Many years ago, pre-pandemic, there was a CandE Benchmark employer that went from being a CandE Winner with above average candidate experience ratings, to ratings far below average. One of the main reasons was due to a string of poor business decisions and PR nightmares that impacted their customer, employee, and candidate experience in less than one year. But they recovered, and today, that employer is still around and thriving. Because they may participate in our research again, I won’t call them out here.
Another example of this brand-rebound resiliency is Amazon. Remember when The New York Times published a major investigative article titled “Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace” (and the multiple negative PR stories since)? The key allegations included “Purposeful Darwinism” work environment, employees crying at their desks, hyper-aggressive performance management, and intense internal competition.
I can’t speak to their candidate experience (because if they had benchmarked with us, I wouldn’t have called them out by name), but I’m sure there was a negative impact – for those who were turned off by their culture. But there were also those who weren’t, and who still wanted to work for Amazon. And today Amazon has over 1.5 million employees worldwide, with thousands of people applying every month to work there.
Through thick and thin, job candidates only want one thing – the job. There are those who just need a job, any job, across job types, and are willing to sacrifice value alignment in the short term. But there are also those who search for employers through the lens of political and ideological affinity, corporate activism and reputation, perceived authenticity, socio-economic factors, demographics, and more. And it either attracts them or repels them, or folks fall in the “meh” bucket somewhere in between that could take them either way depending on where and how the wind blows. Patagonia, Ben & Jerry’s, Chick-fil-A, Disney, and Google are all examples of brands that have experienced both in recent memory.
There are always a myriad of external factors that impact an employer’s brand perception based on how the employers respond to those same said external factors. Take the pandemic. Although there were millions out of work that first year, employers were much more empathetic in their continuous and supportive communications to both employees and candidates. Our 2020 CandE Benchmark research validates this because candidate resentment as we measure it – the percentage of candidates who said they would no longer engage a business and brand – was the lowest we’ve ever seen it in the 13 years we’ve been measuring candidate experience.
Now, take what’s happening today with the Trump administration and all the executive orders and tariffs that have polarizing worldwide ideological and economic impacts. The push for employers to purge diversity, equity, and inclusion ideologically from their ranks. The potential of careening into a recession. Those that go along with the administration’s mandates, and those that won’t. And there are those candidates who agree with the disruption and many more who don’t.
Regardless of how they feel, their ideology, and where they’re applying for jobs, one thing is clear: company values are the most important thing to them when they’re researching an employer prior to applying (see table below). Over 50% of our CandE Benchmark candidate responses said values was number one. This is just a partial list of some U.S. regions, but this mostly holds true around the world.
So, however those values align (or don’t) for candidates impact whether or not they apply for a job. In fact, the same top five types of employer marketing content are consumed around the world. Interestingly, what’s closer to the bottom of the marketing content list are community and sustainability initiatives and product/services information (what a company produces/sells). These are also across all job types: hourly, professional, and management/senior leadership positions.
Employer Marketing Content Consumed 2024-2025 (partial U.S. region list)
| Southeast (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia) | Plains
(Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota) | Great Lakes (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin) | Far West (Alaska, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Washington) | Mideast (Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C.) |
| Values | Values | Values | Values | Values |
| Culture | Culture | Why People Want to Work There | Culture | Employee Testimonials |
| Why People Want to Work There | Employee Testimonials | Culture | Diversity & Inclusion | Diversity & Inclusion |
| Employee Testimonials | Why People Want to Work There | Employee Testimonials | Why People Want to Work There | Culture |
| Diversity & Inclusion | Diversity & Inclusion | Diversity & Inclusion | Employee Testimonials | Why People Want to Work There |
Again, there are more job candidates today who search for employer values through the lens of political and ideological affinity, corporate activism, and overall reputation. And it either attracts them or repels them. If it attracts them, then we’ve got a mountain of candidate experience data that shows ultimately their journey experience impacts whether or not they’ll continue to engage a business or its brand, or not.
However, a big part of that mountain includes candidates who could go either way – apply again or not, refer others or not, be a brand advocate or not, and/or be a customer or not. That’s 50%-60%+ of all candidates in our research – what I’ve called The Meaningful Meh – and over 90% of them won’t get the job. Ultimately, besides needing a job, the catalyst for many to apply is if their values align with the employer’s. The catalyst for keeping them engaged in the business and the brand, besides hiring them, are both the values and their candidate experiences.
The Trump administration may or may not own their policy or tariff impacts, but employers will always have to own their values and their decisions that impact their customer, employee, and candidate experiences (and their bottom lines). Sure, they may stay in business, retain employees, and still attract candidates because of value alignment, even if the candidate experiences are compromised. Combined, however, will always be the bigger competitive advantage for employers: the values-based positive experiences.
