Giving interview feedback to unsuccessful candidates
Breaking bad news to candidates is a natural part of hiring. Providing comprehensive feedback to those who have been unsuccessful can set employers apart.
Attracting and hiring suitable candidates can be a long and arduous process. One of the challenges employers have to overcome is informing jobseekers that their application has been unsuccessful. No one likes to be the bearer of bad news, particularly after candidates have put significant effort into their application.
As a result, it’s important to break the news to unsuccessful applicants in a sincere, professional, and positive manner. However, given how much time candidates invest into their applications, sometimes including numerous interview stages, employers should look to go even further and provide applicants with comprehensive feedback on their strengths and where they can improve.
In this guide, we examine the importance of interview feedback and outline how to give interview feedback to unsuccessful candidates.
What is interview feedback?
Interview feedback is the constructive process of detailing to candidates the strengths they demonstrated throughout the hiring process and identifying where they could look to improve in future.
The type of feedback provided to a candidate is likely to vary depending on the stage of the hiring process. For example, if you are letting a number of candidates know that their application has been unsuccessful early on in the process, an email or letter is perfectly acceptable. However, if a candidate has reached the latter stages, you may want to consider a phone call to give them more direct and specific feedback.
The importance of interview feedback
Whether or not a candidate’s application is successful, a positive experience during the hiring process can leave a lasting impression. While several factors contribute to a great candidate experience, providing constructive feedback is amongst the most important, with 78% of candidates saying they want an explanation and feedback if they are turned down for a role after interview.
Interview feedback also helps to promote both fairness and transparency during the interview process. This is because feedback ensures that the hiring team provides detailed, specific and well-informed reasons for their decisions, focusing on factors like candidate interview skills.
Interview feedback for unsuccessful candidates
Providing feedback to a candidate after they have been informed that their application has been unsuccessful can be uncomfortable for hiring managers, which is why, understandably, some may choose to avoid doing so.
Whilst not all candidates will necessarily want feedback as they continue their job search, many do. As a result, employers can use this as an opportunity to:
- Thank candidates for their time and efforts
- Recognise their strengths
- Discuss areas for improvement
Why giving feedback to unsuccessful candidates matters
Constructive feedback allows employers to end their relationship with a candidate on a positive note and set job seekers up for future opportunities. However, beyond helping candidates improve their job-hunting prospects, providing candidate interview feedback can also benefit employers in numerous ways. Let’s look at some of the most significant:
- Network building: When it comes to recruiting for future jobs, it often pays to build relationships. Even if a candidate isn’t right for a role now, that doesn’t mean they won’t be in the future. By providing applicants with positive interview feedback whenever possible, employers can create a network of jobseekers ready for future hiring.
- Building talent pools: Talent pools can be a huge asset for employers, allowing them access to a steady stream of candidates for new roles. By making candidate feedback part of the hiring process, employers can build talent pools capable of meeting future hiring needs.
- Employer branding: An employer’s reputation can be significantly impacted by the feedback they provide candidates, particularly when candidates can voice their opinions across social media. As a result, providing comprehensive feedback to interview candidates can strengthen an employer brand, aiding in future talent acquisition efforts.
How to provide interview feedback to unsuccessful candidates
While giving interview feedback to unsuccessful candidates isn’t mandatory, and many employers and hiring managers choose not to provide it, as we have seen, doing so can be advantageous to both employers and jobseekers alike. However, for many it can still be a challenging task. Below we’ve outlining 6 tips to help you get started with providing useful and comprehensive feedback to unsuccessful candidates.
1. Provide feedback promptly
If you’re going to give feedback to a candidate following their interview you should look to do it as quickly as possible. The longer a candidate has to wait to hear back, the more difficult it becomes for them to accept the reasons for your decision and be receptive to any feedback you have prepared.
Remember, you wouldn’t want to wait to hear back from a candidate, so don’t keep them hanging when it comes to providing feedback. Timely feedback allows candidates who have been unsuccessful to continue their job search armed with valuable information that may help them be successful with future applications.
2. Show gratitude
As outlined above, just getting to the interview stage often requires a lot of time and effort on behalf of the candidate. This is then compounded by interview preparation, sometimes for numerous stages and formats.
Given the lengths jobseekers often go to, it’s important to always thank them for their interest in your organisation, regardless of the outcome of their application. Let them know you appreciate the time they took to apply and attend the interview stage, ensuring the relationship ends positively.
3. Give the candidate encouragement
Whilst there should be clear reasons why a candidate has been unsuccessful in their application following an interview, the feedback stage provides an opportunity to let them know that you have seen their potential. As a result, this is the time to highlight their:
- Skills
- Qualifications
- Experience
If applicable, this is also an opportunity to let the candidate know that, had things been different, you feel that they would have been a good fit for your organisation.
4. Provide specific reasoning
This is the important part – explaining to the candidate why you are not making them a job offer following the interview process. At this stage it’s crucial to try and not be too negative, as it’s hard enough for the candidate to hear they aren’t being offered the role without feeling they are being heavily criticised.
In order to personalise the experience, specific competency-based feedback is often useful here. For example, identifying where the candidate may not have the necessary skills for the role. It can also help to explain why someone else was deemed more suitable for the role without giving out personal information. This might include explaining that the successful candidate:
- Is an internal hire already familiar with the organisation’s systems and processes
- Has a higher level of education or professional more previous experience
5. Set aside time for follow-up questions
Once they have been made aware of the fact they have been unsuccessful and informed of the reasons why, candidates will often have further questions as to why they haven’t been selected for the role after the interview stage.
If a candidate does have questions of this nature, be sure to respond to them promptly and professionally, clarifying the points made in your feedback of necessary. Throughout this stage, ensure that you follow organisational policies on communication with applicants.
6. Leave the door open
If a candidate has previously demonstrated the type of skills and experience you want in your organisation but hasn’t been successful with their first application, you can still leave the door open for future applications.
Encourage the candidate to reapply for future roles and inform them about current or upcoming openings you are aware of that they may be suitable for based on the feedback provided to them.
7. End the conversation politely and courteously
Be sure to end any conversation around feedback with a candidate politely and courteously, as this reflects well on your organisation and can contribute to a strong employer brand. While candidates might not always be satisfied with the feedback provided or the reasons behind your decisions, showing gratitude demonstrates your appreciation for their effects.
Interview feedback best practices
Whether you’re sending unsuccessful interview feedback by email or over the phone, there are several best practices to keep in mind to ensure that your conversations are productive and comply with internal and external guidelines:
- Capture feedback immediately: Constructive interview feedback requires the interviewer accurately documenting the contents of an interview. Putting in time immediately after the interview while it’s still fresh is a great way to do that, whilst also minimising the time spent note-taking during the interview itself.
- Be constructive: Even when it’s not wholly positive, interview feedback should always be constructive, giving candidates advice on how they can improve moving forward. As such, offering actionable insights or resources jobseekers can use to maximise their chances of success in future applications.
- Ensure confidentiality: Keeping feedback confidential and adhering to data privacy regulations, such as GDPR, is crucial throughout the hiring process. As a result, employers may find it useful to utilise secure systems or platforms for storing candidate data, limiting access to authorised personnel.
- Avoid discriminatory behaviour: Eliminating any biases or discrimination during the interview and hiring process is of paramount importance to any organisation. Not selecting an applicant based on their age, race or gender, for example, is discriminatory, and feedback should therefore rely on facts related to candidate skills, experience and performance.