RECRUITMENT

Candidate Feedback

By Nick Smith, 360 Search Ltd

In a time where there are more candidates on the market to choose from, it could be easy to become complacent about managing the applicants who don’t make the cut this time around.

Recruiters and managers with hiring responsibilities are now switching from a mentality of dealing with limited applicant choice (often of as little as one or two candidates) to several options for certain roles. How times have changed since this time last year.

A result of such a candidate rich job market is that more people are applying to your vacancies and being exposed to your brand. Use it as a chance to make an impression! Hiring managers are having to switch from a ‘move it or lose it’ mode, to carefully considering each candidate option more thoroughly to ensure the best fit is obtained.

A commitment to ensuring that your company recruitment process is as much about managing the perception of those applicants who are not selected, as well as those who are hired, will go a long way.

Giving no feedback at all speaks volumes.

As you sit back in your chair, satisfied that you have managed to find the best candidate in the market for the role, remind yourself that you are only 90 per cent through the recruitment process. To finish the job, your next task is to prioritise the other applicants and ensure that they are left with a positive image of your company.

Leaving people hanging is nothing short of rude. If five, ten, 20 or more other applicants are left hanging with no feedback, or worse, no response at all, then the employer, in my opinion, deserves any negative spin created.

So how should an employer reject candidates? It’s the least enjoyable aspect of recruitment, but the job is not finished until the last applicant has been told the news.

• Ensure that any feedback given is specific and objective, rather than subjective. Reject against the job criteria, rather than against other applicants

• Outline any areas where it was considered that the applicant did not have the skills, knowledge or experience required for the position. For example, ‘we felt that you did not demonstrate sufficient experience of x criteria, which asked for experience of cost management’

• Be tactful and try to give constructive advice, for example by suggesting what areas they need to gain more experience, in relation to the selection criteria

• Do not provide feedback on information that did not emerge from the selection process, and do not make statements that might imply unfair discrimination. There is real potential for liability if you decide to go down this path.

Reject against the criteria of the position description and not against other applicants. Nobody wants to hear that ‘there were better applicants’. Let’s not get too PC about things, but let’s also respect people’s egos and feelings that may be taking a bashing out there in a weakening job market.
Every reason why your recruitment process may be delayed, stalled or stopped completely is a valid one. So why not inform people what is happening?

Candidates will understand business realities, so telling the truth can only work in your favour. All that iis required is one or two contact points so that job applicants know where they stand. No man’s land is no fun, so respect applicants who have made the effort. Employers have an obligation to acknowledge applicants.

Face value statements such as stating that your company is the best place to work, or that you put people first, can be easily discredited by poor recruitment processes. Actions speak louder than words and slogans.

In business, commerce often overrides the human resource, as we are seeing with the many redundancies in the market at present.

Recruitment should be a very strong marketing exercise for an organisation. If you get 20 applicants for a role, great! Make the most of the publicity and make it positive.

news spreads like wildfire and heavy investment in your image as employers can be undone in a flash by simple oversights such as ignoring the three, four or 24 applicants you did not hire. The opportunity here is to create 24 brand advocates who have had a positive experience with your company. The risk is that you have 24 people describing a disappointing experience to their friends and colleagues.

I too welcome feedback and would like to take this opportunity to thank those who have commented on my articles over the last year or so, the majority of which has been very positive so, keep the feedback coming, cheers!

For further information contact: Nick Smith, 360 Search Ltd,
Tel: 09 523 4360