Questionnaires
Ashby provides a way to send questionnaires to your candidates. These help you collect information during various stages in the application process, rather than asking questions up front in the application form.
Permissions & access
Questionnaires are available on all Ashby plans. The number of questionnaires you can create varies by plan.
Foundations | Legacy Plus | Plus | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
✅* | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
*Foundations: Limited to 1 questionnaire. Plus and Enterprise plans support custom, unlimited questionnaires.
The table below shows which access roles can configure and send questionnaires.
Access Role | Can configure surveys? | Can send surveys to candidates? |
|---|---|---|
Limited Access | ❌ | ❌ |
Agency Users | ❌ | ❌ |
Elevated Access - External Recruiter (not linked to an agency) | ❌ | ❌ |
Elevated Access - Analyst | ❌ | ❌ |
Elevated Access - Hiring Team Member | ❌ | ❌ |
Elevated Access - Hiring Manager | ❌ | ✅ |
Elevated Access - Admin | ❌ | ✅ |
Elevated Access - Admin (Private) | ❌ | ✅ |
Organization Admin | ✅ | ✅ |
Questionnaires overview
Ashby supports the ability to send questionnaires to candidates at any stage of the hiring process. You can create and customize any number of questionnaires and configure how and when to collect them from candidates.
Some use cases for questionnaires include:
- Asking a candidate about their dietary preferences prior to an onsite lunch
- Asking a candidate for references prior to the Offer stage
- Deferring questions asked in the Application Form to later stages of the process to streamline the application process
Set up your questionnaire
You can set up questionnaires in the Admin Section of the app. Navigate to Admin > Jobs & Applications > Candidate Surveys, then select the Questionnaires tab.
Click + New to create a new questionnaire.
You are prompted to give your new questionnaire a title before you can add questions.
Click Add Question and select a question type to build out your questionnaire.
You can select the following field types:
- Short Answer
- Long Unformatted Answer
- Phone
- Multiple Choice
- Checkboxes
- Date
- Yes/No
- Number
- Resume
- Linear Rating
- NPS Rating
- Candidate's Location
- Other Location
- URL
- File
Send a questionnaire
Questionnaires can be sent in two different ways:
Directly request questionnaire completion from the candidate profile
You can directly request the candidate to complete a questionnaire:
- On the candidate profile, click the More dropdown.
- Select Create a Questionnaire Request.
- Choose which questionnaire to send and which application it should be associated with.
- Create the questionnaire request using the Create button, or optionally also schedule an email with a link to the questionnaire using the Create and Email button.
Automate rules to schedule sending the questionnaire to a candidate when certain conditions are met
You can set up automation rules so that you don't need to directly request questionnaires from candidates manually. Instead, you can set up a series of conditions that trigger automatically sending a questionnaire to a candidate.
To configure automation settings for your questionnaire:
- Create a new draft configuration of automation rules by clicking Get Started.
- Specify your conditions by clicking + Add Field to Match, choosing fields, and then creating filters based on those.
- Select an email template from the Email Template dropdown that will be used to send out your questionnaire.
The email template must include the Questionnaire Link substitution token. In the email editor, select the T token button and search for “questionnaire” to add it. This token adds the candidate-specific questionnaire link to the email. The token is required to enable the automation and send the questionnaire email.
- Configure any email delay using the Delay dropdown.
- Specify a sender email address.
- Click Save & Publish.
- Toggle on the Enable Survey Automation toggle once the draft has been activated.
The conditions of each rule are checked whenever a candidate changes stages. Ashby finds the first rule that matches, creates a questionnaire, and schedules an email with a link to the questionnaire.
Setting up automation for questionnaire activities on an interview plan
When a candidate lands in a stage with a questionnaire activity, you can set the questionnaire request to be sent out automatically at that point.
You can watch the video below for an overview, or follow the steps below.
- Navigate to the interview plan for your job.
- Click + Add Activity, then select the Questionnaire option.
- Select your questionnaire and email template.
- Check the Automate on Stage Entry? checkbox so the questionnaire is sent when the candidate is moved to the specified stage.
When a candidate is moved to the stage your automation has been added to, you see a note that the automated activity is being started. You also have the option to undo this.
View your results
Viewing individual results
You can view individual results of a completed questionnaire on the Forms tab on the candidate profile.
Reporting and analysis
You can report on the questions in a questionnaire in standard reports. The fields are available under Job Consideration > Questionnaire.
Reporting on questionnaire responses
Questionnaires are available as a subject to be reported on. Use this to count submitted questionnaires over a period of time, to review answers to specific questions, and more.
Here are the fields that can be used for filtering, grouping, or displaying information on your report. Select the questionnaire you are reporting on to access these fields for the specified questionnaire. You can also choose questions added to the questionnaire as reporting fields.
Field | Definition |
|---|---|
Submitted At | When the questionnaire was completed and submitted. |
Title | The name of the questionnaire. |
Questionnaire report examples
Pull a list of the answers submitted for a specific job
Navigate to Reports > Report Builder, then select Custom List.
Subject: Questionnaires
Filters: Questionnaire's Candidate's Job Consideration's Job.
Fields to Show: Candidate Name and all or any of the questionnaire questions you'd like to have included in your list.
Custom list reports on questionnaires can also be exported to .csv using the Export button in the upper right corner of the report.
View the number of questionnaires completed over the last quarter, split by week and grouped by questionnaire type
Navigate to Reports > Build Report, then select Count Over Time.
Subject: Questionnaires
Time Field & Interval: Submitted At to show Last Quarter every Week.
Group By: Questionnaire's Title.
FAQs
Are questionnaire links public or reusable?
Links to complete questionnaires are candidate-specific. It currently isn't possible to create a public link for a questionnaire.
Can I add file upload questions to my questionnaire?
Yes! Click Add Question, then select the File field option. You can then add the question and, optionally, a description.
Can I send questionnaires to other users like interviewers or recruiters?
No, questionnaires can only be configured and sent out to candidates. Consider adding questions to feedback forms or setting up Hiring Manager Experience SurveysHiring Manager Experience Surveys.