How do candidates view your company after going through the job application process? With a competitive talent market in 2020, understanding your candidate experience matters now more than ever.
A frustrating experience might mean that candidates reject job opportunities with your company, or worse, complain about the experience to others. With the prevalence of social media, poor experiences can be shared with a wide range of people at the click of a button. Understanding your Candidate Net Promoter Score (CNPS) can help you understand how your hiring processes can be improved.
What is CNPS? How can I calculate it?
Candidate net promoter score (CNPS) is a key metric that reflects what candidates will tell others about their experience with your company. CNPS is calculated by surveying candidates, usually after an application has been submitted or after an interview, and asking the question, “on a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our company to a friend?”
Once you’ve received the answers, the candidates can be split into three groups:
- Candidates who answered 9-10 = promoters
- Candidates who answered 7-8 = passives
- Candidates who answered 0-6 = detractors
The final step involves subtracting the percentage of “detractors” from the percentage of “promoters”. The percentage remaining is your CNPS.
Top reasons to measure CNPS:
- Boosting Applicant Conversions
Using the feedback from a CNPS survey, talent acquisition teams can consider how to make their hiring process better. A low score might suggest that improvements are needed to the company’s career site, apply flow, or interview process. Optimizing these features can help reduce drop-offs thereby boosting the overall applicant conversion rate.
- Creating a Positive Experience from Day One
You already know that your company is a great place to work, but your candidates might not. Experiencing a frustrating application and interview process may give the impression that the employee experience is also sub-par. Receiving feedback from an administered CNPS survey can allow you to recognize and correct pain points that your candidates are experiencing.
What’s more, research from the TalentBoard suggests that there is a 72% improvement in the candidate experience that comes from just administering a survey in the first place! Communicate that your company is a great place to work by providing a positive application experience.
- Using it for Benchmarking Purposes
Measuring your CNPS can offer additional value as it can be used as a benchmarking metric. Once you’ve determined your CNPS, it can be compared against your category or industry average. If your score is below the average, you can consider reallocating time and resources to make this an overall business focus.
Further, you can use this metric to benchmark your own progress. Consider calculating this score on an ongoing basis. If you’ve made changes to your application experience, you can use this score to measure its success or determine if further iterations are necessary.
Final thoughts
Your candidates should feel excited to work at your company after going through the application process. Communicate that your company is a great place to work by actioning the feedback from your CNPS survey and making your application process a seamless experience!