Post Interview Questionnaire

hrnewbie

Good Wednesday morning,

I work for an engineering firm and was recently asked if I could develop a questionnaire to send to applicants that we have interviewed to see what they thought of our interview process. In the past before I started to work here and revamped my company's interview process it seemed that interviews lasted for at least 4 hours and an applicant met with pretty much everyone in our some office of over 50 engineers. When I started I slimmed the interview down to about 1 to 1 1/2 hours and included a 1 hour lunch. I have also established a core group of engineers that each applicant will meet with instead of having them meet with everyone. I think that my process is better with the changing world and peoples lack of extra time, but I may be wrong. Please if anyone could provide advice or even a post interview questionnaire I would be extremely grateful. Thank you in advice.

Wildsporty

I think you have done a good job of slimming down the process.

Our Process is simple. I go through the resumes pick out my top 20 peopls, my vice President goes through the top 20 and picks his top 10, I go through the top 20 and pick my top 10. We compare notes and pull in the ones that we both agree on.

In the interview room we have myself (HR), the Vice President, and the supervisor of the person being hired. The only other person in the interview is the person that is leaving if they have given notice and are leaving on good terms.

I don't have a post interview questioneer, I ask them as I am escorting them out what they thought of the interview. I do have questions I ask during the interview and I ask the same questions of every candidate. The questions change a little with what job is being offered but some of them stay the same.

After the interview we have a meeting and go around the room and ask for the top 3 in that order 1, 2, 3. If we have a majority agreement we hire the person. If we are split we might call the top 2 back in for a second interview.

I will have to think about the post interview and perhaps a 1 page sheet I could give them to complete and either give back to me or send back in.

It is a good idea, I wonder if any others on here do it.

Shirley

System

Just curious, but do you ever get bad feedback from an interviewee as he or she is leaving? I just can't see an applicant being openly critical of the interview process if he's still waiting to hear if he got the job. In a system where applicants are given a questionnaire to fill out later, applicants who aren't offered a job may be bitter and their view of the interview process may be tainted by their negative experience of not getting the job. Applicants who got the job may be worried about ruffling any feathers at the start of their employment. I would think even an anonymous questionnaire would be tough, because an applicant might worry that he'd be identified. For all the applicant knows, he was the only one interviewed that week, or if there aren't that many applicants to begin with, he might be concerned that it will be clear to you who's filling out the form, and again, will not give candid feedback on the interview process.

Of course the above is all speculation; for all I know everyone is really eager to share their opinion without fear of any negative consequences.

davids

We recently discussed doing a similar survey of applicants to find out how applicants view our recruitment process. For the reasons stated by KimberlyK, we decided not to survey applicants soon after their interview. We are now discussing drawing a sample from all of the applicants over the past 12 months and sending those in the sample group an a questionaire. The applicants will be able to remain anonymous.

Wildsporty

David,
I like your idea, how would you come up with a sampling? Just a random selection? I had 60 resume's from my last job opening.

I would assume you might pick some from each gender group, each age group, and some minorities?

What questions have you thought about asking?
Some that come to mind are:

Were you given ample time to completely answer each question and explain your answer?

Were you given the opportunity to ask questions of the interviewers?

Do you feel the questions asked were pertinent to the job at hand?

Were you treated in a polite and respectful manner by the interviewers?

What was the hardest question asked at the interview and why?

What did you like about the interview process?

What did you dislike about the interview process?

If you could tell the company one way they could change it to make it better for you what would it be? Please explain.

What other questions would you or anyone else on the forum ask?

Shirley

Carolsmith

I am not so sure that applicants/interviewees that did not get hired would care about spending time answering questions about their experience being interviewed by your company. After hiring an applicant ask the new hire what he/she thought of the hiring process at your company. In casual conversations with new hires, often they will express how they felt during the interview process, how they felt when they received the phone call to return for a second interview etc. During such conversations I make inquires as to what can we do better in our interview process. This works good for me because we are a small company of 122 employees.

ritaanz

My feelings go along with Kimberly's response. Over the years I have received unsolicited "advise" from applicants that received my letter notifying them that the position was filled.

Some called and counseled me as to the wisdom of not hiring them. Others wrote back, on the orginal letter that I sent them, recommending what I can do with that pirce of paper. Of course, there are the ones that insist you give them your opinion of their interview and ask for suggestions to improve their technique.

If you have the confidence that you have selected the best candidate for the job, then you should be comfortable with your selection process, the interview.

mbeam

Is there a reason for the request for a post-interview summary? If your recent hires have turned out well and are good performers, what is the rationale behind implementing this process.

Perhaps you ask your recent hires for feedback as well as the interviewers. From what you've said the changes you've made make sense. Meeting lots of people in a 4 hour timespan seems too much. We went through a bit of this angst as our company grew from under 100 to over 400. On a new hire's first day, they used to meet everyone in the company. We stopped this years ago when it started to take hours and figured there was no way our new person would remember a portion of the people he or she met in that timespan.

Another poster raised a great point in asking about feedback from people who didn't hire. If they were good, you probably hired them or you stay in touch and have their resume set aside for consideration when a position that fits their skill sets opens up.