You have a candidate satisfaction Net Promoter Score. Everyone does. It exists in the minds of your candidates and affects your ability to hire every single day. Do you know what it is?
If you don’t, that’s a problem.
Net Promoter Scores
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a way to measure how people feel about your brand, product, or service. It’s based on one simple question:
“How likely are you to recommend [company, product, or service] to a friend or colleague?”
The idea behind NPS is this:
- People who score 9 or 10 are “promoters” — they’re fans who will spread the word.
- People who score 7 or 8 are “passives” — they’re okay with you, but they could leave.
- Anyone scoring below 7 is a “detractor” — they’re unhappy and could harm your reputation.
It’s a clear way to understand if your customer or candidate experiences are helping or hurting your brand. A seven out of ten might look fine on paper, but it won’t win loyalty—and it won’t help you improve your hiring results.
This same approach can apply to candidate experience. When you measure candidate job satisfaction metrics with a candidate NPS survey, you get clear insight into how your process is working.
Candidate Satisfaction Net Promoter Score
No group has done more to connect Net Promoter Scores to candidate experience than the Talent Board through its annual candidate experience report and the CandE Awards. In fact, the winners of this year’s CandEs were just announced.
Survale powers the Talent Board’s candidate feedback platform. Between running that research and supporting hundreds of organizations, we’ve seen just about everything when it comes to measuring candidate satisfaction Net Promoter Score.
Every year, the most important question in the CandE survey is:
“How likely are you to recommend this hiring organization to a friend or colleague?”
Some companies get strong scores. Others don’t. But the important thing is this: every company that participates knows their Candidate NPS. And you should too.
Why Candidate Satisfaction NPS Matters
Even if you’ve never asked the question, you already have a score in the minds of your candidates. If it’s high, that’s good news—and you can take action based on that.
First, you can use that Candidate NPS in your employer branding. It’s honest, and it sends a message to future candidates that your hiring process is working.
Second, you can encourage current employees and recent hires to share their stories. Use those voices in job posts, career pages, and more. People who score you highly are likely to refer others—so make it easy for them.
If your score is lower, that’s not bad news—it’s useful. It gives you a starting point. Now you can improve. When you measure Candidate NPS as part of your feedback program, you can track progress, identify weak points in your hiring process, and fix what’s not working.
Candidates will tell you what to fix. They’ll give you the insights to improve your talent acquisition results and your employer brand.
Measuring Candidate Experience
More companies are collecting feedback during every step of hiring. Tools like Survale make it simple to gather and understand real-time candidate feedback—from the moment they apply all the way through their first year on the job.
This kind of data helps you catch issues early. You can act fast and improve the experience while the candidate is still in the process—not after it’s too late. That’s how you reduce drop-off and protect your reputation.
Real-time data is also helpful in managing negative candidate experience moments before they show up in public reviews.
And the best part? Candidate NPS is easy to compare. With Survale, you can benchmark your Candidate Satisfaction NPS score against other employers in the Talent Board’s CandE database. You can see how you stack up against both the overall group and the top-rated CandE Award winners.
To take part in next year’s CandE Award program, click here.
That means no more guessing where you stand.
FAQs
What is a good candidate NPS score?
A good Candidate NPS score is typically +20 or above. The best-performing employers can reach +50 or higher. It varies by industry, so it’s smart to compare your score to others using solid candidate experience benchmarking data like that from the Talent Board.
What is the Net Promoter Score for employee satisfaction?
The same NPS method can be used for employees. Instead of asking candidates, you ask workers how likely they are to recommend your company as a place to work. This employee satisfaction NPS score helps track how well your internal experience matches your employer brand.
What is the candidate Net Promoter Score?
The candidate Net Promoter Score is a number based on how likely job seekers are to recommend your hiring process. It’s based on responses to one question and helps you measure trust, satisfaction, and brand loyalty throughout your hiring funnel.
What is the satisfaction NPS score?
A satisfaction NPS score measures how satisfied a person is based on their willingness to recommend. It applies to customers, candidates, or employees. In recruiting, applying NPS to candidate experience helps you understand what parts of your hiring process are working—and what needs to change.
