Interview Feedback- How to Do It the Right Way
For many recruiters, giving rejected candidates post-interview feedback doesn’t seem necessary. While it is definitely a voluntary step in hiring but it can go a long way in enhancing the positive image and repute of your company and building a strong talent pool for future hires.
If you want your business to become one of the sought-after employer brands, it is important to create delightful and satisfactory candidate experiences. Providing applicants with detailed feedback after the interview by explaining the reasons why you will not be hiring them will leave a great impression on them.
They will be inclined into applying to your organisation again and will spread the positive word about your recruitment process along with commending and recommending your business to other job applicants. The common set of criteria that is used for evaluating the candidates involves the educational background, work experience, and skill-set.
The basic skills that are assessed during the interviews include communication and problem-solving. The attitude of the candidates also matters as you will want your potential hires to fit well in the company’s culture and their respective teams. When giving feedback you should cover these aspects for providing evaluation and suggestions.
Here are some tips on how to give candidates feedback post-interview the right way!
Feedback tip 1 – Don’t Fabricate the Truth
When writing the interview feedback email, don’t hide the truth from a candidate. Whether an interviewee messed up answering a question, didn’t come up to your expectations or any other reason, be very honest and truthful about it without sounding impolite or unprofessional.
However, make sure that the feedback is solely about the job requirements and doesn’t involve any personal grudges or ego issues.
Feedback tip 2 – The Details Interesting and Worth Reading
Instead of using boring and redundant details in the feedback email on why you will not be hiring a candidate, give examples from the interview along with a piece of advice on the different areas that you need an applicant to improve.
Use the notes from the interview session where you have highlighted the issues and write them down in a manner that a candidate feels like you are giving valuable guidelines on how to improve or better prepare for the next interview.
Feedback tip 3 – Be Careful with the Usage of Words and Terms
Telling candidates their inabilities or discrepancies like not being fit for teamwork or written communication in a rude manner will make them feel bad about themselves. Don’t use words that seem rude or disrespectful, you should write the email in the way of giving tips and helpful advice.
For instance, you can write, “Practice using body language like making eye contact while you are communicating with the interviewer.”
Feedback tip 4 – The Traits you Liked in a Candidate
Positive interview feedback involves appreciating the traits you liked about a candidate. If you like an interviewee being candid about a question or the way a psychological question was answered, show your appreciation.
The feedback doesn’t have to be about all that a job applicant needs to work on, make it about a combination of the good things and the areas that need improvement.
Feedback tip 5 – Provide Clear Feedback with Suggestions
Don’t make feedback about all the things that weren’t likeable about the candidate. Also, the evaluation that you provide shouldn’t be confusing. Write the feedback with the intent to help the job applicants do better in their upcoming interviews.
The suggestions should be clear and easy to comprehend. Your helpful feedback will play a significant role in building rapport with the candidates whom you can hire in the future.
Feedback tip 6 –Don’t Raise Unreal Expectations
When giving feedback after interview, you must avoid language or tone that makes an interviewee feel appalled. Use positive words even if you are criticising. Get a second pair of eyes to read the email before you send it.
When providing feedback, don’t give false hopes to the candidates. For instance, don’t tell a person that you find the profile perfect except for a missing skill. It will convey a message that a candidate needs to learn just one skill and then will get hired, but ask yourself the question will you recruit that applicant after honing your desired skill?
Feedback tip 7 – Mention or Compare the Chosen Candidates
The candidates you are not hiring already know that you have selected someone else, don’t tell them about the ones you have recruited and why. Listing any sort of comparison with the successful candidates is also rude, so avoid that.
Rejection and comparison hurt the self-respect and confidence of people in personal and professional life. So, make sure you don’t make the candidates feel bad about themselves or shatter their morale by telling them why someone else is better and worthy of hiring.
Don’t invite trouble by hinting towards discrimination of any sort in the feedback email. You have to be extra cautious about not writing words that express any gender, religious, ethnic, or other bias. Implying a reason for not hiring a candidate being a single parent, for instance, can have a serious impact.
Feedback tip 8 – Create a Feedback Template
Having a feedback template will make it easy for you to write the email. For instance, you can start the email with a thank you message by showing your gratitude to the candidates for applying for the job and appearing in the interview.
You can then share the decision of whether a candidate is hired or not, next comes the reasons or reason why you will not be hiring an applicant. Mention and appreciate the strengths of a candidate after that. Identify the problem areas afterwards and provide constructive criticism and feedback.
Here is a sample interview feedback report to get template ideas and inspirations.
Consider the candidates that you invited for the interview crucial to maintaining and improving your employer brand’s image, don’t compromise on tarnishing your organisation’s repute by not paying attention to providing detailed and positive post-interview feedback.
Give feedback as part of the takeaway experiences to the candidates who spent time, effort, and energy applying for a position and showing up to an interview.
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