Survale and the CandE Benchmark Research Program Announce 2026 Global Candidate Experience Award Winners

Survale, the leading provider of candidate and employee experience management solutions, and the 15th annual CandE Benchmark Research and Awards Program, now part of Survale, today revealed the 43 companies from around the world to be recognized for candidate experience excellence as winners of 2026 Global Candidate Experience Awards.

This year 90 companies hiring around the world registered to participate in the 2026 Global CandE Awards Benchmark Research and Awards Program, which ultimately collected the thoughts and experiences of over 77,000 job candidates. The largest study of its kind, the CandE Benchmark Research Program has evaluated responses from over 2,000 global employers and over 1.9 million job seekers since 2011.

Winners were identified through a comprehensive data analysis based on their job candidates' satisfaction survey scores. To qualify, each company committed to a statistically significant candidate response minimum, where the proportion of respondents who were not hired met or exceeded a set standard. The final analysis included four key rating questions that had a significant impact on determining the winners:

1. The candidates' overall ranking of their candidate experience
2. Whether or not they would reapply to the organization in the future
3. Whether or not they would refer other job seekers to the organization in the future
4. And how the candidates would change their business relationship status with the organization going forward based on their experience

The above analysis resulted in a final CandE Score for each participating organization. This year 66 organizations big and small across multiple industries will receive 56 CandE Awards due to having the highest positive candidate experience ratings in North America; Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA); Asia-Pacific (APAC); and Latin America. The CandEs continue its mission of helping companies focus on Candidate Experience and the business value it brings to an organization.

• 7-Eleven
• Agnico Eagle Mines Limited
• Alliance Technical Group
• BASF Corporation
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota
• Bright Horizons
• Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
• Clarios
• Clean Harbors
• Crum & Forster
• CSAA Insurance Group
• D2L
• Doane Grant Thornton LLP
• EchoStar
• Edwards Lifesciences
• Enterprise Mobility
• Erie Architectural Products
• Family Care Center LLC
• Freese and Nichols
• GALLO
• Hoag Health System
• KeyBank
• NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
• Northwell Health
• Penn Medicine
• Persistent Systems
• Principal Financial Group
• Progress Residential
• Prudential Financial
• Schneider Electric
• Sunrun
• Syndax Pharmaceuticals
• Tarrant Regional Water District
• Texas Oncology
• Tokio Marine HCC
• U.S. Bank
• United Health Services, Inc.
• UST
• UTHealth Houston
• YKK AP America Inc.

• Capco
• Clarios
• Edwards Lifesciences
• Enterprise Mobility
• Microsoft
• Schneider Electric
• Syensqo
• UST

• Diligent
• EchoStar
• Edwards Lifesciences
• Schneider Electric
• Syensqo
• UST

• Clarios
• Schneider Electric

“In today’s ‘low hire, low fire’ uncertain economy, where job candidates navigate lengthy job searches and talent acquisition teams face screening bottlenecks from increased AI application spam, real candidates will always remember how employers made them feel,” said Kevin Grossman, VP of Benchmark Research at Survale. “Candidates today too often feel alienated by quick application rejections, sparse communications, and post-interview ghosting. Improving the candidate experience isn’t just the right thing to do - it’s a vital long-term investment in relationships, human connection, and sustainable business outcomes in any market. Congratulations to the 2026 CandE Winners for prioritizing empathy, transparency, and genuine human connection amidst modern recruiting challenges.”

You can find the complete listing of 2026 CandE Winners listed by final ranking on the Survale CandE Winner page.

CandE-winning companies are also asked about their unique approach to improving the candidate experience through case study questions that will be used for our research reports, as well as to be considered for the Most Innovative Candidate Experience Improvement Awards to be given away at this year’s virtual CandE Awards ceremony on October 15. The ceremony registration is open for all recruiting leaders and their teams to learn more about our program.

Survale's award-winning Talent Feedback Platform provides employers with an "Always On" solution for automatically gathering, analyzing and acting upon experiential data from candidates, recruiters, hiring managers and employees at each stage of the hiring process and throughout the talent lifecycle. Survale's data provides recruiting leadership with unprecedented insights into their recruitment operations and quality of hire, allowing them to optimize and align their people and processes around common metrics. Survale is also the home of the CandE Benchmark Research Program, the industry's leading candidate experience research and awards program. For more information, visit: survale.com.

Kevin Grossman
VP of Benchmark Research
Email Contact
831-419-6810

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