the process.

Consider adding secondary open-ended second questions, like: “Do you have any other feedback about our hiring process?”

Every part of the hiring process contributes to a candidate’s overall experience. Ensuring candidates have good things to say about your company is paramount when attracting new candidates. Job seekers will read about your interview process on Glassdoor and other review sites, and without glowing reviews, the best candidates may not apply. Consistently sending out CNPS surveys and tracking the results helps you track down what’s going well and what needs improvement.

So don’t forget to host monthly or quarterly sessions to review results. If NPSs are on the decline, there’s probably an issue that needs to be resolved. Try inserting a few pointed questions at the end of your candidate survey to learn more about where your process is missing the mark.

Use NPS Throughout Your Organization

There are a lot of players involved in the hiring process: sourcers, recruiters, interviewers, employees who have input on competencies and interview questions, and candidates. Each of these participants has a unique perspective that can inform how your process evolves, so ask them for their opinion. Here are some things you might want to know and ideas for how to obtain that information:

• Sourcers and recruiters - These people are extremely close to your hiring process and can surface gaps early on. We recommend sending a pulse survey every week to find out where they might be getting stuck. Some questions could be: What competencies are difficult to scan for? What questions do they get from applicants? What are the biggest friction points in the process? What ideas do they have for adjusting the process?
• Interviewers - Employees who speak directly with candidates have valuable input regarding competencies and interview questions. As soon as they finish an interview, send them a one- to two-question survey about how the interview could’ve been better. Did they run out of questions? Did the questions help them suss out competencies? Did it make sense that the person they interviewed made it this far along in the process?

You can also use an NPS survey to evaluate candidates after they’ve been hired, to see how they feel about their experiences on the first day of work and throughout their time with your company. This will help prevent turnover by ensuring new hires feel welcome from day one.