Hiring practice3 min read
Tell candidates why
A rejection with a reason is kinder and more useful than one without, and it is not the legal risk people fear, provided you write two notes rather than one.
Hiring practice3 min read
A rejection with a reason is kinder and more useful than one without, and it is not the legal risk people fear, provided you write two notes rather than one.
Put this into practice on your next role.
Free for your first role. No card.
Most rejections say nothing. “After careful consideration, we have decided to move forward with other candidates.” The candidate learns that they lost, not why, and so learns nothing they can use next time.
The reason companies give for this is risk: say too much and you invite an argument or worse. The risk is real, but it comes from mixing two different documents together. Separate them and most of it goes away.
When your team decides not to go ahead with someone, write down why, in the words you would use with each other. Frank, specific, internal. Then write a second note, for the candidate, drawn from the first but written to be read by them.
For your team
For the candidate
The candidate’s note names the requirement they did not meet. It does not describe their character, speculate about their motives, or compare them with anyone else. It is true, it is useful, and it gives nothing away that the job description did not already say.
Try it
Your team’s note says: “Weak on SQL. Couldn’t join two tables in the test. Nice person.” Write the version the candidate reads.
Writing a reason for the candidate forces you to have one. It is surprisingly common to find, when you try to write it, that the honest reason is “the other candidate felt like a better fit”. That is worth noticing. Sometimes it hides a real must-have you never wrote down, and sometimes it hides nothing at all.
If you cannot write the reason down, you do not have one yet.
There are limits. If a decision turned on something sensitive, a reference or a background check, take advice before you put anything in writing. And if a candidate replies to argue, you do not owe them a debate. Thank them, and leave the decision where it is.
For the great majority of rejections, though, the reason is ordinary: someone else showed more of what the role needs. Saying so is simply telling the truth, politely.
Up next
Screening hundreds of applications without reading every CV twice
When a role draws four hundred applicants, the reading is not the hard part. Staying consistent from the first CV to the four-hundredth is.
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Hiring practice3 min read
When a role draws four hundred applicants, the reading is not the hard part. Staying consistent from the first CV to the four-hundredth is.