What our readers are saying: Responding to ‘Why wasn’t I hired?’
July 21, 2009 by StaffPosted in: Assessing the right candidate, Interviewing, Special Report
After running the story: ‘Why wasn’t I hired’? – Should you answer?, we got feedback from our readers on what they have done. This is what we heard:
“I do not tell candidates the specifics of why they are not hired. I typically just thank them for their interest in our organization and tell them that they have an interesting (or diverse or impressive) work background but someone else was a better fit and came out on top.” — Jill Beighley
“We generally don’t respond to these kinds of follow-up questions for the reasons noted in the article. In the rejection letter we send to applicants, we state, ‘After carefully reviewing all resumes and applications, we interviewed a small number of applicants. Based on background, qualifications, skills and experience, we have selected the candidate that we feel will best fit the position.’ We don’t discriminate in our hiring process, but it’s best to keep answers to these kinds of questions short and sweet.” — R. Bond
“I have two schools of thought: one for Management candidates and one for Hourly candidates. I never send rejection letters to Management candidates I interview and do not offer the job. I always call and tell them that even though they have good credentials, we are seeking someone with more management experience in the specified area. I have always been thanked for calling them and allowing them to move on. Too often people are left in the dark after an interview; management candidates should be spoken to and given the courtesy of your decision. This just may create referrals down the road for future employment or business!
“As far as hourly candidates go, I always send rejection letters to those candidates not being employed. I have received a few phone calls after the fact as to why wasn’t I hired. I simply state we found a candidate with either more years of experience or more relative experience/skills for the job.” — Dan
To read more comments from the readers please go to the story page.
July 22nd, 2009 at 1:43 pm
I agree that I do not share too much information. I disagree with only calling Managers. I call every candidate that has interviewed regardless of their position. This creates a very good relationship between our company and the local community, and it is the right thing to do. HR is customer service 100%. Sometimes we tend to forget due to high volume work days, but a moments time (simple phone call) can go a long way towards building and maintaining good community relations.
July 22nd, 2009 at 2:46 pm
As a very busy HR professional who is sometimes stretched past capacity, I do understand the need to have a quick, easy way to deal with questions from applicants who are not hired, but I also think it is important to maintain a level of courtesy when dealing with anyone who contacts our company directly to inquire about their candidacy or our hiring decisions. While our standard procedure is very similar to a lot of the feedback I saw on this story (emailing applicants who were not called for interviews and calling those who were interviewed by phone to notify of our decision), when a candidate asks me why they were not selected or what they can do to strengthen their experience, skills, or presentation, I try to give honest answers. We use a scoring system for all candidates regarding basic qualifications, skills, experience, and cultural fit. This procedure goes a long way towards ensuring more objective hiring decisions, and when someone asks me where their application was weak, I can go back to the scoring sheet and use the ratings there to discuss areas where they might improve in the future or where they didn’t fit what we were looking for. I don’t expect the same thing for myself when I’ve looked for work, but I’ve always appreciated it when the same respect and courtesy was afforded to me.
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:20 am
We usually send all people who were interviewed a brief letter stating appreciation for their time and interest but that after all interviews were completed, another candidate is being recommended for the position.
I believe the less said the better, so we are careful not to leave any door open for questioning, such as citing ’skills, experience, etc’ as reasons for not hiring. That seems to allow for them to come back & want to discuss how their skills, experiences, etc. compare to the one chosen. Just my opinion.
July 23rd, 2009 at 9:27 am
Candidates that have taken the time to come in for interviews, have most likely engaged in a delicate balancing act with their current jobs to make the time to interview, I feel, deserve to have an answer with substance regarding the decision to decline. However, the reality of the situation is that in this litigious society some attorney is going to twist your words no matter how careful and/or well intended your feedback to the former candidate may be. So, unfortunately, being respectful but keeping any information to the minimum is probably your best bet.
And, respectfully, regarding the integrity of selection process, keep in mind that scoring systems aren’t necessarily objective just because numbers are involved….but that’s a seperate subject.
July 23rd, 2009 at 10:17 am
We usually have most applications sent via email or through an online job posting service; to which we always send an auto response the effectively states “…thank you for your application and interest in our company, we will be reviewing all applications and those that meet the individual skills, qualifications, ‘etc.’ will be contacted for an interview. If you are not contacted for an interview, we will keep your application on file…” For those candidates that are eventually interviewed, I will keep a spreadsheet will all contact data and use that as a tool to create a mail merge and send out a standard (yet specific to their interview date and/or interviewer) letter thanking for their time, but that “We have decided to hire an applicant that is best matched with the requirements of the position.” This seems to be the best approach to both provide all applicants with a final resolve to their applications, along with the most courteous and least refuted reason for denial of hiring. We will still occasionally get calls from those that may have received one form of this notification, demanding more information for our reasoning – but truly those that are that aggressive, usually wouldn’t be the best fit anyways.
July 23rd, 2009 at 10:19 am
I think the rejection letter is bologna anyways. I hate receiving them
July 23rd, 2009 at 10:30 am
Everyone that applies for a job or comes in for an interview should receive the courtesy of a no thank you – whether it be email or letter. In addition, by giving any reason for why that person is not hired will open you up to the possibility of litigation. Let us not forget that there are professional ‘interviewees’ out there looking for a way to find a suit. When asked why a candidate was not hired I simply state “I’m sorry but we do not disclose to any of the candidates that were not chosen the reason for the decision” Typically they try to pry and I just restate the same statement.
