Ep 195 - How to Use Net Promoter Scores in Recruiting

On today’s podcast, I’d like to talk about how NPS surveys in recruiting as well as sentiment scoring in recruitment marketing. Net Promoter or Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a tool that can be used to gauge customer (or candidate) loyalty. It’s an alternative to traditional customer satisfaction research and typically correlates with revenue growth. In recruiting, the NPS metric is based on how employees or candidates answer one question: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely is it that you would recommend this company as a place to work?”

This podcast is sponsored by ClearCompany.

Ep 195 – How to Use Net Promoter Scores in Recruiting with Will Staney (@willstaney)

I’m joined by Will Staney, Founder of Proactive Talent, a recruiting and employer branding consulting and staffing company as well as the Co-Founder of Talent Brand Alliance, a professional community for Employer Branding and Recruitment Marketing professionals. In marketing, using net promoter scores to measure consumer or customer experiences is common. Will walks us through how he has used NPS scores to measure and better understand a candidate and employee experience. In Will’s time at Twilio he used some awesome coding skills to build a small integration where the candidate received a text message asking the candidate to rate their experience. This text was sent using Twilio’s own platform a short time after the candidate’s interview was complete allowing the candidate to provide quick feedback on what the interview and selection process has been like. Will says that candidates were quick to answer because of the timing of the messaging and the use of text.

Not all NPS surveys have to be done this way. Will says that using a simple survey through a technology platform like SurveyMonkey can quickly ask employees and job candidates how their experience was. Recruiters and HR leaders can use the information and data to alert them to possible bad experiences. This quick scoring system helps HR and recruiting pros to decide whether to dive deeper into the process and experience. You are looking for scores to better understand what your candidates want and open a dialogue on how to fix or improve.

What’s an Average NPS Score for Recruiting and the Candidate Experience?

NPS scores are 0-10. Will shared what a good NPS score is, 9 and above and what an average score would be 7-8 with concerns for NPS scores of 7 and below. This is important because in my experience there isn’t a lot of benchmarking and data available around NPS for recruitment and hiring. Your NPS score is less about what your peers and recruiting competition is doing and more about how those you are asking are rating you and what their expectations are from you.

[bctt tweet=”NPS is traditionally a marketing mindset, and I think while a lot of companies are moving to think more like markers as a recruiting organization. Most recruiters are not marketers. They identify more with sales & HR. – @willstaney #podcast #employerbranding” via=”no”]

How is Sentiment Being Used in Recruiting and Hiring

Another newish area in recruitment marketing is the concept of sentiment which as I am working on my book on digital recruiting, I am thinking about. Sentiment is the feeling or opinion that expressed often online. There are tools and technologies out there used in digital marketing used to measure the sentiment of customer questions and social media engagement online. I’ve seen sentiment technology being used in workplace collaboration and communication platforms. I asked Will if he’s seeing sentiment analysis used yet to measure candidate engagement online on things like employee review sites, social media, or in online conversations between candidate and recruiter. Will says this is a new area that employers aren’t yet investing in. However, with the rise of chatbots and the increase in recruitment marketing efforts, it’s only a matter of time.

CONCLUSION

Using NPS surveys to help improve hiring and retention, turn employees into brand ambassadors, and measure the impact of changes in your workplace can be a game-changer for HR teams, especially when it comes to employer branding. I’m so glad we were able to chat with Will and get his advice on how to use these scores in recruiting and HR.

Thank you for joining the Workology Podcast sponsored by ClearCompany This podcast is for the disruptive workplace leader who’s tired of the status quo. This is Jessica Miller-Merrell. Until next time, visit Workology.com to listen to all our episodes of the Workology podcast.

Connect with Will Staney.