When is the best time to survey new employees? The answer may surprise you.
You may think that you need to give employees at least a few months to get acclimated to their new position, job environment, and get a feel for office dynamics within your company. However, there is no better time to survey new employees than from the very beginning. Or better yet, survey potential hires during the hiring process with a pre-employment survey.
It may seem odd to survey interviewees during the hiring process, but from the start, it is important for your business to:
- Show potential employees that your company cares about the continued success of the business and its employees, and
- Gauge how a potential new hire will react to your company’s work environment and how they will adapt to the work culture.
A pre-employment survey communicates to potential hires what is expected of them in the new position and what they can expect from your company. By doing this, the new employee will be far more knowledgeable and engaged from the start of employment.
Consider creating a paper survey that you can distribute to interviewees during the interview process, so they can complete the survey immediately. Better yet, consider creating an online survey and send it to interviewees so they can complete it prior to the interview. This will give your company interviewers time to process survey data prior to face-to-face interviews.
No matter what mode of survey research you choose to create your pre-employment survey, the data you gather from the very beginning of the hiring process will be invaluable information used to make informed hiring decisions.
