“I’m sorry, you haven’t been successful, and this is why…”
Steve Simmance
Founder & Managing Director, The Simmance Partnership Limited. Consultants in Executive Selection.
I don’t relish being the bearer of bad news but, as a recruiter, it comes with the territory. Or so you would imagine.
I’ve been dealing with candidates for over 30 years and have become more than a recruiter. Most days I’m a personal career coach and matchmaker, investing time and energy in my candidates, coaching them through the interview process, helping them hone their ‘pitch’, setting them up for success, making sure they connect with their interviewers and ensuring it will be a match made in heaven.
But the reality is, regardless of our joint investment of time and energy, most of my candidates won’t be successful. This is especially true in the current market given the glut of job seekers and dearth of vacancies. My clients have rich pickings.
The successful candidates are over the moon and it’s a joy to bring news of success. Close of play Friday, making that call is rewarding, helping them on the next stage of their career journey and listening to delighted clients congratulating me for a job well done.
It’s uncomfortable, difficult and not a COP Friday job to let the others down. It’s by far the toughest part of my role and yet, strangely, the most rewarding. Giving honest feedback, however much it hurts. And, more often than not, I get thanked for it.
I hear from candidates involved in other processes that they are victims of ‘computer says no’ automated rejections, falling foul of algorithm selection or, worse still, recruiter ghosting, stuck in limbo land trying to second guess, not learning from the process and blindly plunging headfirst into the next one. By my book, that’s not good recruiting.
That’s why I believe feedback is the breakfast of champions and why, as recruiters, we should skip the granola and indulge in a full fry-up, helping candidates embrace feedback rather than recoil, turning critical feedback into action, and giving them ROI.
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I may be old school (and it seems feedback is a dirty word these days) but we do have a fundamental responsibility to glean the truth from our clients and turn that into practical and valuable feedback to share with our candidates.
So, I’m refuting the The Feedback Fallacy. I believe it’s all about what you say and how you say it and, at the very least, say something!
I welcome your feedback.
#Feedback #Recruitment #TalentAquisition
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Retired ex Captain of Industry & proud Yorkshireman
8 个月Any article leading with a picture of a Full English was gonna get my attention. So true Steve.
Marketing Advisor, Solar Transport Systems
8 个月I wholeheartedly support this view. It makes me furious when recruiting organisations do not extend the basic courtesy of giving feedback to candidates who have not got the job or progressed to the next stage. Many do not even formally communicate the "no", preferring just to ghost the applicants. Candidates generally invest a lot of effort to prepare for applications and interviews. The very least a recruiting organisation can do is to respect that individual and their investment by providing feedback. It is basic. It is especially important with the up and coming generation of employees. They are our future. They should be treated, as any human being should be treated, with respect. After all, who would want to work for an organisation who did not display this simple human behaviour ??
Interim B2B Director at Grind
8 个月Spot on Steve. And the lack of feedback is now taken for granted by most candidates I would imagine. I hope a lot recruiters read this and act accordingly going forwards.
Pioneering skills-based recruitment & international compliance. Founder of The ORARA Group, optimising talent strategies. Expert in UK/EU employment law. Public speaker on workforce innovation.
9 个月Steve Simmance, this is excellent advice for anyone aspiring to make a career in recruitment. Those conversations may be difficult at the time but they will bear fruit. Whether that's for the Candidate by learning from the feedback, or the consultant gaining the trust and reputation within their chosen market.
Mental Health and Wellbeing Trainer with specialist knowledge of the FMCG Sector (MHFA Instructor Member) | Mentor | 0797 928 7745
9 个月Completely agree with you Steve Simmance , but giving feedback and delivering the bad news professionally is even more important than you suggest. Why? Because even the most resilient of candidates can have their mental health severely impacted by continuous rejection without explanation. I come from a time when recruitment was a professional service offered by people who had senior experience working in the field they were now recruiting for; this is a world away from the high pressure sales function, manned by the inexperienced 20 somethings that we see today. Let’s be very clear - there are people out there who, after continuous rejection, contemplate suicide. It is imperative that recruiters give honest and timely feedback to help keep candidates morale up and maintain the optimism and hope that is vital at such a challenging time in their careers. Recruiters have a duty of care to all of their candidates, successful or otherwise, but in a 40 year career in FMCG I can sadly name only three people who fully understood this. The time has come for the recruitment industry (both the client and agent) to take a long hard look at itself and start putting people before ’billings’.