Recruiting Strategy
How to give feedback to candidates
Orla Hodnett
HireHive
Orla Hodnett
HireHive
Orla Hodnett
HireHive
Orla Hodnett
HireHive
Nobody wants to tell a well-prepared, qualified candidate who just missed the cut, that they have been unsuccessful. The only way to avoid this situation is to hire everyone..and I'd like to see you justify that one to finance. They probably won't care that your candidate volunteers on the weekends and used to work in fashion.
If you can't offer your candidate a job, the least you can offer them is constructive feedback that may help them going forward. As well as helping them, giving feedback will ensure you part on good terms. So in the future, if a suitable position arises for them, their experience of your recruiting process will be positive.
Whether it is just a rejection email, or extensive feedback from a rigorous screening, some kind of feedback means a lot to a candidate.
Whether it is just a rejection email, or extensive feedback from an rigorous screening, some kind of feedback means a lot to a candidate. How you prepare for that at the interview stage can be tricky, but with a few tips and the use of good recruiting software, you can ensure that you and your candidate part on good terms.
How to take note?
One effective way of gathering useful information on your candidate, both for your own purposes and for the candidate themselves, is by using scorecards. These require little extra work beyond the questions you have planned to ask. Scorecards also give you an easy means of providing feedback. You can simply tell a candidate where they scored highly and where they scored poorly.
These scorecards can be associated with the candidate’s profile within HireHive and referred to when necessary. You can send a feedback form automatically from the tool. Having this data safely stored away also means that you can easily provide it to the candidate when needed. It also helps you to remain compliant with various labour regulations.
When questions are based on your needs, any feedback you offer candidates will be fair and balanced.
How to create a scorecard or a feedback form?
When you have completed the above step and put together a set of questions to establish your candidate's skills and competencies, creating a scorecard is simple. Publishing a feedback card is as easy as pushing a button.
Using a tool like HireHive means you can generate a template based on your own questions. You can gather data in the form of text, check boxes or multiple choice. This helps you to gather information in an efficient way.
What to note?
Take time before the interview to carefully assess what you need in a candidate. Devise a number of competency and skills questions, so you're confident that your findings are grounded in facts, rather than unconscious bias. When questions are based on your needs, any feedback you offer candidates will be fair and balanced.
Working out a simple scale will help you to score candidates effectively on the competencies listed on your scorecard. You can give candidates a simple point score and make any additional comments as necessary. HireHive allows you to score the candidate on a sliding scale.
“HireHive makes the team a lot more productive. We’d be lost without it. Team Leaders can do it all themselves if needed or jump in at the right time and know exactly where everything is and what’s happening.”
Hilary Dempsey Head of HR at Life Credit union
