Once you have created your form, its now time to populate the form with the fields you need the candidate or hiring manager to complete.
This is done within the Questions tab of the form and allows you to add Discover Fields, Standard Fields and Pages.
Discover V Standard - Which Fields to use?
When you click + Add, the first choice is to decide which type of field to use. There are benefits of both, depending on the information you are looking to capture, what you need to do with the information and the candidate journey:
- Discover Fields - These are single use fields which only exist within the form itself. These cant be used to update candidate records, nor can you report on or export the information captured. However, it does give you complete flexibility in your form to add questions in any format you wish, allowing you to create your own questions. These are ideal when you have unique scenarios in which the information provided is only relevant to this form.
Example - You are advertising a role which requires to be filled very quickly; so quickly in fact, that you already have interview slots booked and an immediate start date. You can use Discover questions to add in knock-outs to your form, along the lines of 'Are you available to interview on Thursday?' or 'Can you work this weekend?'. The answer to these questions may have a big bearing on whether you proceed with the application, but isn't something you will later need to report on or export, nor will the response be relevant to any other application.
- Standard Fields - This is the library of fields which already exists within the database and allows you to use them to capture or update information stored within the record. You can also draw through fields from other record types, such as vacancies, contacts or companies, which will show as read only when completing the form. This is a great way to showcase the job advert whilst a candidate applies or reference contact information during onboarding etc.
Example - Standard fields should make up most of your forms and should be used for any information you need to report on (ED&I), export (new starter info) or use to interact the candidate (email & address etc).
Adding Fields - Discover Fields
Once you have decided which type of field to add, use the +Add option and select Discover Field if you want to create your own 'single use' field.
- Page Text - Section Heading - This option adds titles to the page, which can be used when creating new sections.
- Page Text - Paragraph - This option is used to add text to the page. Typically this field is used to provide information about the form and instructions for answering the questions.
- Page Text - HTML - If you want to make your text fields a bit more interesting, link to external pages or embed Images and Videos, you'll need to use the HTML field. The editor includes all your basic text formatting options (Bold, Italic, Font, Colours, etc), but also includes hyperlinking options. Using the HTML tab, you can insert your own custom HTML code to do things like embed video content.
Hint - Whilst HTML editors are available, Eploy does offer support for working in HTML. Ensure you have the right resource available to help you create HTML templates to make the most of these fields. Please note that certain HTML functions are restricted to protect the integrity of your web.
- Page Text - Link to Company File - If you'd like to share any documents, policies or handbooks with candidates as they complete the form, you can use this option to link to any document saved against a Company record within your system.
- Input - Short Answer - This is a free text, single line field for the candidate to complete. You can set a minimum and maximum character length for these questions.
- Input - Hyperlink - This field gives your candidates a specific place to provide useful links. For example, if you'd like your candidates to provide a link to an online portfolio or some other website, use this field.
- Input - Long Answer - This is a free text comments box for candidates to provide longer, more in-depth responses. You can set a minimum and maximum word count for these questions.
- Input - Drop Down - This question type asks the candidate to select a single answer from a drop down list. The answers available within the drop down are managed from within the question itself, not the drop down list option within the admin menu.
- Input - Multiple Choice - Similar to a drop down, this question type gives your Candidates the facility to select a single answer from a list, but rather than being presented as a drop down, the answers are displayed as a series of tick boxes. Alternatively, you could display each answer as a button, which can make your forms more engaging by adding a splash of colour (choose from Grey, Red, Yellow, Green or Blue).
- Input - Multiple Choice Grids - Using this question type you can provide multiple options for a candidate to select against a series of related questions. For example, you could use this question type to set a scenario and ask the Candidate to indicate which option they are most likely or least likely to select. You could also use this question type to create a simple Likert scale when gathering feedback.
- Input - Checkboxes - Similar to multiple choice, but this option allows candidates to select multiple answers or tick all the options that apply to them.
