Next year will be our 15th year measuring candidate experience around the world. What started out as a volunteer-driven mission to conduct candidate experience benchmark research has resulted in working with over 2,000 employers and surveying nearly 2 million of their job candidates.
The CandE Benchmark Research Program was started coming out of the Great Recession. Compared to that economic disaster, and compared to the negative economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, the candidate market today is one of the worst in recent memory. Especially for professional-to-management hires across industries.
Today the global economy seems to be grinding to a halt and hiring has slowed dramatically, but employer application volumes are up across industries because there are more people looking for work. For new grads and older job seekers, it’s also taking much longer to find a job. Those currently employed are staying put and employers are working on internal mobility and retention. High-volume hiring has also slowed, but healthcare, energy, and others continue to experience growth. However, labor shortages abound in hospitality, construction, retail, and other industries.
Based on all that, what does the current state of candidate experience look like? We’re about to start our final analyses of this year’s CandE data, review results with all participating employers, and write up our 2025 CandE Benchmark Research reports. In the meantime, here are the top 3 positive and negative sentiment themes (so far) after analyzing tens of thousands of candidate comments across industries.
Positive Themes
- Professionalism and Support from Recruitment Staff: Many candidates consistently praised recruiters and interviewers for being professional, friendly, helpful, respectful, and genuinely engaged.
- Efficient and Clear Application/Interview Process: Many candidates found the application process to be user-friendly, smooth, and easy. They appreciated prompt responses and clear expectations at various stages. Some specifically noted the convenience of online scheduling and video interviews for their flexibility.
- Positive Company/Work Environment Impression: Many candidates expressed a positive impression of the company’s culture, values, and work environment, describing it as welcoming, supportive, and a great place to work. They also appreciate efforts towards diversity and inclusion.
While these positive themes do include those who were hired, it still reflects why we do the benchmark research each year – the fact that, since we’re saying “no” to so many more candidates across job types, the only happy candidates are those who get hired. But if some of the remainder feel that their experience was still somewhat positive and fair, they’re much more willing to engage your business and brand again, whatever that means to the candidate (applying again, referring others, being a brand advocate, and even becoming and staying a customer).
And in at least 3 of the 4 regions we capture candidate experience feedback in (North America, EMEA, and Latin America), candidates who felt like their experience was great (positive and fair) and are willing to keep engaging the business and brands they applied to – what we now call the Candidate Contentment rate – is turning upward again (see chart below). A positive sign in a poor candidate market. Interestingly, the APAC Contentment rate continues to decrease since its height in 2021. This is usually a positively skewed region due to candidates in many APAC countries being culturally less willing to share negative feedback. But that’s obviously not happening this year, with the majority of APAC candidates applying for jobs in India.
Negative Themes
- Poor or No Communication / Ghosting: This is a predominant and highly frustrating issue, with numerous candidates reporting a complete lack of response or follow-up after applying or interviewing. Many wish for feedback on why they were not selected, especially after investing time in applications and interviews.
- Lengthy and Slow Hiring Process: The protracted timelines from application submission to hearing back or receiving a decision are a frequent complaint. This often causes candidates to accept other offers.
- AI/Automated Screening Issues: A significant concern is the reliance on AI/bots for initial resume screening, leading to quick rejections of otherwise qualified candidates who may not match specific keywords.
We’ve already highlighted multiple times in articles that employers relying on AI to screen candidates in and out just isn’t true, yet it’s a prevalent candidate belief today. The other two negative themes we’ve seen since the beginning of CandE time – that time, lack of communication, and lack of feedback are the biggest drivers of a negative candidate experience.
And while positive sentiment turned upward in 3 of the 4 regions this year, Candidate Resentment as we measure it – the percentage of candidates who won’t engage and business and brand again due to poor candidate experiences – is up in all 4 regions this year (see chart below). It’s the highest it’s ever been around the world since we landed on the same consistent key ratings in 2013.
So, what are companies doing to improve their recruiting and hiring practices and ultimately the candidate experience? As mentioned above, we’re about to start our final analyses of this year’s CandE data, reviewing results with all participating employers, and writing up our 2025 CandE Benchmark Research reports. This will include a new set of CandE Case Studies, and, of course, who will win the coveted CandE Awards this year.
When we review what set CandE Winners apart in 2024 – participating employers that had average to above-average candidate experience ratings – much of what we found is applicable year after year. Here’s a summary of those differentiators:
Consistent Delivery of Positive and Fair Candidate Experiences
CandE Winners consistently provide a positive and fair experience, which is difficult for most companies to maintain. This consistency was evident despite significant hiring market volatility since 2020. They were also more likely to deliver a better recruiting experience more consistently over time, regardless of market conditions.
Alignment of Recruiter Performance with Candidate Experience
Top-rated employers, particularly CandE Winners, are always more likely to align recruiter performance with candidate experience. This practice highlights the importance of candidate experience and incentivizes recruiters to maintain a high standard throughout the candidate journey. For instance, 90% of the Top 10 Overall North America CandE Winners and 76% of all North America CandE Winners aligned recruiter performance with candidate experience, significantly higher than all employers (65%).
Effective Use of Recruiting Technologies
CandE Winners tend to better leverage recruiting technologies like texting, interview scheduling, and artificial intelligence (AI) embedded in their recruiting tech (e.g., chat bots, conversational AI, matching, and ranking). All of the top 10 overall CandE Winners utilize some form of AI recruiting technologies. These technologies improve communication and feedback loops with candidates and help identify qualified individuals.
Timely Candidate Dispositions
While the timeliness has fluctuated, CandE Winners are more consistent and timely with candidate dispositions than other employers. Even if rejection timeliness has stretched beyond 3-5 days, CandE Winners consistently disposition unqualified candidates within 1-2 weeks.
Minimizing Waiting Times for Next Steps
CandE Winners globally keep fewer candidates waiting to hear back after they apply, which is a key differentiator for a positive candidate experience. For example, all 2024 CandE Winners in North America kept 60% fewer candidates waiting 2+ months after applying compared to all employers. This demonstrated respect for candidates’ time and efforts.
Structured Interviews and Interview Fairness
CandE research consistently shows that structured interviews lead to more positive candidate experience ratings and a higher perception of fairness. Over half of the top 10 North America CandE Winners, CandE Winners generally, and even other participating companies conduct structured interviews. This structured approach ensures fairness and consistency by asking all applicants the same predetermined questions and using a standardized scoring system, in contrast to unstructured interviews that can increase bias and subjectivity. CandE Winners also have significantly higher interview fairness ratings; for example, the top 10 overall North America CandE Winners had a 31% higher interview fairness rating than all other participating employers.
Providing Finalist Feedback
A crucial differentiator post-interview is CandE Winners’ practice of giving feedback to finalists. Finalists who received feedback in 2024 were over 50% more willing to refer others, especially professional, management, and senior-level candidates. This feedback focuses on job fit and qualification status, explaining “why” a candidate didn’t get the job offer, rather than “personal attributes”. The top 10 CandE Winners in North America gave 74% more feedback to candidates than all other participating employers.
All these practices and more contributed to CandE Winners having lower candidate resentment rates compared to other participating companies and more candidates willing to again engage the businesses and brands.
We’re excited to start analyzing this year’s CandE data, and over the next few months, our 2025 CandE Benchmark Research will be available. It may be the worst candidate market since the Great Recession and Covid-19, but sustained incremental process improvements with timely and consistent communication and feedback loops always make the biggest candidate experience differences every year.
