In the dating world, ‘ghosting’ is when a person you’ve been dating cuts off all communication, with no explanation. You never hear from them again – you’ve been ghosted. It’s a cut-throat tactic, but it’s common enough to have its own name.
For this reason, it’s really important that employers don’t ‘ghost’ their prospective candidates by not offering interview feedback. It not only robs them of the opportunity to learn how to improve, but it can also have damaging effects on your employer brand.
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According to a study by LinkedIn, candidates are four times more likely to consider your company in the future if you take the time to offer them constructive feedback. And when you’re working with a small talent pool, that’s worth bearing in mind.
Every company that interviews has an obligation to provide feedback. Here’s how to offer feedback and what that should look like.
Why feedback?
It’s easy to think about interview feedback as ANOTHER job to go with the 16,000 other things on your to-do list. Sure, it would be nice to give everyone detailed insight into where they went wrong, but if you found the right person, surely your time would be better spent on other things?
“83% of professionals have changed their mind about a role following a negative interview experience.”
It’s a convincing argument, but the opposing argument is equally compelling. Not providing feedback can be dangerous. Your brand reputation can be damaged via the rumour mill: people talk, and it doesn’t take long for stories to spread about wasting candidates’ time. Don’t forget how important the interview experience is in creating the first impression of your organisation: 83% of professionals have changed their mind about a role following a negative interview experience.
Feedback provides clarity on exactly what employers are looking for. This massively helps recruiters, who are able to then build an understanding of what your ideal candidate looks like, and go find them. Feedback provides them with the detail to add more flesh to the job spec’s bones.
For candidates, feedback is crucial. It allows them to develop themselves – maybe they realise, through feedback, that they are missing a vital skill set they need to progress. Why have they failed? Was it the fact that their certifications weren’t up to scratch, or was it their soft skills that let them down?
Giving feedback is a circular process: if the position becomes available again later, they can return and prove that they listened to your feedback and can now demonstrate those skills.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking their development isn’t your responsibility. They may not be your employee now but think long-term. The talent shortage is real, so why burn your candidate pool, just because they’re not right for you right now? It doesn’t mean they won’t be in the future.
What does great feedback look like?
The three most important qualities of great feedback are: being fair, being objective and being informative.
Hopefully, the interview was structured, perhaps around the job spec or a certain set of criteria. If so, the feedback can follow that structure too. If the questions related to the criteria in the job spec, the feedback can discuss each of those points and how well the candidate did or did not meet them. Write your response based on their answers rather than your vague feelings about them. And don’t just fall back on “There was a stronger candidate”. Be informative and specific – articulate your reason as to why this candidate isn’t right:
That could be measured against competency-based questions or more general questions. For example, you could say, “You did really well on this competency question, but failed on this technical question, which we could have overlooked, but we had another candidate who answered both in the manner we expected.”
You’re aiming to provide an overall understanding of where they have fallen down (and therefore what can work on and improve). It shouldn’t focus entirely on negatives – make sure you provide positive examples too, otherwise the candidate may feel the whole interview was bad.
Interviews can be a stressful situation on both sides and nerves can play a huge part for candidates, which recruiters can help with. But whatever happens, providing specific, constructive feedback – a solid reason, whatever it is – really helps everyone involved.
Finally, be honest. Being too vague or general can be worse than getting no feedback at all.
What are the results of providing great feedback?
We understand that managers don’t have much spare time, but if you’re interviewing lots of people who aren’t right and therefore not hiring anyone, that isn’t the best use of your time either. It also has a knock-on effect on your other staff – they will be sharing the responsibility of the role that has not been filled, and if they’re feeling overworked and/or underpaid, they may start to leave too.
“Providing feedback is doing your bit to keep the general ecosystem healthy and flourishing.”
Finding the time to provide interview feedback is a positive investment for your whole industry – if all managers do it, the talent pool will continue to improve and develop overall. Think of it as a literal pool, if that helps, and providing feedback is doing your bit to keep the general ecosystem healthy and flourishing – rather than stagnating.
If you are a candidate, don’t let not getting a job dent your confidence – if it’s not provided, politely request feedback and use it as a positive – perhaps you can practise public speaking or ask for more training in your current role, or take an evening class to improve your skills. Don’t be deterred from applying for the role again later.
When 94% of talent wants to receive interview feedback, but only 41% actually do, something needs to change. While it may seem time-consuming, getting into the habit of giving unsuccessful candidates constructive feedback is crucial for a healthy employer brand, so that you continue to attract the best talent. And if you set a great example for your sector it will benefit as a whole, creating a sort of virtuous circle – and leaving no candidates haunted by the dream job that could have been.
identifi Global is candidate-driven, setting bonuses and targets for our staff based on candidate satisfaction, not placement and interview targets. Our Candidate Charter is our promise to uphold these standards with every candidate.
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