We’ve always looked at the CandE Benchmark (candidate experience research) data through the lens of the definitive anchor scores – the absolute yes’s and no’s in all the ratings questions. This leads to seemingly smaller percentages of candidates who have very positive and very negative experiences. For example, take two of our key candidate ratings – the willingness to refer and the willingness to change their relationship (see the tables below).
In our 2024 North American data, 26% of responding candidates said they were extremely likely to refer others, and 26% said they had a great experience and were willing to continue to increase their relationship through brand alliance, product purchases, networking, and/or making referrals. So, a quarter of respondents overall.
Percentage of Candidates – Willingness to Refer Others (4-pt scale)
| 2024 All | 2024 CandE Winners | 2023 All | 2023 CandE Winners | |
| Extremely Likely – My experience was very positive (4) | 26% | 31% | 26% | 30% |
| Likely (3) | 41% | 47% | 42% | 47% |
| Unlikely (2) | 20% | 14% | 21% | 15% |
| Definitely Not – My experience was very negative (1) | 13% | 8% | 11% | 8% |
Percentage of Candidates – Willingness to Change Relationship (4-pt scale)
| 2024 All | 2024 CandE Winners | 2023 All | 2023 CandE Winners | |
| Great candidate experience – I will definitely increase my relationship through brand alliance, product purchases, networking and/or making referrals. (4) | 26% | 31% | 26% | 31% |
| Pretty Good (3) | 26% | 30% | 27% | 31% |
| Neutral (2) | 35% | 30% | 35% | 30% |
| Negative – I will definitely take my alliance, product purchases, relationship and/or referrals somewhere else (1) | 14% | 9% | 13% | 8% |
For referrals, it varied in EMEA, APAC, and Latin America, with EMEA and Latin America at 21% extremely likely to refer and APAC at 32%. For the relationship question, it also varied in EMEA, APAC, and Latin America, with EMEA and Latin America at a 19% great experience and APAC at 29%.
Those who said they had very negative experiences and wouldn’t refer anyone or engage the employer again were comparably lower around the world, but still higher than we’ve ever seen them in the 13 years we’ve been measuring candidate experience.
For CandE Winners, the participating employers with on or above average benchmark ratings, their positive experiences are obviously greater and their negative experiences fewer by comparison.
However, when you look at the extremes in the tables above, you’re at around 40% on average of our candidate responses. What about those in the middle? The ones I call the “meh” group – they lean one way or the other, but just not as definitively as the absolute yes’s and no’s. But the “meh” group represents 60% of the responses on average.
60% is a big segment of candidates across job types and multiple other demographics. For the candidates willing to refer others (likely and extremely likely), that combined total in 2024 was 67%. It’s 78% for CandE Winners. That’s good news.
There’s more good news, too. In 2024, 52% of the candidates overall said they had a great to pretty good experience and would engage the employer again going forward. 35% were neutral, which was the most “meh” and could flip-flop more than any of the other answers. And, as I’ve written about many times, the negative answer “I will definitely take my alliance, product purchases, relationship and/or referrals somewhere else” was 14%.
So far in 2024, it’s at 20%, significantly higher, but it’s still early days for the 2025 CandE data collection. I did also predict that candidate experience will be in a free fall this year.
But I’ve been remiss to talk about “the meaningful meh” of all the other candidate responses, the ones that make up the majority of our research every year. Yes, resentment rates are higher than ever, but most candidates are still potentially willing to refer others and engage the employer again.
The CandE Winners are most certainly doing more of the communication and feedback loop heavy lifting year after year, but more employers could do the same if they adhere to the following. All of which ensure a higher level of perceived candidate fairness and more positive sentiment, while delivering a meaningful business impact.
The CandE difference includes:
Read all our research and past case studies to learn more. The top 12 takeaways from 2024 are here.
Here are 2024 case studies so far:
