Giving feedback to candidates after a pre-employment assessment is the biggest challenge for every recruiter.

Most recruiters think that giving feedback can create a negative candidate experience and hurt the company's reputation. If you’re the one with such a misconception – remember, you have to be straightforward while giving feedback to candidates – no matter if it's positive or negative.

Feedback can help candidates to know where they can improve. It will help them to improve for future interviews. As a recruiter, it can be challenging to provide feedback, but it’s better than not to provide any feedback. According to Talentadore, 65% of candidates say they didn’t get any response from the company after an interview.

Providing negative feedback is ok, but providing no feedback can result in a negative experience, which in turn, will impact your brand reputation.

According to Mya, providing candidate experience will help develop a positive employer brand, as more than 51% of candidates will share their positive experience online through social media, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, etc.

Giving feedback to candidates can help your company in the long run. Candidates are always eager to know the results of post-pre-employment assessments, and they will appreciate receiving a rejection email. Additionally, it will create a positive image in the candidate's minds that you value your candidates.

Be Honest

First and foremost, you need to be straightforward and honest with your candidates while giving feedback. Candidates love honest responses, which will result in enhancing your brand reputation. Keeping in mind your job requirements, you should provide feedback accordingly. Tell them honestly why they are not the right fit for your requirements, and give preparation tips to them so that they can put their best in future interviews.

Give Compliments When Possible

Giving compliments is great – it motivates the candidates to perform their best, but false praise is never a good idea. You don’t need to always provide negative feedback after pre-employment assessments. In short, candidates need to know what they did well to keep practicing it in future interviews.

Be Creative

As we have mentioned in the first point, you need to be honest while giving feedback. But, you don’t have to be too honest. While giving candidate feedback, you must not say that “you’re not the right fit for our company” or “you lack the skills we’re looking for.”

There are some phrases that you can use while giving feedback. Some examples are “we want someone with more experience” or “we wanted a more creative person for this role.” These are the polite phrases of rejecting a candidate. Instead of using rude words, be polite, give details of real examples from their interview, and provide preparation tips for improvements.

Aim To Help

Your feedback should be valuable for candidates – so that they can improve their skills for future interviews. Never end up making a list of negative things about the candidate.

Think about what they could improve to interview better in the future. This is good for your company too; great candidates will improve their skills and give you reasons to hire them whenever there is a job vacancy in the future.

Consider Having A Phone Call

There are many methods to provide feedback, such as email or letters. However, some things can be missed in the translation, including tone, intentions, and humor.

Consider having a phone call with the candidate, which will help you save time delivering the feedback. Giving a phone call will result in a significant level of professional respect and will show that you value your candidates.

Never Compare

Are you comparing your candidates with others? Well, that’s rude.

There’s no need to tell the candidates that you’ve hired someone instead of them. They are not interested in knowing this. Candidates always seek ways to improve themselves in interviews, and comparison won’t help them. So, stop comparing and give valuable feedback, which can lead to improvements.

Don’t Give False Promises

Never give candidates the impression that they’ll get a job if they just change one thing or apply again. For example, saying, “you only need to work on your JavaScript skills. Otherwise, you’d be ideal for the job role.” This statement indicates that the candidate will get a job only if they master JavaScript.

This can raise false hopes resulting in leaving candidates discouraged if a second attempt is unsuccessful.

Don’t Hold It Off

Don’t make candidates wait for weeks or months for a response from your side. To improve candidate experience, try to respond quickly and professionally to let them know whether they are selected or not.

Candidates apply to multiple organizations when applying for the job. And when you don’t respond to them on time, they’ll accept other job offers, resulting in losing an opportunity to hire the right talent for your organization.

Don’t Argue

Rarely you will get a rude reply or aggressive reaction from candidates when you reject them. In such situations, you need to be relaxed and professional and never argue back.

Don’t take such a candidate's reactions personally. This just reiterates that you made the right hiring decision in the first place.

Don’t Use Discriminatory Language

Discrimination is one of the big reasons why recruiters hesitate to give candidate feedback. Your words can either result in developing a positive employer brand or can put you at legal risk.

For example, saying “we want someone who can constantly be on call” can put you in big trouble. What if the candidate is a working mother or pregnant?

Be careful while giving feedback and prepare yourself to provide feedback to every candidate you interview.

Giving feedback can help both recruiters and candidates in several ways.

Of course, your words and tone matter a lot. Your feedback must aim to help the candidate improve in future interviews. Eventually, it will develop a positive employer brand when candidates discuss your organization on several social media and online platforms.

Following the above-mentioned do’s and don’ts will help you develop a positive and professional image in the candidate’s mind.