People talk. They do. We all know it because we all do it. We share many different things with our inner circle, close family, friends, colleagues, and people we speak to every day or at least frequently.
We share positive, negative, and neutral things—everything between juicy gossip and boring bits. We share all the things about our jobs and careers, why we like them, and why we don’t.
We also share our experiences looking for a job, both the good and the bad. This is one of the many candidate experience activities we capture in our CandE Benchmark research year after year. What’s fascinating is that while the employers participating each year and the candidates answering the survey vary, the consistency of responses year after year is uncanny (and quite clear).
For example, this year in North America (we’re still capturing 2024 data through the end of August), 74% of responding candidates said they were willing to share positive candidate experiences with their inner circles, and 42% of those said they’d definitely share (see figure below). This is for all candidate demographics.
The willingness to refer others to the employer they had applied to increased 84% for those who said they’d definitely share positive experiences with their inner circles (from 25% to 46%). That’s an important differentiator for both B2B and B2C employers.
Candidates Sharing Positive and Negative Experiences With Inner Circle
On the negative side, 53% of North American candidates said they were willing to share negative candidate experiences with their inner circles. And for the 31% who said they’d definitely share negative experiences, their resentment rate (those candidates no longer willing to engage a business and a brand due to a poor candidate experience) increased 93% (from 14% to 27%).
This feedback is very similar every year in all the regions we track – North America, EMEA, APAC, and Latin America – even with a historically positive skew in APAC and Latin America. The same is true for those who said they would share positive and negative experiences publicly – like online with Glassdoor reviews, Indeed reviews, LinkedIn posts, etc. The percentages are lower only because we’ve argued over the years that most candidates prefer to share the news they got the job, not that they didn’t, but there are those still willing to share publicly when they didn’t.
This year in North America (so far), 53% of responding candidates said they were willing to share positive candidate experiences publicly, and 27% of those said they’d definitely share (see figure below). This is for all candidate demographics.
The willingness to refer others to the employer they had applied to increased by 108% for those who said they’d definitely share positive experiences publicly (from 25% to 52%). That’s again an important differentiator for both B2B and B2C employers.
Candidates Sharing Positive and Negative Experiences Publicly
On the negative side, 32% of North American candidates said they were willing to share negative candidate experiences publicly. And for the 17% who said they’d definitely share negative experiences, their resentment rate increased a whopping 164% (from 14% to 37%). These are obviously the most vocal of the negative candidates. If you want to see how a poor candidate experience impacts your business financially, especially if you’re a B2C company, then check out our resentment calculator.
Candidates talk. They do. And they can impact your business and your brand positively or negatively depending on their overall candidate journey. It’s true that there are two consistent skews in our CandE Benchmark Research year after year. There’s a positive skew (more positive candidate experience) for those who actually get hired (halo effect), and there’s a negative skew for everybody else who doesn’t.
But in the end, if they felt like their journey was positive and fair, even if they didn’t get the offer, then they’re more likely to engage your business and your brand again in the future (applying again, referring others, being a brand advocate, and possibly being a paying customer).