Best Practices for Providing Candidate Feedback

Dear Hiring Managers and Recruiters, If you have a candidate who has been through multiple rounds of interviews and you're turning them down, please take the time to offer them feedback if they'd ask for it. I know you're busy and probably afraid. Giving feedback can be scary; you never know how someone will react. But if they are able to receive it, it's such a gift. You and your organization may now have unique insights into what could help them improve and land their next role. And in this competitive environment, it could make a huge difference. I cannot tell you how many folks I know who have been interviewing, get multiple rounds in, only to get turned down, and then receive feedback that looks like "we've decided to go with a candidate that is more closely aligned with our direction" or something like that. That's not actionable or helpful. Examples of better feedback: - We've chosen a candidate with "this specific technical experience." This will give the candidate something to work on. - What would've made you a better fit for this particular role is having more domain expertise (insert specific domain. Example: underwater welding). Suppose there were communication issues or issues with how they showed up in the interview. It's harder to give this type of feedback in writing (highly suggest you don’t as it could introduce unnecessary risk) as tone and intent can be harder to convey, so I suggest a phone call (I actually prefer a phone call for all feedback to reduce risk), but give them that feedback if they are willing to receive it. Stick with facts, not feelings or opinions. Provide feedback only on things that the candidate can change. And remember your communication sandwich (positive, constructive, positive). Examples: - While it was very clear to us from your resume that you have strong experience in x, one area of opportunity would be to work on telling a story about how you drove an impact and the steps you took. The why, the what, and the how. - While we can tell you are very passionate about x, we didn't get a clear understanding of your impact on the metrics you owned. DISCLAIMER: 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐇𝐑 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐲. You need to make sure you avoid legal landmines! Keep feedback focused on skills, experience, or alignment with the role, not personal traits or anything that could be misinterpreted as discriminatory. Dear Candidates, If you ask for feedback and you get it, make it safe for the interviewer to give you that feedback. If someone offers it and you're not in a mental space to receive it, it's always okay to graciously decline it. I have personally given feedback only to have someone argue about why my feedback was wrong, and I am not the only one. This happens a lot, making the idea of giving feedback very unappealing. That is all.

Most candidates just want feedback. This candidate wasn’t a fit so I let her know during our call. Afterwards, I sent her an email thanking her for her time and threw in some suggestions for her resume since she hadn’t been job searching for a while. ⇢ I didn’t spend more than 10 minutes on it. And here’s the gift I received back from her. ⤵ ⤵ “Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your feedback, Lisa. I have wondered what I could be doing differently or better, and so far I have not had any feedback from anyone, so this means the world. I will absolutely take your recommendations and apply them to my resume. The on-line certifications is a great idea as well. It was an absolute pleasure speaking with you and you showed me what it is I am truly hoping to find, and that is good people to work with. I wish things could have worked out for me to be a part of your team but speaking with you was a true honor. Thanks again for everything and take care of yourself!!!” 👉🏽Not every company allows feedback. 👉🏽And not every candidate has easy-to-provide feedback that would actually be helpful for future applications. 👉🏽But when it works, taking the time to help can really give beat-up candidates hope. - - - - For those of you who haven't been jobsearching in a while... This may or may not pertain to you, but here’s what I suggested: ⤵ ⤵ ➡️ I'd move your skills section to the end of the resume and save all of that space on page 1 for experience. ➡️ I'd remove the years in the education section to avoid ageism (which shouldn't exist but still does). ➡️ To step it up a notch, you could add some accomplishments using numbers and specifics vs duties. Ex: Developed a program to xxxx, increasing efficiency of x by 45%. Ex: Designed and led 45 training classes for new hires, decreasing onboarding time by 25% and increasing efficiency by 30%. ➡️ I'd remove the Transcriptionist role as the recommendation is to only go back 10-15 years in experience and it isn't related to the roles you're applying to. ➡️ While searching, if you come across something that a lot of the jobs you're interested in require (like the AI you mentioned), go ahead and do some online certifications and add to your resume to stay up to date. - - - - - PS Let's help out some jobseekers. What are some other general tips that may help someone who hasn’t searched for a while? 👇🏽👇🏽

The call I never look forward to... "The hiring team has decided not to move forward." I had a candidate who didn't do well in the final interview. He wanted to schedule a call to speak about the feedback, so I set it up. I let him know several interviewers had a tough time following his answers. He was long-winded in his answers and never fully answered most of the questions asked. I advised him to record himself answering basic interview questions. I told him to listen to his answers and put himself in the interviewers shoes. Then reflect back on the question to see if he is providing any unnecessary information. Candidate: "Wow, Matt." "I never had a recruiter actually schedule a call to discuss feedback from my interviews." "I usually just get an email saying they are not moving forward." "This really helps me because I have several other interviews and I will use your coaching to do better." Me: "No problem at all, it's my duty to help others." "I look forward to hearing how you crushed your next interview and landed the job." "Keep in touch." A lot of people think recruiters are just looking for the next placement and could care less about customer or candidate experience. Don't get me wrong, there are recruiters like that. However, there are some that make it their mission to provide an excellent customer and candidate experience. 

I've hired and led hundreds of people in my career. Feedback is not hard. What is hard? → Feeling qualified but left in the dark. → Replaying the interview with no closure. → Never hearing why you didn’t make the cut. → Not getting the job you knew you were perfect for. Recruiters: One line of feedback post-interview takes seconds of your time but lasts a career for the candidate. Here's how to do it: → Take notes during each interview as normal → Carry major themes to a separate section → In your master-candidate list, note major theme → With your decline, send a note of feedback. This could look like: "Next time, I suggest preparing questions to show that you've researched the role and to display curiosity and critical thinking skills." "You interrupted me a few times during questions. Just a note to keep this in mind next time while interviewing." "I'd suggest working on 'telling your story' more succinctly and in just a couple of minutes." Feedback is KIND. And often, it's just one *small thing* that sets a candidate apart. Recruiters: send just a line of feedback. It takes seconds and lasts a career. #recruiting #hiring #interviewing ♻ Share to help spread the message. 👋 Follow Maggie Olson for more leadership content.

I love this clip of Chicago Bears General Manager, Ryan Poles. Of course he’s talking about making roster cuts on a football team, but I think what he says is very transferable to hiring these days. He says, “The ironic thing for me is, I’ve been cut in this building before. So I’ve been there.” Ryan follows up by saying that “It’s a place where I try to have a lot of empathy in the way that we communicate it, because these guys have put a lot of time and effort into making a football team. What I try to do is do a really good job of giving feedback, so they at least know the why behind it.” Obviously I’m a bit biased as a recruiter, but this spoke volumes to me about the current state of hiring. Too often, candidates are rejected as just “not a fit” or “not interested”. But there is always a WHY behind these decisions. Especially if you are taking the time to interview someone, take another 60 seconds, and provide them with some feedback as to why they aren’t the right fit for your organization. Just like Ryan Poles says, it’s important to remember that you likely have been, and likely will be in the shoes of the candidate at some point. If you would want to receive feedback when you are in their position, do the right thing and provide the candidate with feedback so that they can work on improving their job search and interview performance. Please, let’s put the human back in hiring.