We recently announced Survale’s acquisition of “The CandE’s” from ERE Media. I speak for both the Suvale and CandE teams when I say there is a real sense of excitement and possibility now that we are under the same roof.
Since 2017, Survale’s analytics platform has served as the technology platform for the CandE program. While we were distinct partners we were able to work closely together over the years to produce industry standard benchmarks and highly respected research. We have developed strong personal working relationships and some CandE customers and research consumers have even thought we were the same thing.
Now we are.
Why Acquire the CandEs?
Client Synergy. CandE participants understand the value of great candidate experience. Many CandE participants are Survale clients and vice-versa. While CandE participants use a lite version of the Survale platform to analyze their CandE results, they only receive a small portion of the value of the analytics and they don’t benefit from Survale’s year round insights that are localized to individual people, processes and technologies. This transition to Survale will create a more seamless research process and the ability to better scale by unlocking exciting new features and benefits for CandE participants in the future.
At the same time, not all Survale clients participate in the CandE’s and they should! Survale client benchmarks are typically higher than CandE winner benchmarks. Survale clients can benefit from recognition of a CandE Award and the one-to-one analysis provided as part of the CandE program.
Enhanced Benchmarks. Between the Survale client base and CandE research, we now have continuous candidate experience benchmarks from hundreds of millions of candidates across hundreds of organizations in a broad range of industries. Separately and combined, the data set will provide clients with a broader range of data.
Plus, we now have a basis for expanding what we benchmark across both assets. This is a win for clients, because there is no other platform or program in the world that allows for organizations to compare their candidate experience to hundreds of others anonymously and confidentially across the recruiting and hiring process – from pre-application to onboarding.
Next Gen AI. Survale already provides a suite of AI tools for question based analysis of free text comments, sentiment analysis and identifying legally problematic interactions throughout the hiring process. Augmenting Survale’s current expansive data set with primary research data sets will power our next generation of proprietary AI tools.
Unmatched Expertise. The addition of Kevin Grossman and the CandE team provides unmatched research and advisory capability for providing additional value for Survale clients. In the same way the acquisition allows us to expand the value of the technical side of the CandE’s, The CandE team and their vast expertise will result in greater domain expertise for Survale clients.
More Free Insights. While Survale regularly publishes client case studies and white papers highlighting the value of talent feedback in concrete terms, CandE research is second to none. Our ability to provide additional expert content to the market will expand significantly. In the same way Survale data proves the platform’s value to our clients, strong domain data proves our value to the marketplace. CandE research, combined with Survale and CandE customer experiences, will benefit practitioners and accelerate client growth.
What Happens to the CandE’s
The short answer is nothing. The 2025 Candies are in progress and will continue with the same program. In fact, you can still sign up and you should!
The CandEs have developed a strong brand within the TA industry over the last 14 years, and a well deserved reputation for top notch research. The CandE program will continue as it has before. Over time, we believe that we can work together to add additional value by expanding benchmarks and making the analytics and participant experience better. And we are excited to do it. As I said, Survale and the CandEs have worked closely together for many years. Now, there are no barriers to how we work together to take it to the next level.
What’s Next For The Combined Organization?
Stay tuned! As we integrate the two organizations and complete the 2025 CandE Program, we will be planning and announcing new offerings and features for both Survale and the CandE’s for 2026.
