Application Forms

Application forms are the core of the application process. They are completely customisable and can feature any combination of questions, file requests or information blocks across any number of pages.

Each answer is encrypted and stored separately, ensuring the data is held securely. Once an applicant has completed an application form, you can see their history, including custom messages that have been sent to them.

Version Control

The application forms are version-controlled. This ensures a fair review for each applicant as their application is viewed alongside the exact questions asked when they first completed their form.

When you create a new application form or edit an existing one, you are making changes to a draft. Once you have completed your changes, simply Publish the draft to make them live and ensure applicants are using this form.

Any applicants who have already started the application form on an earlier version will complete their forms on that version and won’t be moved to the latest version.

A new feature of the system is the ability to edit the details of a live application form. You can now edit the blinding/hidden options, page breaks, and scoring options and remove questions at any point in the application process. To use this, you just need to go to manage application forms and choose to edit your draft questions. Once you have made your changes and saved the application form, it will immediately be updated.

Application Form Questions

You have complete control over the questions asked in your application form. This means you can easily match your existing forms or expand them with more detailed questions.

Before you Start

We recommend that you create a “generic” application form that contains all of your standard questions. This will allow you to create specific application forms for certain roles (with detailed questions for that role) and simply include the generic application form as part of it. This means you don’t need to update all of the forms to make a change to your generic questions.

Email Address

To ensure we can identify an applicant, we require an email address to be the first field on any form. This is to provide the applicant with a code to resume editing their application form.

Question Options

You can add any combination and quantity of the following answer types:

• Short Text
  A single line of text. You can set a limit in characters or words.
• Long Text
  Multiple lines of text with basic formatting. You can set a limit in characters or words.
• Select One
  Provide a list of options for the applicant to choose from.
• Select One with Other
  Provide a list of options for the applicant to choose from, plus an “other” option at the end where the applicant can provide a single-line text answer.
• Select Many
  Provide a list of options for the applicant to choose from, as many as are applicable.
• File Upload
  Applicants can upload a file to be reviewed by shortlisters.
• Data Field
  If you have added custom field sets to StaffSavvy (these let you add extra data to your staff accounts for any purpose you desire), you can use the same questions within the application form. This allows you to collect the data when they apply, and it will be automatically copied over to their StaffSavvy account if they are successful in their application.
• Special Field
  One of the standard StaffSavvy fields from the main site. These will be used to create the staff member’s StaffSavvy account if they are successful.
  • First name
  • Last name
  • Nickname
  • Mobile Phone Number
  • Date of Birth

• Title and text
  This allows you to add a title and a block of text within the application form. It is useful to provide information or context to the applicant about a series of questions.
• Score Only
  This is a special question type which doesn’t actually ask a question. These questions are not shown to the applicant at all and can be used to score the applicant against a job description or required skills. Simply enter the scoring point as the question, and this will appear during the shortlisting.
• Sub Form
  This allows you to include another application form in your current list of questions. It allows you to have standardised questions that you include on all forms.

Use the form at the top of your application to add questions. You can then edit, remove and reorder the questions as needed using the controls on the right.

Short & Long Text Answers

Short text answers will be displayed with a single-line text box and are designed for answers under 100 characters.

Long text answers are displayed in a self-expanding text area where applicants can add as much information as they want to include. They can also use basic formatting on this text, including bold, italic, underlined and bullet lists.

Both long and short answers can contain a limit on the information provided. This can be a character limit or a word limit.

When marked as required, the answer must contain at least one character of text.

Select One & Select All Answers

Both of these answer types allow you to enter as many options as you wish and to order them as needed.

Select One answers will force the applicant to only select one answer where as the Select All That Apply answers will allow applicants to choose any combination of options.

When marked as required, the applicant must select at least one answer. If it’s an optional question then they can leave all options unselected.

Conditional Options

You can now create conditional questions that allow you to ask specific questions for information only if required. This is useful when you have questions that might not be relevant to certain participants based on how they answered a previous question. Rather than having them answer unnecessary questions, you can now set up conditional answers where some questions will only be visible to users who answer a certain way. 

For example, suppose you are running a form detailing medical conditions. In that case, there might be multiple questions about one specific condition. If those questions only come up if the participant recorded ‘yes’ for whether or not they had the condition, this would make it easier and more streamlined for participants without the aforementioned condition.

Application Blocks

You also have the option to block an applicant. This option comes up alongside the ‘make question conditional option’. However, its purpose is to block an applicant entirely from proceeding. 

This is especially useful if you have some prerequisites of applying that cannot be ignored, and therefore, you are saving yourself and the applicant a lot of time. This might be relevant if the applicant is under eighteen and the position involves serving alcohol to customers.

File Upload

File Request answers allow applicants to upload documents to their application. The file type must be selected from a list of staff document types. You can add new file types under System > Documents & Forms > Manage Document Types.

This is required so the system can correctly map the provided documents through to staff accounts if the applicant is successful. When marked as required, the applicant must upload a document otherwise this can be left empty when applying.

Blind for Shortlisting vs Hidden Answer

By default, all answers are visible to recruitment managers and shortlisters throughout the application process.

You can mark any answer (including email, names etc) as either “blind for shortlisting” or “hidden”.

Bind for shortlisting will hide the answer from anyone who is assigned as a shortlisted for that position until the applicant has been offered an interview. Then, the answer will be visible during the interview and final decision phases. Recruitment managers can see the answer throughout the process unless they themselves are listed as shortlisted, and then the shortlister rules apply.

Hidden will hide the answer from anyone who is assigned as a shortlisted for that position throughout the process. It will never display the information to them. Recruitment managers can see the answer throughout the process unless they themselves are listed as shortlisted, and then the shortlister rules apply.

Scoring and Weighting

You can configure each question to either be scorable or not. This is only used if you are using scoring as a short-listing method.

When the question is scorable, the shortlisters are asked to score it from 0 to 5.

You can also apply a weighting to the scores. This can multiply or divide the score to affect the overall score assigned to the application.

To change the scoring settings, click the 'More' button on the question field and choose Scoring Options.

Sub Forms

Sub Forms is one of the more powerful features within the application forms. It allows you to have a standard set of questions that are always asked and include these easily on every application form.

Subforms are simply other application forms. They can be used on their own or included in other application forms, and the number of subforms in an application form is unlimited.

Please note: only one level of sub-forms can be included, so you cannot include a sub-form that includes further sub-forms. Further sub-forms will be ignored.

To prevent fragmentation of answers provided by applicants, the sub-forms are copied when the main form is published. Changes to any sub-forms won’t affect the main application form until it is next published. This ensures that all applicants are providing answers to the same questions unless you explicitly change the form.