Spotlight for Career Services Professionals

How do you boost the response rate to your first-destination survey? Attaining a high knowledge rate is very beneficial to your efforts, but achieving one can be a challenge. Here are suggestions from NACE Community members for increasing their first-destination survey responses:

• Including a senior checklist in the university’s web portal that has a place for the first-destination survey. Students are motivated to check the survey off of their to-do list, so they tend to complete the survey.
• Sending a weekly e-mail from the dean to students who haven’t completed the survey.
• Placing a hold on graduation tickets or diplomas until students complete the survey. Or requiring students to complete the survey to get their caps and gowns from the bookstore.
• Posting ads on social media.
• Having student workers make phone calls encouraging students to complete the survey.
• Taking pictures of students who complete the survey with the school mascot.
• Offering an “instant” prize for completing the survey—a code or coupon for a cup of coffee, a magnetic picture frame, a coffee tumbler with the school logo and the word “alumni” stamped on it, or some other inexpensive reward.
• Setting a deadline for survey completion and entering students who meet the deadline in a drawing for a diploma frame, gift card, or some other larger prize.
• Having a laptop at graduation ticket distribution so that students who have not filled out a survey can complete it on the spot.
• Visiting LinkedIn and Facebook accounts at three to six months post-graduation for first-destination updates.
• Passing out surveys in senior-level courses.
• Giving students who complete the survey a cord in the primary school color to add to their graduation gown.

Join the NACE Community to discuss issues and offer answers with your colleagues.