Ever considered being a Mystery Employee?
Variety is the spice of life, so they say, and mystery shops are no exception. But have you ever considered doing a ‘mystery employee’ assignment? Here’s all you need to know to get started.
What is a Mystery Employee?
From large organisations to small businesses, it’s hard for employers to know why people aren’t applying for jobs, why there is a high staff turnover or why employees seem unhappy.
A Mystery Employee can help with that.
Mystery Employees go undercover to assess:
- Recruitment adverts
- Application process
- The interview phase
In some cases, companies want Mystery Employees to go on and gain employment to assess:
- The induction & onboarding process
- Training
- What the atmosphere is actually like at the company
What do you have to do?
A Mystery Employee will assess each stage of the recruitment process, and in some cases even work for a company for a short period to see what it’s like.
They feed back at each stage by answering questions about the experience on our online forms, providing the company with invaluable insight, and enabling them to understand how the internal processes are perceived by new employees.
You might be asked to provide evidence of your experience, such as screen capturing the online application process on a website, recording telephone conversations and interviews you have with the company, and covertly recording face-to-face interviews using your mobile phone.
You might feed back on things like:
- Application forms
- Response times to all communication
- What the interview was like
- Remuneration package including benefits
- Overall impressions of the experience
What are the benefits for me?
Higher rates of pay than normal mystery shopping assignments!
As these types of assignments tend to have a few different stages, they tend to have higher shopper fees.
It’s also a chance to try something new, build your own application and interview techniques and earn extra money for 2023!
Can anyone apply?
The majority of our Mystery Employee jobs are for people aged 18 + and if you need to visit a specific location, you’ll need to make sure you’ve got transport sorted.
Each Mystery Employee assignment is different, so it’s important to read the Assignment Info carefully.
We will ensure that candidates will be successful in obtaining an interview with the company, by carrying out short pre-allocation questionnaires and interviews of our own. For example, we will make sure that (if it’s important), candidates live locally to the company (or can pretend to!), have similar experience and any required qualifications for the role and have the time to complete the whole recruitment process.
What is it REALLY like?
Assignments vary, just like our other mystery shops. Here are a few assignments that our Mystery Employees do:
- Feeding back on the whole recruitment process for prospective franchise owners in the Tech industry
- The onboarding and initial training stages for Warehouse staff
- Comparing the recruitment experience for different care providers
But what’s it REALLY like to do this kind of assignment? We spoke to three of our mystery shoppers who completed Mystery Employee assignments about their experience.

Another Mystery Employee has been a mystery shopper for a number of years following retirement from a sales and marketing role. He saw mystery shopping as an opportunity to continue using his skills gained in employment, as well as being a good mental exercise for writing concise, accurate reports. He said, “Of all the shops I have done, the Mystery Employee role I undertook was the most detailed, intense, and extensive I have carried out.”
“The role was as a sales consultant. The assignment involved a number of stages – an initial online application form, a face-to-face video interview, and an extensive online training programme,” he continued.
The shopper successfully completed all of these elements and was invited to an all-day induction/training seminar with other applicants. “To successfully carry out the assignment, I treated the application as seriously as I would a real role. I thoroughly researched the market and competition,” he explained.
When attending the induction/training day, he prepared questions about real-life scenarios he had observed whilst shopping. The key to successfully applying is to do your research and apply for roles, so you can add your own experience or background.
Another mystery employee found the whole process insightful. She said, “knowing that an employer is keen to ensure their recruitment, induction, training and ongoing work is going as planned is very refreshing to see.”
She continued, “I actually found that the management were actually very open to involving employees in their streamlining projects and although the day-to-day work was simple and sometimes tedious, the environment was enjoyable to be in.
The biggest challenge was observing key aspects relevant for the assessment and not simply plodding along with the job. I actually enjoyed this part of it because it felt like the feedback would make a difference – good or bad. … I would definitely do this again!”
Will I need to submit a CV?
Depending on the assignment, we may ask you to send us your CV so that we can check if you’ll be eligible for the Mystery Employee assignment, and the company you apply to may also require you to submit a CV as part of your application. We will then work with you on your CV to make sure it will pass through to the next stage.
How do I become a Mystery Employee?
Just like our other mystery shops, we advertise our Mystery Employee assignments on our Available Assignments page. To see this page, you’ll need to have signed up with us to become a mystery shopper. Then, look out for emails from us! You can see a list of assignments and apply for them, all through the portal.