Talent Board Names The Devon Group Agency of Record For Third Annual Candidate Experience Awards

Agency Selected for Expertise in HR Technology, Proven Abilities in Media Relations and Content Marketing

MIDDLETOWN, N.J. (March 5, 2013) – The Devon Group, a public relations and marketing services firm with offices in the U.S. and U.K., today announced that it has been named the agency of record for the Talent Board’s annual Candidate Experience Awards for the third consecutive year.

A quality job candidate experience, that keeps candidates informed and engaged throughout the recruiting, screening and hiring processes, is essential for today’s companies to attract the right candidates in the face of growing skills shortages and competition. With candidates more likely than ever to share a negative candidate experience with their inner circles and on social media, delivering a positive candidate experience is imperative to attracting and retaining the right talent and maintaining a strong employment and consumer brand. 

Recognizing the need to elevate and promote the candidate experience, the Talent Board, a non-profit organization, developed the Candidate Experience Awards (known as “CandEs”) to evaluate the candidate experience offered by companies throughout the entire recruitment cycle and recognize those companies that deliver an exemplary candidate experience. The CandEs also enable any company to benchmark and improve its candidate experience through valuable, relevant industry data.

In partnering with The Devon Group, the Candidate Experience Awards have received significant and increasing attention and interest, with 90 participating companies and 17 sponsors for the 2012 North American CandEs, compared to 57 participating companies and seven sponsors in 2011. Overall, more than 17,500 candidate surveys were conducted for the 2012 CandEs, nearly twice as many surveys conducted for the inaugural 2011 CandEs. The Devon Group also supported the first-ever U.K. Candidate Experience Awards to recognize companies in the British employment marketplace that produce outstanding candidate experiences. The overwhelming response highlights the global market interest in companies benchmarking their candidate experience and identifying areas of improvement to eliminate the frustration and resentment associated with a poor candidate experience.

“The Devon Group has been instrumental in garnering The CandEs a great deal of attention in the award’s short history, helping us grow significantly from 2011 to 2012,” said Elaine Orler, chairman and co-founder of the CandEs. “I’m pleased to once again partner with the PR and marketing experts at The Devon Group, who also represent many leading companies in the HR technology industry and has served as agency of record for the annual HR Technology Conference for more than a decade. The agency’s depth of experience in this field makes it uniquely positioned to increase awareness of the CandEs and promote the importance of delivering a positive candidate experience to all job applicants.”

“As we support numerous HR technology clients that deliver solutions designed to improve the talent acquisition process, we are very familiar with the role that a strong candidate experience plays in reinforcing a company’s reputation and attracting qualified talent that aligns with its corporate culture,” said Jeanne Achille, CEO of The Devon Group and its sister company, Devon Interactive. “Our organization is deeply involved in our clients’ businesses, helping them promote their innovative tools and technologies that enhance the recruiting, screening and hiring processes. We are honored to serve once again as agency of record for the CandEs and work with the Talent Board to bring greater visibility to the importance of providing an exemplary candidate experience.”

To learn more about the Candidate Experience Awards and how to register for the 2013 CandEs, please visit: http://www.thecandidateexperienceawards.org/.

About The Devon Group
The Devon Group, along with its sister company, Devon Interactive, delivers expert public relations and marketing results to a wide variety of global companies and organizations. Committed to fully engaged partnerships with clients, The Devon Group has one of the highest client retention rates in the PR industry. The Devon Group has also won numerous awards for branding, feature stories and press releases, and local, national and global print and online media campaigns.

Headquartered outside New York City in Middletown, N.J., The Devon Group’s U.K. office is located in central London. For more information about The Devon Group, please visit www.devonpr.com or follow the Company on Twitter: twitter.com/devongroup.