"Every candidate deserves a response and feedback, regardless of where they are in the process."

For the 2026 CXP Awards, we are pleased to present the award for Best Candidate Experience to Head Agent, a prominent executive search and recruitment firm specializing in strategic leadership positions.

We had a chat with joint CEO’s Pontus Andersson and Victoria Heigard, to get a better understanding for how Head Agent works to maintain such a great candidate experience.

Congratulations on winning! Is candidate experience something you’ve actively focused on, or do you just happen to have a terrific recruitment process?

Pontus Andersson: Candidate experience has been Head Agents top priority from day one. Our purpose is to give our candidates the best experience in our industry. To make sure that we deliver on that mission, we aim for zero-tolerance when it comes to candidate feedback. Every candidate deserves a response and feedback, regardless of where they are in the process.

How do you balance an efficient recruitment process with creating a good experience for candidates?

Victoria Heigard: We make sure to allocate time for continuous updates and fast feedback throughout our recruitment processes. In each assignment, we work as a team in delivery to ensure we have the capacity for close and ongoing dialogue with candidates. By providing immediate and transparent feedback and clearly sharing the criteria behind our selection, we’ve seen that candidates truly value our responsiveness and honesty. This allows us to maintain efficiency, professionalism, and a personal approach throughout the process.

What does a great candidate experience mean to you?

Pontus Andersson: A great candidate experience is when a candidate who has been part of any stage in our process has an experience they want to share with others. It’s about creating an interaction that makes them really want to recommend Head Agent as a partner, both to other candidates and in the future when they themselves need support with executive search.

Ultimately, it’s about delivering an experience that gives the candidate value even though they might not be the one that gets hired by our client.

Victoria Heigard & Pontus Andersson, joint CEOs of Head Agent

What concrete results have you seen while working on the candidate experience?

Victoria Heigard: By consistently working to maintain a strong candidate experience, we see that many candidates in the market actively want to be part of our recruitment processes. The candidate experience is a key driver of our reputation in the market.

What insights have been most valuable to you through working with Trustcruit?

Pontus Andersson: One key insight for us has been the ability to measure each stage of our processes in order to continuously improve the candidate experience at every step. We’ve gained a clear understanding of what we can improve, as well as collected valuable data from candidates on what they appreciate and where they see room for improvement. This is something we actively work to capture and act on immediately, allowing us to continuously refine our process and meet candidates’ expectations of us as a partner in their career.

How do you follow up with candidates who are not satisfied?

Victoria Heigard: We make sure to follow up with all candidates who express dissatisfaction. In many cases, we take the time to speak with them directly to better understand what we can improve, and we often meet with those individuals to gain deeper insight into their feedback and how we can do better.

Are there any best practices you think all companies should adopt?

Victoria Heigard: Invest time in providing fast, clear, and personal feedback. It builds long-term relationships and creates an open dialogue around a candidate’s next career step and how to find the right match for that individual.

Finally, what advice would you give to companies wanting to start collecting and acting on candidate feedback?

Pontus Andersson: Just start doing it. Without candidate feedback, you have no real opportunity to improve and risk lacking a clear understanding of what truly matters to candidates. Make sure to measure every step of your process, from application or first interaction to the final stage, to enable continuous improvement and to collect meaningful data.

2026 June 29
Interviewee Pontus Andersson, Victoria Heigard, Interviewer Tove Hernlund

Round-Up

Are you interested in competing in next year's candidate experience and achieving something like Head Agent? Explore Trustcruit today!