Freese and Nichols Ranks No. 4 Nationally for Candidate Experience

Freese and Nichols has been recognized as one of the top organizations in North America for delivering an exceptional candidate experience. Talent feedback platform Survale presented the firm with a 2025 Candidate Experience Award based on positive survey feedback.

PR/Comms Manager Dan Purschwitz joins Maggie Babcock, Libbey Sutherland, Jim Riney, Lauren Hodge and Max Underhill of Talent Acquisition to celebrate the recognition of their teams’ efforts to embed candidate experience best practices into every step of the hiring process.

Freese and Nichols ranked No. 4 as the only AEC company among 110 participants, underscoring the firm’s commitment to continuous improvement in hiring practices.

Survale’s Candidate Experience (CandE) program helps benchmark and improve the way companies communicate and interact with candidates. The award recognizes employers whose candidate feedback ranks among the highest.


In every candidate communication throughout the process, candidates were asked to complete a CandE survey rating their experience. 

To win the award, participants must have an above-average CandE survey score, have received a specific minimum number of candidate responses and have a response ratio of mostly not hired candidates to hired candidates.

“We participated not for the award, but for the feedback,” Talent Acquisition Manager Jim Riney said. “We believed it aligned very well with our continuous improvement and Baldrige mindset.”

After collecting more than 200 surveys, here’s how Freese and Nichols performed;

Overall Performance

  • Net Promoter Score (NPS): 56
    (North America average: -4)
  • Resentment Rate: <1%

Candidate Sentiment

  • Would Apply Again: NPS 45
  • Would Refer Others: NPS 40

Experience by Stage

  • Research Stage: NPS 84
  • Application Stage: NPS 86
  • Interview and Fairness: NPS 98

CandE also provided feedback from candidates on ways to improve.

“Did we hope to win? Of course,” Jim said. “But it was really about elevating our focus of candidate experience, teaching our hiring teams quality interview processes and finding ways to improve for future recruiting efforts.”