Application Form Questions

About this Guide

This guide explains the features that are available for system administrators to manage additional application form questions and pre-application questions for their organisation’s use on NHS Jobs.

Please note the features described in this guide are only available to system administrators.

Overview

The facilities are covered in the following order:

Application Form Additional Questions
Pre-application Questions

Application form additional and pre-application questions are set up and managed from the ‘Admin’ section by system administrators, and will be selectable when creating vacancies by those users who have been given access to create or edit vacancies.

Having the ability to tailor the application form by including additional questions can assist you in gathering key information to support you when sifting/long-listing applications or when shortlisting. In particular, a recruiter can use the additional questions with the new filtering tools to filter applicants in or out depending on their answers. That can be a very quick and convenient way to narrow down a large number of applications.

Pre-application questions can be used to prevent applicants who do not meet some essential criteria from progressing to the application form. Please be aware the inclusion of these questions needs to be used carefully. If an applicant has genuinely made a mistake with a pre-application question, however, it is possible for system administrators within your organisationto reset the applicant’s application attempt enabling them to start again.

Application Form Additional Questions

Where to start

To add or manage additional application form questions select the ‘Application form additional questions’ option in the Admin section of the left hand navigation.

Overview

The system provides a set of core, system-wide questions. These are available to all organisations and cannot be edited.

The questions are grouped in the following categories:

General / Dental
Nursing / Safeguarding
Medical / Driving
Psychologists / Welsh Language
AHPs/Healthcare Scientists / Internal Vacancies

System administrators have the ability to create up to 100 additional questions for their organisation, associating them with the relevant category from the above list.

Secondary organisations will be able to use any of their primary organisation’s additional application form questions, but they will not have the ability to edit the questions or answer options in any way.

When you access the ‘Application form additional questions’ section, you will see the following:

Adding an Additional Application Form Question

To add an additional application form question, select the ‘Add an application form additional question’ button from the top right hand side of the page.

You must choose a category in which the question should appear. Use General if none of the others apply.
You must add text for the English question. This is the actual question that the applicant will be asked on the application form within the supporting information section, so be careful to ensure it makes sense and contains no spelling or grammatical errors.
You must choose the answer type you require.
If you choose, you can add Welsh versions of the questions and answers too.

Answer Types

For single or multiple select answer types, you must add at least two possible answer options, for example Yes/No
‘Single select’ answer means that the applicant may only select one answer from the list of answers you offer them.
‘Multiple select’ answer means that the applicant may select more than one answer from the list of answers you offer them.
Long and short free text answer types mean the applicant can write their own answer within the word or character limit specified for the answer type selected.

Viewing, Editing and Deleting Application Form Additional Questions

To view, edit or delete an application form additional question, select the relevant link from the ‘Application Form Additional Questions’ page.

The standard system-wide questions are only viewable. These cannot be edited or deleted.
You should only edit a question to fix minor errors without changing the meaning of the question.
Any edits made will take immediate effect on vacancies that have yet to be published.
Published vacancies will NOT be affected by your edit.
We would recommend that if you wish to change the meaning of a question, please add a new question rather than editing an existing question.
When editing or deleting questions, you will be informed of how many vacancies are currently using the question, and will be offered the option to list those vacancies.

Order of Questions

To change the order in which the questions appear within each category, simply change the number in the ‘Order’ column on the right hand side of the ‘Application Form Additional Questions’ page, then save using the green ‘Save’ button.

Pre-application Questions

Where to start

To add or manage pre-application questions select the ‘Pre-application questions’ option in the Admin section of the left hand navigation.

Overview

The system provides a number of core, system-wide questions. These are available to all organisations and cannot be edited.

System administrators can also create up to 20 organisation-specific pre-application questions.

Secondary organisations will be able to use any of the primary organisation’s pre-application questions, but they will not have the ability to edit the questions or answer options.

When you access the ‘Pre-application questions’ section, you will see the following:

Adding a pre-application question

To add an additional pre-application question, select the ‘Add a pre-application question’ button from the top right hand side of the page.

You must add text for the English question. This is the actual question that the applicant will be asked on the pre-application form, so be careful to ensure it makes sense and contains no spelling or grammatical errors.

You must add at least two possible answer options.

oAt least one must be marked as "correct" so that applicants choosing that option will be allowed to continue their application (there can be more than one ‘correct’ answer).

oAt least one must NOT be marked as "correct", i.e. it will prevent applicants to continue with their application (there can be more than one ‘incorrect’ answer).

If you choose, you can add Welsh versions of the questions and answers.

Viewing, Editing and Deleting Pre-Application Questions

To view, edit or delete a pre-application question, select the relevant link from the ‘Pre-application questions’ page.

The standard system-wide questions are only viewable. These cannot be edited or deleted.
You should only edit a question to fix minor errors without changing the meaning of the question.
Any edits will take immediate effect on vacancies that have not yet published.
Published vacancies will NOT be affected by your edit.
If you wish to change the meaning of a question, please add a new question rather than editing an existing question.

Implications of Using Pre-Application Questions

It is important to understand how pre-application questions work. If a potential applicant selects an answer that is not marked as ‘correct’ they will be stopped from applying for the position and will not be able to complete an application form for the vacancy.

It is your responsibility as a system administrator to ensure that any pre-application questions you set up for use within your organisation are not in breach of employment legislation.

You should also ensure that all recruitment team staff understand how to use these questions and the implications of using them. They need to be aware that any pre-application questions used for a vacancy must be relevant to the post advertised and in line with the requirements of the person specification.

Resetting Pre-Application Answers For Stopped Applications

If a potential applicant selects an answer that is not marked as ‘correct’ they will be stopped from applying for the position and will not be able to complete an application form for the vacancy.

The applicant will be shown a message on screen explaining that their application has been stopped and directing them to contact the recruiting organisation if they have any questions about applying for the position.

NHS Jobs users who have permission to manage applications for the vacancy are able to reset an applicant’s pre-application answer at their discretion. This will enable the applicant to answer the questions again.

It is up to you to decide what your local policy will be with regard to resetting stopped applications. If you wish to reset an applicant’s pre-application answers, this is done via the ‘Applications’ page for the vacancy, by selecting the ‘Actions’ button for the application, and then using the ‘Reset application’ action. The applicant will then be able to answer the pre-application questions again.