Feedback Failures
As a recruiter I am very aware of many different facets to my role, sourcing and short listing top talent for my clients, sourcing and short listing top companies/employers for my candidates! It is a two way street. I have always endeavoured to keep my candidate fully informed and updated throughout the recruitment process especially when it comes to providing feedback. It is really important to keep candidates informed with regards to this.
Feedback is fundamental to the placement process, of course I have already met and spoken with my candidates at great length and already know their strengths and weaknesses, I ensure when I shortlist candidates that their skills and 
experience are the best fit for the company and the employer as per the job specifications I receive, of course not all candidates I put forward will get through to second/final stage interviews and it is important for those candidates to understand why. It is just as important for the employer to understand why a candidate does not want to take the process any further.
Whether I have heard back from the employer or not I ensure that I have had direct contact with the candidate to get their feedback and understand how they felt the interview went, what their thoughts are on the company and the culture of the company and the roles itself. It is important to keep the candidate engaged throughout the whole of the recruitment process.
I love it when I speak with a candidate at the end of an interview and they feedback to me that the client has left the candidate feeling that they would absolutely love to work for the company. This is when you know your clients’ employer branding is spot on and that the person delivering the interview is doing it right and that you have matched the candidate with the client and the role accurately.
Gaining detailed feedback we all know is tough, we are not asking for a chapter and verse overview on each performance, but here are some tips on what to focus on and what to avoid.
Try to stay away from the generalist feedback;
- Not the right culture fit
- Too qualified
- Not the right level
Do think of how the candidate performed and what they said specifically it will be constructive and may improve their technique. For example previously I received feedback that one of the candidates I had put forward was ‘not the right culture fit’ it took me questioning this further as to examples as to why this was and the real reason came out. My client advised me that the candidate had focused too much on negative reasons for wanting to leave their current company.
Whilst the candidate did have frustrations they were totally unaware they had been airing these, once I fed this back to the candidate we discussed the best way to tackle and handle certain questions as this individual was most definitely not a negative person however did have frustrations within her current role.
Have a comprehensive measure to score candidates against. This is useful to see how candidates preformed against the benchmark of other candidates interviewing at the same time.
How were they assessed against the role they would be doing e.g ‘Simons responses indicated that he might not be able to influence and engage our managers effectively as a business partner’ This feedback is much more useful than ‘not the right level’ It gives a candidate areas on which to focus on to further develop their career.
By giving detailed feedback you will not only assist the candidate by giving them the opportunity for improvement but this will also reflect well on your company. The candidate experience can have a direct impact on the employer branding, keep the candidate engaged, whether you end up recruiting them or not.
This means keeping to a time line of recruitment with dates already booked in and providing detailed feedback whether the candidates has made it through to the next stage or not! For further tips on your recruitment process take a look at our Time to Hire blog written by Yasmin Elezaj.
