Phenom, an applied AI company specializing in human resources, has officially published the results from its ninth annual State of Candidate Experience: 2025 Benchmarks Report.
Going by the available details, this particular report considered Fortune 500’s candidate experiences across 14 different industries.
After conducting a thorough analysis of these experiences, the report revealed that organizations are surely increasing their investment in optimizing their career sites with AI and automation, but having said so, many of them are consistently failing to meet job seekers’ expectations with hyper-personalized experiences that can attract, engage and convert talent.
As for the results, nearly half (47%) of American aged between 18 and 34-year-old said that, if they were applying for a job at a company, their career site should be able to learn what jobs they’re interested in the same way the algorithms of their social media platforms learn their content preferences. Against that need, nearly 87% of all Fortune 500 companies are failing to leverage AI and automation to hyper-personalize their career sites.
Making this problem even bigger would be a fact that the given age group is expected to make up 80% of the advanced economies’ workforce globally by 2034.
“We’ve been able to customize and personalize our candidate experience. For example, we added day-in-the-life videos to all of our manufacturing job pages. Soon after, we noticed an increase in application rates,” said Laura Schmidt, Talent Marketing Consultant for Land O’Lakes, Inc. “We’re also gaining efficiencies through automations, allowing our recruiters to focus on connection with candidates instead of manual tasks. And we’re able to share our brand over time with candidates knowing we may not always have the perfect job for them at the moment, but we’re able to keep them engaged when that perfect job opens up.”
Talk about the whole study on a slightly deeper level, we begin from how 88% of Fortune 500 companies were found to not suggest related job openings based on current job title and skills.
Next up, 83% of them did not show recently viewed jobs, whereas on the other hand, nearly 76% companies did not automatically detect the candidate’s location and suggest relevant jobs nearby.
Alongside that, a contingent of 74% were deemed to not clearly articulate the employer value proposition in an accessible manner, with 73% not featuring adequate relevant, quality content which could convey the employer brand.
Another detail worth a mention is rooted in a piece of detail claiming that 68% of companies did not use a passwordless job cart/favorites function for candidates to save job searches. Almost 31% of these organizations also didn’t harness the power of video content that features employee testimonials showcasing company culture.
“We created a dynamic career site that empowers candidates to go on their own journeys, highlighting job categories and creating landing pages with content and openings that are most relevant,” said Scott Ewert, SVP, Talent Acquisition at Regions Bank. “We have created a seamless experience not only for talent prospects but also for our teams who have a clearer window into the most qualified, most capable candidates for open positions.”
Having covered their shortcomings, we now must touch upon some of the improvements Fortune 500 companies have achieved in recent times. These improvements include around 91% of them providing the ability to upload a resume and cover letter from mobile devices, while 82% now offer an easy mobile-apply process in three steps or less.
Phenom’s report also detected a 86% increase in search providing relevant suggestions based on keywords, a 62% increase in social login available on the career site, as well as a 33% increase in type-ahead search on all career site pages.
The lowdown in question took this opportunity to further share some recommendations for companies.
One of the recommendations is to build a skills-forward career site. As candidates today navigate career opportunities based on transferable skills rather than rigid job titles or industry boundaries, organizations must create career sites where talent can instantly connect with relevant opportunities.
Beyond that, the report also emphasized the need for conversational AI and automation. two components that can extend your talent acquisition team’s capabilities 24/7.
