What Is Net Promoter Score? Its Impact On Candidate Experience

In the hiring process, there have always been some metrics that recruiters use to improve the overall candidate experience. However, net promoter score (NPS) is a slightly new concept that may change the way we hire and recruit candidates. Originally NPS has been a concept formula to analyze the customer’s experiences, it is used to monitor how well a customer journey is performing and if it is beneficial. It is a means to have a deeper insight into customer loyalty and their purchasing behavior.

However, the changing landscape and strategic changes have let recruiters use NPS for their hiring needs. Let’s dive a little into the What is net promoter score and how it is helping elevate the candidate hiring experience. 

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What is Net promoter score?

Net promoter score is a largely used metric that recruiters use to analyze candidate satisfaction and their overall hiring experience. In 2003, Fred Reichheld developed a method that organizations can use to dig a little deeper into their customer satisfaction, purchasing behavior, and loyalty. However, in recent times, it has also been used by recruiters to gauge candidate hiring experience. The resultant data helps a lot in creating an excellent talent pool and keeping the hiring quality in check.

Why does Candidate experience matter?

Maybe when the digital era was not a digital era, then it would have made sense to overlook the candidate experience. However, in today’s world, where almost everyone is on social media, it becomes tough to be the gatekeeper of every person you encounter. Websites like LinkedIn and Glassdoor have been excellent initiatives for people to find their jobs, it has also been their tool to share their experience with the company. 

Glassdoor.com, where people can create accounts and share their experience of the company. According to a report published by Zendesk, only 87% of customers tell others about a good experience; however, 95% of them share bad experiences. If we use this information for Candidate satisfaction & experience, you’ll get a handful of information where the candidate has gone on social media platform like LinkedIn and have shared negative hiring experiences. According to GlassDoor.com, the primary reason why people resign from their current jobs is work culture. Hence, it is critical for each company not just to create a healthy work environment but to ensure that their hiring quality is optimum. 

Thus, having a good candidate experience is highly critical for the company’s growth. The positive hiring stories shared by candidate helps brands elevate their recruitment process. In today’s hiring paradigm, the best places get the best candidates, and the best candidates take the company to new heights. So, if you have not introduced net promoter score in your hiring process, it’s high time you should.

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How to calculate Net promoter score for candidate experience?

So, it turns out that calculating net promoter score is quite easy, all you have to do is take simple feedback from your candidates. Recruiters and hiring managers can analyze the feedback once they have enough data, this information helps a lot in improving the overall quality of the recruitment process. 

If we look at some sample questions asked by the candidates, it would be something like this:

• On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your hiring experience?
• Would you recommend our brand to your friends & colleagues?
• Were you able to answer all the technical skill assessment questions?
• How many days did it take you to complete your overall hiring process?

Surely, these questions are just a set of examples that recruiters tend to ask any candidate after they have completed the final round of assessments. However, based on the responses, candidates are categorized into three primary groups.

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Promoters: 

Promoters are the ones who have scores between 9-10. These candidates are the ones who are very happy with the candidate experience and will help the organization get new profiles from their own network. In addition, they might share positive stories with their friend circle or their social media platform. 

Passive:

There are the folks that have scored between 6-8. These candidates are somewhat satisfied with the hiring process. However, they won’t be enthusiastic enough to share their stories or promote the brand on their social handles. But still, there is a catch: with the right communication, these passive candidates can also be turned into promoters. However, understanding their negative feedback is the key here. 

Detractors:

They are the ones who have given a score of 0-5. Unfortunately, these candidates are highly disappointed with the hiring process. If the organization is getting a lot of detractors ratings for their hiring process, and there is a system-wise flaw that recruiters and hiring managers need to work around, otherwise the entire recruitment process will start to crumble. 

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At the end

So far, the Net promoter score that has been used to calculate the candidate experience have elevated hiring experience for some of the organization. In addition to giving insights about the candidate experience, it also provides valuable feedback to the recruiters so they can improve their hiring process. If the NPS for any company is greater, it will surely thrive not just in the human resource department, but also in their work force and work culture, as the best talent brings best work environment.