QuestionBank
QuestionBank holds the questions you can ask a candidate, one record per question, with the answer options and the marks each option earns. You write a question once here and then use it on as many questionnaires as you like.
What it is for
Most clients want to ask a candidate a few things before anybody reads his CV. Do you have a valid driving licence. How many years have you worked on a weaving machine. Are you willing to work night shift. These are the questions that sort fifty applications into five worth reading.
The questions live here and nowhere else, because the same question is usually asked of several different vacancies. A Questionnaire picks questions out of this pool. Change the wording here and every questionnaire using the question shows the new wording.
Marks are set here too, on the options rather than on the question. When a candidate answers on the careers page, PeopleNest adds up the marks of the options he picked and compares the total to the pass mark on the questionnaire. That is why an option that should count for nothing is worth putting in with a score of zero rather than leaving out.
Every field, in plain words
General
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Question | The short reference for this question | Q-NIGHTSHIFT | Required. Must be unique. The HR officer never reads it, it is how questionnaires refer to the question. |
| Category | A free text grouping so a long bank can be sorted | Shift Willingness | Type whatever the client wants. It is not a list and nothing is validated against it. |
| Question Type | What kind of answer the candidate gives | Pick it from the list, see below | Required. |
| Is Required | Tick if the candidate cannot submit without answering this one | Ticked | A questionnaire can also mark a question required for its own purposes, so the same question can be optional on one questionnaire and compulsory on another. |
| Max Score | The marks recorded against the question | 5 | The automatic marking adds up the Option Score of the options the candidate picked. Max Score is stored on the question and is not what the pass mark is compared against. |
| Question Text | The question as the candidate reads it on the careers page | Are you willing to work rotating night shifts? | Required. Write it in the candidate's words, not in HR shorthand. |
Question Type takes one of three values:
CHOChoice. The candidate picks from the options you list below. This is the only type the automatic marking can score, because the marks sit on the options.BOLBoolean. A yes or no question. Add Yes and No as options if you want the answer to carry marks.TXTText. The candidate types freely. There is nothing for the marking to add up, so a text answer contributes nothing to the score. Use it for things a human must read, like "Why do you want to leave your current employer".
Options
One line per answer the candidate can pick. Leave the grid empty for a TXT question.
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Option | The answer as the candidate reads it | Yes, any shift | |
| Option Score | The marks this answer is worth | 5 | This is the number the automatic marking adds up. Put 0 on an answer that should count for nothing rather than leaving the line out, so the candidate still has something to pick. |
How to configure it
- Get the questions from HR in their own words before you open the screen. Rewriting them later means re-marking anybody who has already answered.
- Open QuestionBank, give the question a reference such as Q-NIGHTSHIFT, and type the Question Text exactly as the candidate should read it.
- Set Question Type. Pick
CHOif the answer should carry marks. - Tick Is Required if no candidate should be able to skip it.
- Go to the Options tab and add one line per answer, with the marks each is worth. Give the right answer the marks and the wrong answers zero.
- Save, and repeat for each question. Then build the Questionnaire that uses them.
Scenarios
"We get three hundred applications for a Quality Inspector job and most cannot read a vernier"
Three choice questions with marks on the options will cut that pile down before an HR officer touches it. Ask about the measuring instruments they have used, the industry they have worked in, and whether they hold a trade certificate. Give the right answers 5 and the rest 0, then set the pass mark on the questionnaire at 10 out of 15.
"We only want to know whether they will work nights, there is no right answer to score"
Use a BOL question with Yes and No as options, both scored 0. The answer is recorded against the application for HR to read, and it does not move the candidate's total either way.
"We want to ask them why they are leaving their present job"
A TXT question. The candidate types his answer and it is kept with his application. It cannot be marked automatically, so do not expect it to affect whether he passes.
What it is connected to
- Questionnaire picks questions out of this pool. A question used by no questionnaire is never asked.
- Career Answer is where a candidate's answers and his total land once he has submitted them on the careers page.
- The marks are only added up for applications that arrive through the public careers page, so Career Page Setting and a published Recruitment Project have to be in place for any of this to be used.
If something looks wrong
- "Candidates pass with no marks at all" - the questions are
TXTtype, or the options all have a score of zero. Marks come from the options, never from the question. - "A candidate had nothing to pick" - a choice question was saved with no option lines.
- "We changed a question's wording and the old answers now read oddly" - the answers keep the text the candidate typed or picked, but the question wording shown beside them is the current one. Add a new question rather than rewording one that has already been answered.