You’re a Recruiter. You have an open position. You source. You screen. You interview. You send several candidates to the hiring team for consideration. In the end, the “best” candidate is selected. You celebrate the successful completion of the search by either updating your recruiting metrics or collecting a hefty placement fee. One candidate is happy and starting a new job with the company, and usually there are a few candidates who interviewed for the position, but weren’t selected, who must now be dealt with. How do you close out these candidates?
One option is to do nothing at all, and never circle back to let the unsuccessful candidates know that
someone else has been selected. We may forget to do so, feel like we’re too busy, or take the position that if the candidate is interested in knowing the results, they’ll follow up with us.
Another option is to provide a standard response to rejected candidates via impersonal, succinct and lawyer-approved rejection notices delivered in one of the following ways:
-Form letter or email. Using a mail merge from the ATS, several notifications can be sent in a matter of minutes. Rejection letters can then be crossed off the To Do List, and we’re on to the next position. Easy. Clean. Nobody gets hurt.
-Brief phone conversation. “We decided to go in a different direction”, “We selected a candidate that we feel is a better match” or “it was a difficult decision, but in the end, you were not selected” are all ways of telling candidates they weren’t “The One”, without really saying anything at all. If candidates press for more details, we repeat the opening line, and add “I’m sorry”. Still more questions? Rinse and repeat.
-Voice-mail. Used when there’s a desire to deliver the message “in-person” – but not by actually talking with a person. Call a candidate’s home number during the day, or call their work number early morning/late at night, and we can usually score voice-mail. We can also use the helpful *67 to block your phone number (hang up if someone answers), and for the truly conversation phobic, there’s Slydial, which sends calls straight to voice-mail.
If you’re the candidate on the receiving end of these types of rejection communications, how does it make you feel? Let’s switch places for a minute…
You’re the candidate. You were made aware of an opening at ABC Company either through their advertisement, a referral from a trusted relationship, or you may have been cold-called by a recruiter. You take the time to customize your resume and do research on the company. You go through several interviews for the position via phone and in-person – all of which add up to several hours spent discussing the opportunity with recruiters and/or representatives of the company. You take time off from your current job to attend interviews. You spend time away from your family in the evening talking with the recruiter, collecting and sending follow-up information, and arranging contact with your references. You don’t get the job – and all you got for your time and effort was a form letter, short conversation or voice-mail from the recruiter who has been treating you like their best friend for the past few weeks. You spent all of your valuable time being pursued by the company/pursuing the opportunity, and you didn’t even get a lousy t-shirt.
Why don’t we provide more specific feedback to candidates on why they weren’t selected? Most candidates don’t like dealing with recruiters (internal or external). In fact, some hate recruiters, and their dislike of us often centers around how we communicate with them (or don’t).
I get it that if you do provide specific feedback, sometimes candidates want to debate the reasons why they weren’t selected. That’s no fun, and it can get uncomfortable. But in my opinion, it comes with the territory. Also, the excuse reason that we are protecting ourselves or our clients from legal/liability issues doesn’t hold water either if we’re doing our jobs properly and pushing clients/hiring managers for objective and specific reasons why they selected one candidate over another.
The Bottom Line
Put yourself in the candidate’s place. I think we need to do a better job of respecting the time and energy that candidates put into the process. The more time they invest with us in the process, the more time we should spend communicating the reasons why they weren’t selected. An experienced and well-trained recruiter/HR professional should be able to deliver the message in a respectful manner, and in such a way that doesn’t expose the company or client to liability. Respecting all of the candidates in the hiring process can go a long way in helping us with positively building our personal brand or employment brand in the marketplace, and maybe someday a candidate will send YOU a lousy t-shirt thanking you for your efforts!
