The invisible interview feedback loop!

We all know that best practice in selection is for feedback to be provided both when a candidate is unsuccessful as well as successful. It is particularly important for those who are unsuccessful so that they can learn where their perceived weaknesses are and improve next time around. Offering constructive feedback to all candidates is nothing less than natural justice e.g. if you reject me then I should understand the basis for my rejection.

Sadly, the reality of what happens in practice can be very different. In my experience, getting any kind of feedback from clients around candidates who have been unsuccessful is challenging at best. This was brought home to me recently when a candidate I am representing was called for a zoom interview with a Senior Partner of a firm. After the interview, the candidate contacted me and gave me her thoughts on how the interview had gone. She gave me a very concise summary of what she had said and observed that the interview itself had been difficult to fathom. She noted that the final words of the Senior Partner at the end were “I’ll come back to you”.?

As we had secured this interview for our candidate, we then followed up with the clients HR team to see where things stood. Despite multiple attempts to elicit feedback, the HR team were unresponsive and unable to provide any information at all on how the interview had gone. When I then tried to circumvent the usual lines of communication by going direct to the Senior Partner, I was also met with a wall of silence. Understandably, the candidate now feels extremely disappointed with the firm that interviewed her as well as us as we had facilitated the interview for her in the first place. I suspect that she was viewed as unsuitable by the Senior Partner as the absence of any response suggests a lack of interest. Sadly, this is not an isolated occurrence. Whilst clients will always come back to you quickly on those candidates they want to progress with, they will rarely respond to requests for feedback for those who have been unsuccessful or if they do, the feedback is little more than the words “just not suitable for us”.

Having been connected with recruitment in some shape or form for over 25 years, I do understand on occasion why the basic principles of how you should treat candidates can be over looked. HR functions have been cut to the bone with many HR managers/co-ordinators juggling a myriad of different tasks alongside recruitment. In interview processes where HR have not been directly involved, they are dependent on the information they get back from the hiring manager before they can give any meaningful feedback. In my experience, hiring managers are quick to tell you who they want to appoint or interview but beyond that next to nothing is forthcoming about those who are rejected.

In the example I quoted where a Senior Partner had interviewed our candidate by Zoom, HR would have had to actively chase up the outcome from the Senior Partner in order to respond to any request for feedback. If they have not been able to get hold of the Senior Partner and there is no instruction back from them, the feedback loop is broken.

Ultimately, firms that fail to provide feedback are not only failing in terms of best practice, they are also leaving themselves open to more fundamental issues around discrimination and equal opportunities. If you are part of any selection process involving others, you have an obligation to let individuals know how you have arrived at the outcome you did and to be able to justify it. Candidates are investing their time and emotion when they apply for roles and this alone merits a considered response quite apart from the legal considerations around recruitment/selection.

We read a tremendous amount of jargon around how people should be treated. However, in reality, too many of us fail to cover off on the basics. Feedback is an entitlement for those involved in any kind of selection process. It is not at the discretion of the hiring manager to determine whether someone should or should not be given feedback. Next time you are involved in any selection activity, please remember that whether you are rated as successful or unsuccessful in any given process, constructive feedback will always help you to perform better next time so request it, and if you are someone running selection processes, do provide it. The feedback loop should be very visible to all.?