What Every Employer Should Know
Not all candidate experience benchmarks are the same, but employers want them. In fact, 90% of companies that come to Survale to manage their candidate experience and improve their hiring process say that benchmarking is somewhat or very important.
That said, there are a few key things every employer should know about candidate experience benchmarks.
What Are Candidate Experience Benchmarks?
When candidates go through your hiring process, they leave with a feeling about the experience. It’s a smart practice to gather feedback from candidates to increase satisfaction and reduce friction in hiring.
Some companies collect candidate experience survey data in real time after each stage of hiring. Others send one large survey once or a few times per year.
When asking for feedback, organizations should cover how their people, processes, and technologies are performing. Was the application easy? Was the interviewer prepared? Why did you turn down the offer? And of course, how likely are you to recommend this employer? This feedback highlights problem areas that might reduce satisfaction, slow hiring, or lower acceptance rates.
Naturally, once you gather candidate experience metrics, you’ll want to see how you compare with other companies. Here are the most important factors to know about candidate experience benchmarking.
Who Is Being Asked for Feedback—and When?
Are the benchmarks you’re seeing based on feedback from candidates or new hires? A lot of companies only survey candidates after they’ve been hired. And no surprise: those responses are very positive. But you don’t want to benchmark against only this kind of data.
The best benchmark data includes real-time feedback collected at different points during the process while candidates are actively involved. This provides a mix of honest responses from candidates hoping for a role, more positive responses from new hires, and more negative feedback from rejected candidates. Together, these responses balance out and create a fuller picture.
Waiting until the end of the hiring process to collect feedback leads to benchmarks that lean negative. Most candidates get rejected, so their responses tend to be more negative. Plus, this misses the chance to hear from rejected candidates who might have provided useful feedback earlier—like right after an interview—before they were rejected or moved forward.
Rejected candidates are valuable sources for finding problems in your hiring process. Companies should work to make their experience as positive as possible. But keep in mind: data from rejected candidates usually leans negative because of their outcome.
Also, the longer you wait to send surveys, the fewer responses you’ll get, and they’ll be less reliable. Imagine applying to dozens of jobs, then getting a survey six months later about just one. You won’t remember the details unless the experience stood out as very good or very bad.
Finally, consider the industries and job types that make up the benchmarks. If you’re a large restaurant chain hiring mostly hourly workers, comparing your results to benchmarks from small firms hiring salaried roles won’t be useful.
Where Is the Data Collected?
It’s important to know if the candidate experience benchmarks you’re using were gathered in the same country or region. For example, Europe has different hiring practices and candidate expectations compared to the U.S. Hiring processes can vary widely across regions because of economic, social, and employment differences. This affects how relevant benchmarks are between locations.
The Best Candidate Experience Benchmark Sources
So where can you find strong candidate experience benchmarks? The Talent Board’s annual candidate experience report is the most complete benchmarking dataset. It includes data from over 200,000 candidate responses each year. The Talent Board candidate experience benchmarks are broken down by region and cover a wide range of industries.
That’s why Survale’s Enterprise Candidate Feedback Platform includes Talent Board candidate experience benchmarks directly in its analytics. You can see the average Talent Board rating and the average from award winners next to your real-time results. Survale also lets clients benchmark questions across its client base. This way, it’s easy to compare your real-time feedback to benchmarks from hundreds of thousands of other responses.
You get the benefit of multiple benchmarking sources: Talent Board benchmarks, Survale benchmarks, and the ability to explore the details behind each piece of feedback.
FAQs
What is a good candidate experience score?
A good candidate experience score depends on the scale you use, but many companies aim for a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of +20 or higher. This shows more candidates would recommend your company than not. Candidate experience metrics vary by industry, so it’s useful to compare your score to recruiting benchmarks from similar organizations.
How to measure candidate experience?
You can measure candidate experience by sending candidate experience surveys during and after the hiring process. Ask about the application, interviews, communication, and overall impressions. Collect feedback at different stages to get a clear picture. Then compare your data to candidate experience benchmarks to see how you’re doing.
What is a good candidate conversion rate?
A good candidate conversion rate varies depending on the role and industry. In general, many companies look for a conversion rate of 20–30% from interview to offer, though high-demand roles may have lower rates. Comparing to recruiting benchmarks in your industry helps set a realistic goal.
What is a benchmark candidate?
A benchmark candidate is someone used as a standard to compare other candidates during hiring. They represent the ideal mix of skills, experience, and fit for the role. Some companies use benchmark candidates to help evaluate resumes or interview performance in relation to their hiring goals.
