Reject applicants in Recruiter

Last updated: 2 months ago

Who can use this feature?

This feature isn't available for Recruiter Lite.

LinkedIn Recruiter allows you to reject candidates who’ve applied to your job posting with or without a rejection message. You can only do this if you have chosen to collect applicants through Recruiter while creating your job post.

When you reject a candidate, it moves their profile under archived. You can unarchive a candidate and move the profile into a different pipeline stage. However, if you selected to notify the candidate on rejection, then the candidate wouldn't be notified of the change.

Candidates who don’t meet the required screening qualifications in your job posting or out-of-country applicants who apply to your job posting will be automatically sent rejection messages. You can update this setting to off.

Manually reject an applicant

To manually reject an applicant for a job on Recruiter:

  1. Click Jobs at the top of your Recruiter homepage.

  2. Click on the applicant count number under the Applicant column. You will be routed to the Applicants page in your project's Talent Pool page.

  3. Click Reject to the right of the applicant’s name.

  4. In the rejection window that appears, you can record your reason for rejecting the applicant by Select a rejection reason from the dropdown.

    Note: Your reasons for rejection will only be visible to you.

  5. You can send an email notification to the applicant informing them that their application will not be taken forward. You have the option of editing the rejection notification to suit your need.

    If you wish to reject the applicant without sending them a notification, switch the toggle next to Send rejection notification to Off and click Reject without notifying.

  6. Click Reject and notify.

    Click Cancel to go back to your applicant list without rejecting the applicant.

You can reject multiple applicants at once by checking the box next to their names and clicking Reject at the top of the applicant list. Your reason for rejection for all the selected applicants will be the same.

Here's a tip

There are no templates for manually rejecting applicants, only for auto-rejecting applicants. When you send a manual rejection, you'll have to edit messages to candidates on an individual basis.

Reject applicants who don’t meet the required screening qualifications

To enable auto-rejection of applicants who don’t meet the required screening qualifications:

  1. Click Jobs at the top of your Recruiter homepage.

  2. Click the job title.

    Note: You can use the search bar and filters on the left to locate your project.

  3. Click  Project settings.

  4. In the Applicant rejection settings section, switch the toggle to On next to Reject applicants who don’t meet the required screening qualifications.

    • Switch the toggle to Off to disable auto-archiving of candidates.
    • Note: All rejected candidates will be available in Archived candidates.

  5. You can notify rejected applicants through an auto-rejection message by switching the toggle to On next to Notify auto-rejected applicants promptly.

    • Switch the toggle to Off to disable notifying auto-archiving of candidates.
    • Note: Auto-archived applicants will receive the rejection message three days after they apply to your job posting. If you choose not to send rejection messages to a particular applicant(s), you can move them out of the Archived candidates section before the message is sent.

Reject out of country applicants

Important to know

Applicants must be collected on LinkedIn for the option to auto-reject out of country applicants to be available. Additionally, there cannot be an old external URL present.

To enable auto-rejection of out of country applicants who apply to your job posting:

  1. Click Jobs at the top of your Recruiter homepage.

  2. Click the job title.

    Note: You can use the search bar and filters on the left to locate your project.

  3. Click  Project settings.

  4. In the Applicant rejection settings section, switch the toggle to On next to Reject out of country applicants.

    • Switch the toggle to Off to disable rejection of out of country applicants.
    • Note: All rejected candidates will be available in Archived candidates.

  5. You can notify rejected applicants through an auto-rejection message by switching the toggle to On next to Notify auto-rejected applicants promptly.

    • Switch the toggle to Off to disable notifying auto-rejected applicants.
    • Note: Rejected applicants will receive the rejection message three days after they apply to your job posting. If you choose not to reject an applicant, you can move them out of the Archived candidates section before the message is sent.

Reject applicants in bulk

Important to know

Use this feature with caution! All selected applicants will be archived and sent a rejection notification (if notification is selected). You can unarchive selected applicants before the notification is sent to prevent them from receiving a rejection.

To reject applicants in bulk:

  1. Access the Talent pool page on the left pane of the project.

  2. Click on Applicants.

  3. Click the Bulk actions checkbox to the upper left.

  4. Click Archive/Reject to reject and archive all selected applicants.

Here's a tip

Applicants moved to stages in the Pipeline are retained in the Talent Pool until they are archived/rejected. These applicants can be identified with a smaller card in the Talent Pool. If you do not want these applicants archived/rejected, deselect them from the bulk action.

Important to know

If a candidate is manually rejected by someone in the project, the Most recent activities module on the candidate profile card will display the name of the person who performed the rejection.

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