 Anyone posting a position in the current job market knows that candidates can be overwhelming in their numbers as well as passionate in their insistence that they are the right person for the job. Personalized feedback is not always possible and probably not a great idea anymore. Hiring managers have enough to do these days plus there is the liability issue in our litigious business environment where being honest with someone about their shortfalls could backfire. Here are some tips you might find helpful:
3 tips for rejecting candidates
- Manage expectations from the onset. Make the process clear to each and every candidate that comes into your search net. For example, if a candidate makes it the first two steps with our company we tell them the next step is to review their paperwork with the hiring manager. If the hiring manager selects them for a third interview they will hear from us within 10 days. If not, they should not plan to hear from us. This reduces the amount of passionate pleas we get from good folk who were simply not selected for the next round of interviews. Then, if we do follow up it is a nice touch vs. an expectation.
- If you do make contact
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be vague, not specific. In our years of recruitment and hundreds of conversations with job applicants this lesson was the hardest to learn. As tempting as it is to tell people the truth about their shortfalls they will almost always beg to differ with you. It seems rejection has become an invitation to try harder so don't be honest and direct unless you are prepared to have an argument about how you are wrong. We suggest a vague rejection such as, "We are going in another direction," or "We have made our final selection of candidates and you were not selected," instead of specifics.
- Eliminate candidates who are overly insistent. There is a 99.9% chance that the role you are hiring for involves some type of customer interaction, so keep in mind that they way the candidate follows up with you is going to be transferred to your customers if you hire them. If the candidate is leaving you intense voice mails, insistent emails or stopping by to tell you how you have treated them poorly you can assume they will do the same to your customers if hired. Look instead for kindness, consideration and professional persistence in the candidate follow-up process.
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