Why Feedback is Essential in Hiring?

Feedback is a crucial aspect of the hiring process that benefits both candidates and employers. Candidates should not be treated as mere numbers, but rather, they are the central focus of the entire recruitment process. Thus, it is essential to make candidates feel included and valued throughout the hiring process. Transparent communication and constant feedback are vital to candidates, and implementing a robust feedback mechanism will reflect positively on the company culture.

Feedback must be a two-way conversation, and data gathered from candidates at the end of the hiring process is equally vital. Building an engaging candidate experience through feedback is crucial in a highly competitive and tight job market. Here’s a four-pronged approach to implement feedback into various interview stages:

1. Screening Phase: Acknowledge candidates’ CV after assessment, communicate essential details such as interview timelines, and acknowledge those who are not shortlisted. Enumerate why the applicant was not suitable for the current job opening by reverting in a mail. This approach guides and encourages candidates for future submissions and shows appreciation for considering the company.
2. Interim Phase: Keep candidates well-informed about their status during a long recruitment cycle. This approach keeps candidates engaged in between interview stages and prevents candidates from shopping around for other job prospects in the interim moment.
3. Post-Interview Giving Feedback: Any candidate who has gone through the rigorous interview cycle is entitled to receiving feedback. As a potential employer, deliver a rejection message and provide specific suggestions about their areas of improvement. Aim to be more constructive, kind, empathetic, and unbiased. Pinpoint their areas of strengths, emphasize that you genuinely invested in their growth, and suggest staying in touch and alternative roles for which they are well-suited. This approach enhances candidate experience, creates awareness in candidates regarding their strengths and weaknesses, builds a pipeline of talent, forms a lasting impression of the company in candidates’ minds, and prevents candidates from badmouthing the company.
4. Post-Interview Receiving Feedback: Feedback is a give-and-take business, and you should be willing to incorporate valuable insights from every candidate, not just the ones you hire. Surveying your talent pool is an effective means of gathering data. Allow anonymity, keep the survey form simple, and craft a mix of open and close-ended questions to enable collection of testimonials as well as metric data yielding an optimal insight. This approach allows you to place yourself in candidates’ shoes, identify loopholes in recruitment strategy, and streamline and overhaul the hiring process for the future.

Pro Tip: Use the Sandwich method of giving feedback. This approach consists of three parts: setting a positive tone by complimenting the candidates’ strengths, embedding subtle criticism in between to highlight their areas of improvement, and wrapping up positively with words of reassurance.

Implementing the aforementioned approach in optimising candidate experience can make a big difference in establishing a powerful brand image of your organisation and attracting top candidates.