Candidate Data is at the heart of everything you do when processing Applications, carrying out Talent Pooling activities or running reports; so it's really important to ensure you have collected enough information from your candidates to allow you to do what you need to do.
Within Eploy, there are generally 3 stages where you'd typically collect Candidate Data: Registration, Application and Onboarding.
In this article we're going to look at the second stage - Application.
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Application Forms
Your Candidates have registered, and now they're about to submit their Application - the next page they'll see is the Application Form.
As with the registration process, this can be a balancing act as well, taking in to account the amount of information you need to gather to be able to process their application vs. not wanting to put them off completing their initial application.
Within your Application Forms you can ask any question you like, and it can be tempting to ask everything on that initial application, but by using Form Flows, Eploy gives you the option of having a very simple initial application form, gathering the basic information you need to qualify the Candidate in or out, and then ask supplementary questions later on...either automatically, based on Conditions within the Form Flow, or by manually moving the Application to another stage in the process which includes another set of forms for the Candidate to fill in.
As part of your initial scope, the number of Application Forms we will build for you will have been discussed and agreed, so at this stage, you'll need to let us know what you'd like to include within these forms.
When you reach Phase 3 - Customer Configuration, you'll have the opportunity to add extra forms in to your process if you wish.
Key Things to Consider
Before you start filling in the specification document, here are a few useful things to consider:
- Paging - You don't need to have all questions captured on a single page within your Application Form. The Discover Module (the part of the system you use to build your forms) gives you the freedom to spread your questions over several pages, for example, having questions on different topics together on their own page. As the Candidate reaches the end of one page and moves on to the next, their answers are saved, meaning they don't have to complete their application all in one go.
- Conditions - Conditions allow you to control the behaviour of your forms, based on how certain questions are answered...both those within the Application Form and within other records, such as the Vacancy. Conditions within the form can be used to make later questions show or hide, and they can be used within an Application Form Flow to control which individual forms are shown to your Candidates.
- Different Stages - As we've discussed earlier, you don't have to ask all your application questions right at the beginning. Asking too many questions early on can put candidates off, so it might be worth considering whether any of your questions can be left till later in the process. There are three ways you could achieve this: having additional forms aligned to a Shortlist stage which are shown to the Candidate as soon as they reach the shortlist stage; sending additional forms out via email either manually or as an automated notification configured within your workflow; or, by asking these additional questions at a telephone interview stage, with the answers captured within a form completed by either your Recruiters or Hiring Managers.
- Scoring and Grading - The Eploy Discover Module includes the ability to automatically score and grade Application Forms, which can then be used to control behaviour within the system. For example, achieving a score of 60% or more could be used as the condition to show or hide additional questions or forms. You can also use this functionality to create knock-out questions which, when answered "incorrectly", can terminate the application.
- Reportability - Within your Application Forms there are two question types available to you: Discover Fields and Standard Fields. Discover fields are effectively free text questions, giving you the freedom to ask anything you like. Standard Fields are fields within a record and include things like Candidate Name, Email Address, Postcode, etc. If you want to be able to report on how a question has been answered, these must be added in as Standard Fields. Anything asked as a Discover Field is not reportable. So, when you're thinking about the questions to put on your Application Forms, you'll want to consider whether you'll ever want to be able to see that data on a dashboard or a downloadable report. If you do, you'll need to make sure you tell your Implementation Manager as only they can create Standard Fields in the system.
- Video and Audio Interviews - Along with the classic question types such as free text, drop down menus and tick boxes, you can also include Video and Audio questions. These questions require your Candidates to either film themselves answering the question, or record their answer as an audio file. These types of questions can be used to great effect when included as part of an application for a Graduate role or if the role itself will include some kind of on-screen or audio presence for example, if you're recruiting a presenter or voiceover artist. These question types are not included as a default with a new Eploy system as there is an additional cost associated with using them (mainly to cover the cost of the additional server space needed to save the files).
- Other Types of Media - Along with the classic text based questions and answers, and even the more advanced Video and Audio interviews, you can also include as part of the Application other types of media. This can include things like downloadable files, space for the candidate to upload files (like a portfolio or a link to an online one) and even embedded videos which form the question themselves!
If you'd like to learn more about any of these features or considerations, please ask your Implementation Manager and they'll be able to go through it with you.
Note just a quick thought...we've mentioned Form Flows a few times in this section. The Form Flow controls which Application Forms are used for different circumstances. This is not something you need to worry about - your Implementation Manager will build your Form Flow for you.
Completing the Specification Document
For this one, you'll need to look at the Application worksheet within the Candidate Specification document.
As usual, to begin with you'll find the default set of fields which are included as part of your "out of the box" Application Form.
Typically, your Implementation Manager will set up a number of Application Forms for you, according to what has been agreed as part of your scope.
At this stage, you should be letting us know what you'd like to include within the Application Forms your Implementation Manager is creating for you.
If you'd like to create extra forms, you'll be able to do this during Phase 3 (Customer Configuration) of your Implementation.
To fill in the form, let us know which of the default questions:
- Should appear on the form
- Should be mandatory for the Candidate to complete
- If you'd like to change the name of the field, and if so, what you'd like it to be called
- If the field is a dropdown list question, what options would you like included in the dropdown
- Should be shown to all Candidates
You can also add in any extra questions you'd like to include at the bottom of the form.
Although not captured as part of this form, your Implementation Manager will ask you whether there are any conditions that need to be taken in to account to drive any behaviour within the form e.g. show/hide questions, or different forms being used at different times. You'll need to let them know what this behaviour should look like so they can build it in to your Form Flows.
If you have any questions about how to fill in the spec doc, please discuss them with your Implementation Manager.
Remember if you want to be able to report on any answer, either via a dashboard or a downloadable report, these questions need to be added in to the system as a reportable field; so it's really important to let your Implementation Manager know which questions these are.
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