- Input - Date - This option inserts a date field, with a date picker, into the form
- Input - Number - This question type inserts a numbers only field in to the form
- Input - Decimal Number - As above, but with the addition of decimals allowing you to be even more specific. Ideal for monetary values.
- Input - Uploadable Files - This will allow the candidate to upload a file of a certain type.
- Input - Signable Files - As part of our eSignature module, you can host signable files as part of the form e.g. employment contracts.
- Input - Downloadable Files - This allows you to host or create a file which is available for the candidate to download as part of the form.
Having selected the question type, you can add a description for the field, as well as any responses, limits or mandatory settings.
Hint - For each field, you can also chose to add help text, either as a description (which shows on the page below each field) or as a help pop-up, which will appear as a help (?) icon.
These are the standard list of question types, whilst there are some additional premium question types available. To learn more Situational Judgment Tests (SJTs), Video and Audio Interviews, click here.
Adding Standard Fields
When adding Standard Fields in to the form, as described above, they will all be added as a block to your list of questions. You can then drag and drop each question individually to the appropriate position within your form. Clicking on the individual field will allow you to configure its behaviour:
- Load Existing Value - If the field has previously been populated, this option will allow the candidate to overwrite the information recorded.
- Draw Empty - Even if the field has been previously completed, the field will be blank when displayed to the Candidate, meaning they always have to complete it. This can be useful for declarations or key information which needs to be confirmed each time e.g. Right to Work.
- Draw Read Only - This will load the existing value, but it will be displayed in a Read Only format, meaning the Candidate cannot change or overwrite the content. This can be useful to reference previously provided responses, or when you want to include Vacancy Information
- Draw Hidden - This setting will add the field to the form, but it will not be displayed to the Candidate. This can be useful if you'd like to drive show/hide conditions, for example, showing questions specific to Internal Candidates based on whether they are marked as Internal.
As well as setting the field behaviour, you can tick to make the field active or mandatory on the form.
Hint - As mentioned above, you can drive show / hide conditions based on the responses to certain questions. Below the list of values, you can use toggle Show / Hide to make additional questions appear based on the option selected. Simply tick this box, then select the value within If Answered and the subsequent questions or fields to show. Remember, though, you need to add the question/field you want to show or hide to your form before you can set this behaviour.
Scoring & Grading
When looking at the settings for each question, if you have activated Scoring within your form, you'll see extra options to each response. These extra options allow you to add a score or value to each response option. Ticking Enable Grading within the question will add a Grade picker to each response, allowing you to specify a grade for each answer.
Hint - The options available are determined by the scoring and grading options selected on the Details tab of the form. To learn more about scoring, see Creating Discover Forms
When you add a field which can be scored, e.g. drop downs, multiple choice and check boxes, next to each response option you'll can add a score. The score awarded for each response selected will then be added to the total score of the form. If you have opted to use Grade by Questionnaire Score, this total will then determine a grade, as outlined on the details tab.
If your form is using Set to Lowest Question Grade, you will also have the option to enable grading on the question. In this scenario, you are able to add a score to each response and a specific grade. Using this method allows you to add minimum requirements or knockout questions to your form.
Adding Pages
Pages allow you to split your form into smaller, more manageable chunks for candidates as they complete them. This can help to improve the candidate experience as the form can feel less lengthy if split over multiple pages & can be used to help with candidate navigation as they complete. Use +Add and select Page to add a new page, before then adding new fields or dragging and dropping fields onto the page as required.
Click into the page title to change the page name (which shows as part of candidate navigation) and you can even reorder pages too.
Hint - As part of the responses used for scoring and grading, you can also navigate to different pages using the response. This is done using the GO TO function, available within drop down, checklists and multiple choice responses.
Previewing your Form
As you add fields and content to your forms, don't forget to use the preview! This will allow you to get a better understanding of the candidate experience as they complete the form. This will also help highlight the flow of the form, including if any show / hides haven't been configured correctly.