Q01
Message
All templatesEmployee & HR
New Hire Entry Interview: First Impressions & Retention
Captures what drew a new hire to accept the offer, how the first weeks stack up against what was promised, and what would keep them long-term. Built for HR and people teams running structured 30/60/90-day check-ins, with an AI follow-up that digs into the specific moment expectations and reality diverged.
Sample questions
A preview of what’s in the template. Every question is editable before you launch.
13 questions · ~7 min
Q02
Multiple ChoiceRequired
What was the single biggest reason you decided to join us?
- Compensation and benefits
- Career growth opportunities
- The company's mission or product
- The team or manager I met during interviews
- Flexibility or remote-work options
- Company reputation or brand
- Job security or stability
Q03
Best–Worst Trade-off (MaxDiff)Required
Thinking back to when you were deciding whether to accept the offer, which of these mattered most and least?
- Compensation and benefits
- Career growth opportunities
- Company mission or product
- The team and manager from interviews
- Work-life balance and flexibility
- Job security or stability
- Company reputation or brand
- Location or remote-work options
Pick best & worst per setBest:Mattered most in my decisionWorst:Mattered least in my decision
Q04
Opinion ScaleRequired
So far, how does the day-to-day role compare to what was described during hiring?
Scale: 1 – 7
Min:Much worse than expectedMax:Much better than expected
Q05
MatrixRequired
How has each of these compared to what you expected before you started?
6 rows × 4 columns
- Onboarding process
- Manager support and check-ins
- Team culture and collaboration
- Tools and resources provided
- Workload and pace
- +1 more
Columns: Far below what I expected · Below what I expected · Met what I expected · Exceeded what I expected
Q06
Opinion ScaleRequired
How likely are you to recommend this company to a friend as a great place to work?
Scale: 0 – 10
Min:Not at all likelyMax:Extremely likely
Q07
AI Interview
Ask the respondent to describe the single moment since starting where the job felt most different from what they expected — better or worse — and get concrete specifics: what happened, who was involved, how it changed their view. Anchor on whichever item they rated lowest in the expectations matrix and dig into what's driving that gap. Then look forward: ask what would need to be true a year from now for them to say joining was the right call, and if they give a vague answer like 'better communication,' push for one specific example of what that would actually look like.
Q08
RankingRequired
Rank these from what would most to least influence your decision to stay here long-term.
- Clear path for career growth
- Meaningful or impactful work
- Compensation growth over time
- Relationship with my manager
- Team culture and belonging
- Work-life balance
- Job security or stability
Drag to rank
Q09
Long Text
What's one thing that has surprised you — positively or negatively — since you started?
Q10
Dropdown
How long have you been with the company so far? (Optional)
- Less than 1 month
- 1-3 months
- 3-6 months
- 6-12 months
- More than 12 months
- Prefer not to say
Q11
Multiple Choice
Which department are you part of? (Optional) (Template note: replace with your own department or team list before launching.)
- Engineering
- Sales
- Marketing
- Customer Success
- Operations
- Product
- Prefer not to say
Q12
Multiple Choice
What's your primary work arrangement? (Optional)
- Remote
- Hybrid
- Onsite
- Prefer not to say
Q13
Message
That's everything — thank you! Your answers will be reviewed by HR alongside other new hires' responses to improve onboarding, set expectations more accurately, and shape what we do to help people like you stay and grow here.
What’s included
AI follow-ups
Adaptive probes on open-ended answers that pull out detail a static form would miss.
Attention checks
Built-in safeguards against rushed answers and low-quality respondents.
AI-drafted copy
Wording, ordering, and branching written by the AI — tuned to your research goal.
Auto report
Themes, quotes, and a plain-English summary write themselves once responses come in.
How it compares
We reviewed the closest templates from other survey tools. Here’s what they do well — and where this template goes further.
Why this template
- Includes an AI follow-up interview question specifically prompting the respondent to describe the exact moment the job felt different from what was expected — a structured probe most static entry-interview forms don't attempt
- Combines quantitative tracking (rating-scale comparisons, best-worst trade-off on offer-acceptance drivers, ranking of retention factors, matrix on expectation-vs-reality) with open-ended and AI-driven follow-up in one flow
- Built explicitly for repeatable 30/60/90-day HR check-ins, with optional department/tenure/work-arrangement fields for segmentation and a closing note that responses feed into an HR report
- Every question — including the AI follow-up prompt — is visible and editable in the template, so HR can see exactly what will be asked before fielding it
SurveyMonkey
Entry Interview Template & QuestionsA fielding-ready entry interview template covering onboarding and early-tenure questions, backed by SurveyMonkey's established survey infrastructure and analytics. It's a static question set: respondents answer fixed items with no adaptive follow-up on individual answers. Reporting is limited to standard aggregate charts rather than a synthesized narrative report per respondent.
What it does well
- Mature, widely-used survey platform with reliable distribution and standard reporting tools
- Purpose-built entry interview template, so questions are relevant to the new-hire use case out of the box
- Easy to deploy quickly with minimal setup
Where it falls short
- No adaptive AI follow-up — cannot dig deeper into a specific answer like the moment expectations diverged from reality
- No voice AI interview option or guided screen-share tasks
- No automated per-response quality scoring or transparent prompt methodology published on the page
Frequently asked questions
What questions are in the “New Hire Entry Interview: First Impressions & Retention” template?
The template includes 13 ready-to-use questions, starting with: “Welcome aboard, and thanks for taking a few minutes for this! We want to understand what made you join us and how things…” · “What was the single biggest reason you decided to join us?” · “Thinking back to when you were deciding whether to accept the offer, which of these mattered most and least?”. The full set is previewed above, and every question is editable.
How long does this survey take to complete?
Respondents typically finish the 13 questions in about 7 minutes.
Can I customize this template?
Yes — every question, answer option, and the ordering is editable before you launch. You can add or remove questions, or ask the AI editor to rework the survey around your research goal.
Is this template free to use?
Yes. Open it in the editor and start customizing right away — no account required to try it, and the free plan covers launching your survey.
Ready to launch?
Open this template in the editor. Every part is yours to change before the first respondent sees it.
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