Why Organizations are Failing to Match Candidates With the Right Work

In our most recent State of Candidate Experience: 2024 Benchmarks Report, we analyzed how well the Fortune 500 are attracting, engaging, and ultimately converting candidates. What we found was that most organizations are failing to match candidates with the right work using data and context.

For example, 89% did not ask about skills to match candidates with related job openings, 88% did not offer job recommendations based upon a created profile, and 89% scored poorly in their use of AI.

A profound transformation is underway in how candidate experiences are shaped, and this data shows that organizations must clearly convey why they’re an employer of choice in order to gain a competitive edge. Candidates expect the experience of searching, applying, and interviewing for a job to be simple and easy, much like the digital e-commerce experiences that have become commonplace.

This means simply publishing a career site and hoping for the best is no longer enough. Dig into the full report right here or read on for the key takeaways!

What is the State of Candidate Experience Report?

In addition to assessing how well companies are attracting, engaging, and converting candidates, we also analyzed their use of AI and automation technology throughout the process.

Joanna Keel, Product Marketing Manager at Phenom, said, “This report is a great snapshot in time to say ‘What is [the candidate experience] like in 2024?’” and tailor your own candidate journeys accordingly.

Every Fortune 500 company received a score for Attraction, Engagement, and Conversion, as well as an overall score for its entire candidate experience.

• For attraction, we looked at elements like landing page features and intuitiveness, page response and load time, ease of navigation, social profile integration, use of job aggregators, job distribution, job search features, and SEO.

• For engagement, we examined job descriptions, personalization, use of a chatbot, relevant and dynamic content, employer value proposition, proper formatting and clear messaging, and surveys and employee reviews.

• For conversion, we analyzed the ease of apply process, user support, error prevention, application options (e.g., manual, social, cloud), length of application, mobile application optimization, and post-application communication.

• For AI, we audited features like job search functionality, personalization, chatbot performance, and dynamic content.

New for 2024: This year, our report now features a dynamic digital interactive site, allowing users to seamlessly navigate between key findings, company rankings, and expert recommendations. There’s also an option to download a PDF version!

What trends did the report uncover?

In the dynamic landscape of modern recruitment, a highly personalized candidate experience is a non-negotiable for companies aiming to capture top talent. You can’t just get a candidate to your career site… you have to keep them there and ultimately convince them to apply by providing tailored job recommendations and content and leveraging strong employer branding content.

Here are some of the areas in which the Fortune 500 succeeded:

• 76% increase in communicating a clear employee value proposition

• 68% increase in having a clearly visible and accessible “apply” button

• 41% increase in sending an application satisfaction survey

• 37% have content in multiple languages tailored to specific locations

• 36% increase in using chatbots that can answer frequently asked questions

• 34% increase in displaying video content featuring employee testimonials that showcase company culture and reasons to work there

• 22% increase in featuring a job cart or ability to easily favorite jobs

In contrast, here are some areas for improvement:

• 97% do not have social media content embedded in the job seeker experience

• 89% do not provide job recommendations based on experience level or job titles

• 86% have not instituted an intuitive, easy to implement search process that understands the context of the keyword and separates it with proper grouping

• 83% do not include recently viewed jobs

• 80% do not have a chatbot accessible to candidates while searching for jobs

• 76% do not automatically detect the candidate’s geographic location to suggest relevant, nearby jobs

• 14% decrease in offering job recommendations based on browsing history

To see the full list of company rankings, as well as all attraction, engagement, and conversion data, download the full report here.

Recommendations to Enhance the Candidate Experience

“I really want to call out the fact that if you’re not Fortune 500, this report is still for you,” Keel said. “Small, medium, large, it doesn’t matter. It’s just a great benchmarking tool.”

Included at the end of the report are recommendations to help all companies create a better candidate experience. The best part is that most of these recommendations can be accomplished with help of automation and AI.

Here’s a sneak peek:

• Attracting and engaging top talent faster. Candidates continue to search for their next job across many disparate channels. Organizations must adopt a comprehensive talent marketing approach that makes jobs widely accessible. Consistent branding and a clear value proposition should be reflected in every step of the journey.

• Delivering a one-of-a-kind experience. Candidates are unlikely to apply if it is difficult to find information when researching a potential employer. AI and automation can personalize every touchpoint and streamline the discovery of relevant opportunities.

• Turning passive job seekers into new hires with a seamless process. Candidates no longer complete job applications that are time and labor-intensive. Organizations must introduce a fast and frictionless job discovery and application process, spanning no more than three minutes for high-volume roles.

It’s clear that talent acquisition teams, talent marketers, and recruiters must invest in the right intelligence and automation technology, content and talent marketing strategies, and employer branding to deliver hyper-personalized experiences that can make indispensable connections with candidates.

This is the only way enterprises will be able to streamline tasks and achieve true productivity, enhance the user experience, and accelerate hiring.

For more insight into an effective candidate experience from a Fortune 500 leader, join Land O’Lakes in our upcoming webinar: “Inside the Most Successful Candidate Journeys of the Fortune 500 — featuring Land O'Lakes.”