A vital part of the candidate experience during the recruitment process is to be able to provide feedback to both rejected and hired candidates. Many recruiters feel uneasy about giving feedback to candidates since they have experience in being stuck in endless loops with candidates not accepting or agreeing with the feedback provided.
The reason is often that the feedback has been given at a very general level “we selected a more senior person” or the evaluation criteria has not been clear for the candidates, so that unqualified candidates have advanced to parts of the process, where they should have been disqualified earlier.
The level of feedback should be appropriate to the level of time invested by the candidate. If the candidate has been part of the interview process and there is genuine interest in the candidate for future openings, this step is absolutely critical to build a good relationship.
Feedback can be given:
Feedback enhances the candidate experiences and increases the possibility of building future talent pools with rich data on candidate profiles. It also aids when trying to build a solid employer brand since negative experiences tend to lead people discouraging their friends from considering you as a potential employer.
Most importantly, always tell the truth to the candidate. If this makes you feel uneasy or that the rejection reason is something that might put you in trouble, then reconsider what the selection criteria for joining your organization are. Visit Assessment and the section on scoring guides to help you in creating good feedback. Also, make sure that the Talent Persona is solid, this will make it easier to feedback where the candidate fell short.
An honest and conversational tone of voice is a good choice for giving feedback. Be sure to give honest praise to the parts where the candidate did meet or exceed expectations and give constructive criticism where the candidate fell short. Giving real examples of how the candidate can improve themselves will reflect very well on you as a recruiter and on the organization.
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