Last May was once again a busy time for our engineering team that saw the release of a number of new features to ApplicantStack.  Most of these new features are the result of requests from our customers, so keep them coming!  For current customers, this functionality is automatically available to you when you login to your account (isn’t hosted software grand!).  Here is a summary of new functionality added in May 2010.

Global Questionnaires/Forms

Questionnaires that you create in your Library are now Global and can now be directly attached to jobs or filled out by candidates without first attaching to a job.  Previously Questionnaires in your Library were “templates”, but you still needed to add them to a job in order to use the questionnaire.  And once added to a job the questionnaire would become unique to that job.  Now, when you attach a questionnaire to a job, rather than create a new questionnaire for that job, the global questionnaire is simply shown on the Apply page for that job.

While this may seem like a subtle, technical change, it actually opens the door for some very powerful and exciting uses of questionnaires in ApplicantStack.  For example:

• If you have questions that you want to show on all or most jobs (such as an employment application), you can add this to your library and then attach it to each job where it should be shown. Then you can build a report for the questionnaire (see below) which will include ALL applications across all jobs.
• You can build questionnaires that you want to use to capture data about a candidate from a recruiter or hiring managers.  For example, you could create a Phone Screen Questionnaire, Interview Questionnaire, Reference Check Authorization, etc.  You can then have your users fill out these questionnaires or send them to candidates to fill out.

Layout Templates for Questionnaire Forms

We’ve added the ability to have a custom Layout Template for a questionnaire.  Normally, when you build a questionnaire using our Questionnaire Builder, the questions will be displayed one after another and flow vertically down the page.  While this makes building questionnaires very easy, it is not as suitable for building forms, such as an Employment Application.

By using a Layout Template, you can have a questionnaire form, such as an Employment Application, that has all the functionality of a regular questionnaire (e.g. data collection, validation, reporting, etc) but has a more professional, clean and organized appearance.

Check out this example of an Employment Application implemented using Layout Template:

http://www.applicantstack.com/client/demo/x/apply/a2l87vbzapt7

Please contact us if you would like us to create a questionnaire form for you using a Layout Template.  Note that ApplicantStack customers can create a Layout Template themselves, but it does require knowledge of HTML.  For more specifics on how to create a Layout Templates see our article on Creating a Questionnaire Layout Template

Reporting and Exporting Questionnaire Data

Using the flexible Report Builder, you are now able to build Reports that include your questionnaire/form data.  Just go to the Report Builder, select the Questionnaire from the field menu and choose the questions that you would like to include in your report.

Since you are able to Export reports to CSV (Comma Separated Text File) format, this means you are now able to export all the data from any or all questionnaires into a single CSV file.  Note that CSV can be opened in Excel for easy viewing and manipulation of the data.