Phenom released the second annual European Edition of its State of Candidate Experience Report, revealing significant improvement in the use of AI over one year and shining a spotlight on enormous opportunities for companies to enhance job seekers’ experiences through intelligence and automation.

Phenom audited the top 100 European companies of the Global 500 list in three key areas of the talent journey: attraction, engagement and conversion, as well as the use of AI. By viewing their strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for improvement, HR leaders, talent acquisition teams and hiring managers can gain valuable insights and best practices to improve the candidate experience, grow quality talent pools faster and hire more efficiently.

The 2023 audit of European 100 career sites reveals improvement year-over-year to deliver hyper-personalized experiences and job matching that strengthen candidate attraction, engagement and conversion, including a:

• 525% increase in presenting job recommendations based on browsing history
• 67% increase in using a recruitment chatbot
• 64% increase in showing job recommendations based on geographic location
• 60% increase in displaying recently viewed jobs

Although organizations are increasingly adopting AI-powered technology to improve experiences, 94% scored poorly in their use of AI, indicating there is still a significant gap between the solutions available and what companies have implemented. According to the 2023 audit:

• 90% did not use a recruitment chatbot
• 83% did not display recently viewed jobs
• 82% did not share job recommendations based on geographic location
• 75% did not present job recommendations based on browsing history

“Enhancing the candidate experience is a critical step in attracting the right qualified talent in this highly competitive market,” said Mahe Bayireddi, CEO and co-founder of Phenom. “Providing phenomenal, personalized experiences for job seekers is only possible through intelligence and automation.”

The ROI of Intelligence, Automation and Experience

Although retaining employees has become a primary goal for European companies, proactively improving the candidate experience remains an imperative. Organisations are struggling to fill open positions amidst economic challenges including an energy crisis, inflation and an ultra-competitive talent market.

To outpace competitors, employers must embrace cutting-edge practices and AI technology for hiring, developing and retaining talent. Intelligence, automation and experience are essential to overcoming today’s biggest talent acquisition and retention challenges, including simplifying the job search process and maintaining an attractive, unique employer brand. Hyper-personalized career sites, conversational chatbots, automated screening and scheduling, and content that showcases a company’s culture all enrich the candidate experience, helping them find the right job faster and apply.

Savvy organisations that are leveraging AI-powered technology and automation through the Phenom Intelligent Talent Experience platform are attracting more best-fit job seekers, growing talent communities and increasing completed applications, and the results speak for themselves:

• A major telecommunications company increased career site traffic by 220% and increased completed applications by 700% with intelligent tools that provided a more personalized experience for candidates
• A large health care organisation achieved a 10% increase in nursing hires by expediting communication with candidates through a conversational chatbot and SMS messages
• A leading financial institution added 8X more candidates to their talent community by creating a dynamic, hyper-personalized career site and targeting recruitment marketing efforts
• A popular restaurant chain registered over 12,000 candidates through their career site and talent email campaigns in less than a month — resulting in more than 2,000 same-day offers to candidates and 1,300+ same-week hires

Actions Organisations Can Take to Accelerate Hiring

To improve the candidate experience, Phenom’s European Edition of its State of Candidate Experience Report prescribes a series of actions organisations can take — from creating strong employer brand content to implementing intelligent technology on its career site:

• Personalize the candidate experience through AI and automation. Candidates today expect the online job search to be similar to purchasing consumer goods, where relevant information is delivered based on their interests. If this process isn’t intuitive and simple, they are more likely to drop off a career site. With AI and automation on a career site, personalized jobs and content automatically displayed for candidates based on their resume, experience, skills, and geographic location.

• Showcase a strong employer brand through content. When deciding if a job is the right fit for them, candidates spend a significant amount of time researching a company. If your digital brand doesn’t meet their expectations, they may not feel a strong connection and apply to an open role. Content on a career site (videos, pictures, blogs, etc.) that conveys information such as your company’s mission and purpose, overall workplace culture, employee quotes and stories, internal events and employee resource groups all paint a picture of what it’s like to work there.

• Embrace cutting-edge technology. In addition to AI and automation, organizations must be quick to adopt work-altering innovations, such as: generative AI — which enables organisations to reach previously unattainable levels of productivity and fill roles faster by automatically creating content, surfacing actionable intelligence, and eliminating time-consuming tasks; interview intelligence, which brings transparency to hiring teams through recordings, transcriptions, key takeaway, and analysis to move the process forward faster; and candidate hub, a one-stop-shop that helps candidates understand where they are in the hiring process and prepare for next steps.

With Phenom, candidates find and choose the right job faster, employees develop their skills and evolve, recruiters become wildly productive, managers build stronger-performing teams, HR aligns employee development with company goals, and HRIS easily integrates existing HR tech to create a holistic infrastructure.

To read the full State of Candidate Experience: 2023 Benchmarks Report — European Edition and company rankings, download here.

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