U.K. Candidate Experience Awards Welcome Gold Sponsor, KellyOCG


LONDON--(Marketwire - Oct 4, 2012) - The Candidate Experience Awards, a non-profit organisation focused on facilitating the evolution of the employment candidate experience, today announced that KellyOCG, the outsourcing and consulting group of Kelly Services®, is sponsoring the first-ever U.K. Candidate Experience Awards (known as "The CandEs"). As a gold sponsor and a global leader in talent management solutions, KellyOCG supports the CandEs as the programme works to elevate the importance of providing a positive job candidate experience and recognises those companies that set a high standard for candidate engagement.

"It was important for us to be involved in the CandE Awards, as we believe the insight offered from viewing processes through the candidate experience lens is the key driver of competitive recruiting advantage," said Sally Hunter, director of KellyOCG's EMEA RPO practise. "This view of the process -- well beyond simply helping organisations to identify and capture any hidden costs -- gives unique transparency to the employer brand perception during those early interactions with candidates. Above all, it will highlight hidden complexity or gaps within the process and offer its own insights into the real improvement solution. In a talent-driven marketplace, these insights and the resulting improvements will make a huge difference to the experience of an organisation's future customers."

The U.K.-based Candidate Experience Awards programme follows the success of last year's inaugural North American CandEs. The 2011 awards uncovered that an average of 8 per cent of individuals who apply for jobs at a company typically leave the application process with resentment. This resentment potentially affects their status as customers of the firm and prevents them from applying to future positions with the company. And as job seekers are likely to share their feelings with their peers and social networks, a negative candidate experience can have a lasting impact on the company's brand and bottom line.

Organisations that participate in the CandEs receive a benchmark report allowing them to see how their candidate experience measures against the aggregate of all other companies in the CandEs.

"As companies around the world strive to develop talent acquisition strategies to source and identify the individuals who will help them meet business goals, the candidate experience they provide has become a major differentiating factor in attracting top talent," said Jeremy Tipper, Talent Board member and partner at Talent Collective. "KellyOCG understands the value and competitive advantage that a positive candidate experience can bring to an organization and, through its proven RPO, HR Consulting, BPO, executive search and contingent workforce talent solutions, works to provide an engaging and effective experience. We are honoured to welcome KellyOCG as a gold sponsor and look forward working together to honour those employers that take extra care to treat their candidates with dignity."

About KellyOCG 
KellyOCG is the Outsourcing and Consulting Group of workforce solutions provider, Kelly Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: KELYA) (NASDAQ: KELYB). KellyOCG is a global leader in innovative talent management solutions in the areas of Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Contingent Workforce Outsourcing (CWO), including Independent Contractor Solutions, Human Resources Consulting, Career Transition and Executive Coaching and Development, and Executive Search. Visit www.kellyocg.com.

About Kelly Services® 
Kelly Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: KELYA) (NASDAQ: KELYB) is a leader in providing workforce solutions. Kelly® offers a comprehensive array of outsourcing and consulting services as well as world-class staffing on a temporary, temporary-to-hire and direct-hire basis. Serving clients around the globe, Kelly provides temporary employment to 550,000 employees annually. Revenue in 2011 was $5.6 billion. Visit www.kellyservices.com and connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter.

About the Candidate Experience Awards
The Candidate Experience Awards is a non-profit organisation focused on the elevation and promotion of a quality candidate experience. The organisation, awards programme and sponsors are dedicated to recognising the candidate experience offered by companies throughout the entire recruitment cycle and to forever changing the manner in which job candidates are treated. More information can be accessed at http://www.thecandidateexperienceawards.org.