Welcome to the 2024 CandE Winner Case Study series.
Each year, the CandE Benchmark Research Program collects case studies from CandE Winners – the employers with above-average candidate experience ratings in our research. These CandE Winners answer the following questions:
- What recruiting and candidate experience improvements have you made?
- How did you build support and commitment to make these improvements?
- Which improvements were the most innovative?
- How will you use your CandE Award in your employer branding?
- Do you use any of your CandE data to quantify business impact?
These are the employers from our 2024 CandE Program that invested in improving their recruiting, hiring, and candidate experience, reaping the ultimate benefits of a positive business impact – candidates more likely to apply again, to refer others, to be a brand advocate, and to be a customer for consumer-based businesses.
This case study was from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. For more than 90 years, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota has supported the health, wellbeing and peace of mind of our members by striving to ensure equitable access to high quality care at an affordable price. Our more than 2.5 million members can be found in every Minnesota county, all 50 states and on four continents.
If you’re interested in participating in the 2025 CandE Benchmark Research Program, you can learn more about it here.
- What recruiting processes and candidate experience key improvements have you identified and completed in the past 6-12 months? What data or evidence prompted you to make these changes? (Be as specific as possible with examples for each.)
To enhance the candidate experience, we continuously review and refine our communications, ensuring candidates remain well informed and up to date throughout the entire recruitment process. We’ve implemented a standardized recruiting process to guarantee every candidate enjoys a consistent and positive experience. Our recruiters maintain regular contact with each candidate, scheduling frequent check-ins to discuss their job search progress. Additionally, they personally call every candidate who has been dispositioned after the hiring manager interview, humanizing the process and ensuring no candidate feels overlooked. These improvements stem from direct candidate feedback, addressing frustrations with automated messages, uncertainty about application status, and feeling overlooked after applying for a role. We are consistently doing candidate prep calls to ensure each applicant feels prepared and knowledgeable about their upcoming interviews.
To enhance the candidate experience, we identified the importance of highlighting our employer branding. We created engaging videos highlighting our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging initiatives and employee benefits, such as our Associate Resource Groups and tuition reimbursement program. This strategy provides candidates with valuable insights into our culture at Blue Cross, illustrating the supportive and inclusive environment we foster for our associates.
- How did you build support and commitment within your team and the broader organization to make these improvements? How did you demonstrate and report on the importance of a quality candidate experience with your leadership team? (Be as specific as possible with examples.)
- Utilizing data-driven insights: Presenting data and feedback we’ve received from our applicant and candidate experience surveys to highlight areas needing improvement and the potential benefits of making these changes.
- Securing leadership buy-in: Securing support from leaders by demonstrating the value of enhancing our candidates’ experience and showcasing employer branding.
- Fostering clear communication and a collaborative approach: Engaging with other departments, such as the Racial Health Equity team, to ensure we have clear, aligned objectives and can gather diverse perspectives.
- Which of these improvements do you think are the most unique and innovative and why? How do you know that your changes are making a difference? What data or evidence validates the innovative improvements you made? (Be as specific as possible with examples for each based on your people, your processes, and your technologies, and include any candidate quotes that validate the improvements made.)
Personally calling each candidate who has been declined after the hiring manager interview is one of our most unique and innovative improvements. We can see the impact of this through the positive feedback our recruiters receive during these calls. Candidates often express their appreciation for the personal touch, preferring it over a generic disposition email.
The philosophy we employ is to always try to educate candidates and provide helpful feedback to those who may not be a fit for the role they applied to. This approach leaves the candidate with a feeling that we truly care about them and how they show up via their resume, LinkedIn presence, and in-person conversations.
We’ve seen a positive impact from our candidate experience survey results. The data shows a trend towards more favorable feedback, with candidates feeling well-informed throughout the recruitment process. They also found our social media and Careers website to be valuable resources for learning more about our company.
- Whether you’ve won your first CandE Award or multiple CandE Awards, how will you publicly use the CandE Award, and what it represents, in your employer branding and recruitment marketing? (Be as specific as possible with examples.)
- Highlight the Award on our Careers site: Feature the CandE Award badge on our Careers website to showcase our commitment to candidate experience.
- Social media announcements: Share the exciting news across our social media platforms, including LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook, to reach a wider audience and attract potential candidates.
- Employee communications: Announce this achievement on our all-company internal website to boost morale and emphasize the importance of candidate experience.
- Recruitment materials: Include the CandE Award badge in our email signatures.
- Executive leadership and officer meetings: Education sessions to ensure our leaders understand the value of candidate experience and support our efforts throughout the entire organization.
By showcasing the CandE Award, we not only enhance our employer brand but also demonstrate to potential candidates that we value and prioritize their experience throughout the recruitment process.
- Do you use any of your candidate experience benchmark data to quantify and demonstrate financial, referral, and/or employer branding business impact to your leadership team, your recruiting, and/or hiring managers? If yes, how? (Be as specific as possible with examples.) ca
- Financial impact: By analyzing our data, we can correlate a positive candidate experience with reduced average time-to-hire. Candidates who report a positive experience are more likely to accept job offers quickly, reducing the need for extended recruitment efforts and associated costs.
- Employer branding impact: We measure the impact on our employer branding by monitoring our website traffic. Positive feedback from candidate surveys often translates into increased visits to our Careers site. After implementing Careers site improvements based on feedback, we saw a 406% increase in site visits during Q1 & Q2 of 2024 vs Q1 & Q2 of 2023.