Importance of Feedback

Employers are not legally required to give Candidates feedback following interviews. Yet, it is the right thing to do being both respectful of the Candidate’s time and a real reflection of the culture of recruiting firm. I strongly believe that even if the outcome isn’t a positive one, there should always be something actionable to take away from an interview process. 

 

Good quality feedback demonstrates cultural values such as honesty and integrity and will encourage candidates to reapply for roles with that company in the future, whilst undoubtedly shaping how favourably that individual will talk about that brand in the future. Reputation is everything in a digital world where word of mouth spreads fast , so consider how your brand is being impacted if you constantly give little or vague feedback. 

Firms that respect Candidates enough to provide feedback after interviews that can actually be worked on, standout. Constructive feedback is given far more frequently to internal Candidates with often external Candidates receiving intangible feedback such as not being quite “the right fit”. Again, “we have offered a stronger candidate the position” is worth little to the Candidate without being offered more prescriptive reasons why they didn’t score as highly as the other Candidate(s). 

Certainly if interviewing a number of Candidates, I advocate referring to your notes immediately after the interview (you won’t always be in a position to make a decision straight away, but should start collating feedback and comments before seeing others, even if it is not used immediately ) and I advise breaking down feedback into sections. For example, how effectively did the Candidate demonstrate the technical competency to do the job? 

How precisely did the Candidate answer the questions being asked or did they go off on tangents that were not appropriate? 

How well did the Candidate research the company well and explain how and why that researched had created a genuine interest in the role and organisation? 

‘People will forget what you say but will never forget how you made them feel’ is very true of how the nature of post interview feedback will embed in the mind their view of that firm. 

 

If a Candidate is told only that they “are not a good fit “, they have every right to assume the hiring manager didn’t want to spend the time to provide proper constructive feedback or more likely a view develops that such a banal statement is a cover for some unconscious bias /discrimination and gives a strong impression that any pretensions or claims to desire a wider diversity of thought and a fresh perspective are merely for effect. 

A note of caution for Firms is that whilst feedback is not legally required, under GDPR Candidates have the right to access their data. That means they have the right to access and receive a copy of their personal data and any other supplementary information via a Subject Access Request (SAR). 

 

Typically, this right is used to understand how and why organisations are using their data, and check they are doing it lawfully, but this right can also extend to sending a SAR requesting a firms interview notes about you. So, if you want to find out exactly why you weren't hired for the job, you should be able to access internal scoring sheets, application criteria and interview notes. 

If the selection process is well thought through, professionally delivered and the interviewers are suitably skilled there shouldn’t be anything to hide when making selection decisions ( internal or external) since the reason for the hiring decision will be evidence based.