July 23rd, 2009 at 1:51 pm
It’s a dificult call — we receive over 5000 applications/week for our company. We are able to send each one a “thank you for your interest — we’ll call you if we have an opening etc etc” — but do not send rejection letters or emails for hourly positions.
We have over a 1000 locations so being rejected in one location doesn’t preclude you from employment in another location.
Management candidates receive a rejection letter if they are contacted by our recruiters.
I wish we could respond to each one — but it’s impossible.
July 23rd, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I really can’t add much to what has already been said. We do send a standard rejection letter, with some personalization, to each candidate that we interviewed and as well as to all individuals who received an application for the position. We do not respond to every resume that we receive. Our procedure for submitting resumes and the follow-up to resumes in the event of a job opeing is posted on our website and employment brochures are available at our visitor desk.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:11 am
From the employer position, I can understand all of this, but how does my 18-year-old daughter learn what she’s doing wrong as she applies for hourly positions if the prospective employer can’t tell her? Can someone suggest a way she can ask about this and get some insight into what she can do to improve her chances of getting a job to help pay her way through college?
July 28th, 2009 at 8:44 am
@ J. Rogers
As an employer — we don’t have time — and there’s no benefit in helping people to become better interviewees — it’s even ill-advised to do so.
If I were you — I would ask one of your friends who interviews and hires regularly to set up a mock interview for your daughter. Ask them to be brutally honest (and make sure that you and your daughter are prepared for that brutal honesty).
Good Luck to you both.
August 3rd, 2009 at 10:01 am
As I read through some of these, I am compelled to comment and hopefully provoke healthy thought to a not so fun task of turning someone down who aspires to join your company.
HR Professionals should be just that….a professional in their field who has superior people skills not only for their current associates but also for those who want to join their company. As an HR professional of 15+ years, I personally challenge myself to put on the shoes of every person I interact with including current associates, customers, vendors, and CANDIDATES. A job candidate is someone who “wants” to come to work for your organization and is willing to offer you their loyalty and support as an associate for the ultimate goal of mutual shared success. So if I am looking for the best way to tell someone who I have interviewed that they were not chosen, I am going to tell them just like I would want to be told and that is personally. If I have spent an hour with them, I can surely give 5 more minutes of my time to call them instead of sending a letter that is going to be very impersonal and cold. After all, the standard generic thank you but no thank you letters are simply that….very standard and generic and would only tell me that xyz company doesn’t value folks enough to have a 5 minute call to personally thank me and personally encourage me to continue pursuing my job search. Be that outstanding professional and invest a mere 5 more minutes with that person to interact and show them that you and your company care enough about people to give them a much more personal touch. In my world as a retailer, this is huge because even if they are not going to be hired, they are still very important to me as a customer and someone who now has an experience with my company that they may certainly share with others. This is certainly a virtue that will pay huge dividends both professionally and personally. I would encourage all HR professionals to be the professional that their company deserves to represent them in this capacity.
August 5th, 2009 at 11:09 am
In general, I concur. However, again, the reality of the situation is that we do live in a very litigious society and some employees take rejection personally, maybe too personally. And, in these tough economic times, people are more likely to sue for even what they perceive to be the most remote injustice. In the best of all possible words, it would be nice to be able to reach out to everyone in a personal and warm manner, I agree with it from an ethical, professional, and humanitarian perspective. However, as we all know in the world of HR especially, no good deed goes unpunished. If your company does decided to have a conversation with every rejected candidate, then the individual delivering the message should be very well educated on what innocent comments could land them in hot water when minconstrued by a candidate that is financially desperate, or whose ego has taken a hit. And in some cases, the recruiter may meet with a hostile reaction even with the best of intentions on the part of the recruiter….therefore the recruiter has to be prepared to deal with those reactions as well. On the surface, this matter seems simple, but when you dig and think about some of the complications, you have too seriously weigh and measure the risk as an HR professional.
September 25th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
I complete agree with Kevin. No good deed goes unpunished. Would an HR professional want to risk their own employment because they gave honest feedback to an applicant about why they were not hired and that applicant decided to sue or lodge a discrimination claim using the HR person’s feedback?
Even a complaint with no substance will cost the company time and money. We interviewed 3 accoutants working through a temp agency for a temporary position. In the end, we didn’t bring in any of the 3 as a temp because the project was split up and done internally. All of a sudden I received an EEOC charge for racial discrimination filed by one of three. It didn’t matter we didn’t use any of the three temps. We still needed to respond to the EEOC complaint and provide proof we didn’t discriminate at any point in the process. This took time and cost legal fees to make sure this was properly dismissed.
I hate being paranoid but saying anything specific to an applicant is akin to handing them a loaded gun. Most people are reasonable but it takes only one who is not reasonable who is looking to make a quick buck to lodge a complaint. Of course not saying anything can lead to claims so it is a tough call.
I admire those willing to provide feedback but it is not something I am comfortable doing as a representative of the company.
Patricia