What’s your take on providing rejected candidates feedback?
curious what your thoughts are on providing feedback re: a candidate not being the right fit for the culture. skills are there, industry experience is there… but it just won’t be a good fit. the chemistry is off. maybe their communication style won’t mesh. maybe their people management style aren’t the right fit. maybe they’re too hierarchical or come from organizations whose cultures are different and they don’t seem capable of breaking out of that mold.
i come from a place where culture is king… and so not everyone will fit in but it isn’t easy telling someone that it’s nothing to do with their skills… plus you have worries of litigation where organizations have used “fit” as a mask for discrimination… it just gets sticky.
thoughts?
I always try to let a candidate know they weren’t selected. I think it’s horribly rude not to considering the amount of time they put in. How I tell them depends on how much I liked them and want to stay in contact/find them another position.
If the person came in and blew the interview, I will often send an e-mail and invite them to contact me if they want feedback. If they respond, I give it. If they don’t, I’m in the clear.
If they did well, but another candidate was selected, I will usually share the goods and bads of the interview…and, I will often be clear about the deciding factor: The person we chose performed better on XYZ question. But, I try to avoid giving feedback that they can argue with. I won’t say, “You don’t have strong enough leadership skills,” because that’s met with, “but, I’ve been a manager for 5 years.”
JLee…your question is tough and I have gotten it a lot. If it’s a fit issue, I will typically just say that their experiences weren’t the right match. Maybe they’ll fit with a different team?
As someone on the other side of this fence, I can say it is completely discouraging to spend a lot of time working with a recruiter, and then hearing nothing.
I went on two interviews the first week of August, and did not hear a word from either until I got calls the second week in September telling me they’d “gone another direction,” and, probably a little worse for my ego “hired our intern full-time.”
My husband traveled from Birmingham to Boston in August for an interview, spent the night, had a whole day with this company, and has not heard a single word back. This was after several phone interviews and lots of (what felt like) positive communication beforehand, and then nothing after.
Honestly we would rather hear a “thank you for your time, we’ve made our decision, you weren’t it” than to wonder how often we need to follow up, how much is too much, at what point to we just leave it alone, has something changed at the company that affects this job… the list of what ifs goes on an on, particularly in the current job market.
Once I had invested several hours, including phone interviews and 4 hours of on-site interviews with up to the SVP of the department.
I heard not one single word back, even after an inquiry.
Because of that lack of consideration in their “culture”, that company will never be recommended by me to any colleague.
I’m a generalist, and under my recruiter hat, I always get back to everyone we meet with – with an email – but no one is ever left wondering.
Jessica – Good questions! (I would expect nothing less.) It does make it harder when not choosing someone is due to some of the “fit” issues you mentioned. I just try to find something concrete to tell them. You do have to be careful to make the reasons objective vs. subjective. Not always easy to do I agree, and I admit that even though I try very hard to spend the time it takes to give good feedback to candidates I’ve worked with, I’ve used all of the methods listed in the post above (except Slydial) at one point or other in my career. Not always proud of that – but unfortunately true.
Jason – We’re on the same page too! It’s important to frame the feedback in a way that’s it’s just about the candidate, and doesn’t include a comparison to the new hire. Almost always an invitation to debate on that one!
Kelly & Steve – Thanks for sharing the other side! It always amazes me to hear of stories similar to the ones you shared. I can’t imagine asking someone to spend several days with me/people at my company, paying money to send them on interviews and then offering no feedback at all. Maybe the recruiters in question were ill, or in the hospital, or … or maybe they’re just bad recruiters.
Jennifer – great article!
One of the greatest HR professionals that I’ve ever had the pleasure of working for and with took this approach, and it always left rejected candidates with a better taste in their mouth at the end of the experience.
From a business strategy perspective, providing feedback just makes sense. Every candidate is a potential future client, business partner (at their next employer) or even employee in a role for which they would be a better fit. Giving them an impersonal and cold brush-off after a heavy investment of their time in an organization sends the wrong message: that you don’t value them.
So again, kudos for the great article!
- Chris @ Manager’s Sandbox