Over the many years I have been involved in placing candidates, I have seen many changes in the hiring process.  I have seen the market go from mailed and faxed resumes to online hiring hubs that pick out key words for determining suitable candidates (yep, dating myself here for sure).  However, the one thing I haven’t seen change nearly enough is how candidates are rejected.

No one likes to deliver bad news.  So, it’s been a general tendency for hiring managers to prolong the formal process of rejecting candidates.  I have seen people who have been interviewed being kept waiting for weeks and receive no formal rejection letter, email or phone call from the company or hiring manager.  The thing that hasn’t changed is the candidate’s reaction to this type of failure of communication. Often, candidates will share with me something to the effect of “If the company doesn’t have the professionalism to at least let me know where they stand, I’m not really interested in working for them”.  In other words, the lack of communication does reputational harm to both the company and the hiring authority. Now in all fairness, when we are working with a client company, the hiring manager often will ask us to deliver the news which is perfectly acceptable and we do it without hesitation.  However, what I consistently tell these clients is that if the rejected candidate is someone they would want to bring on the team down the road, perhaps in a different or another similar role, they ought to strongly consider a call to keep the connection intact and the communication alive.

Recruiting is still a contact sport and requires both consistent communication and a personal touch. The impression a candidate gets from a hiring manager is paramount to their engagement and interest in an organization, both short and long-term. Best to keep that connection alive and positive!  This is a time-tested way to keep both a strong talent funnel and a strong reputation in the market.

Good luck and happy recruiting!

 

Eric Freedman

Founder and Principal of Professional Resources International