Selecting Talent: Following up with Feedback

Posted by Sarah Hobbs

What happens after the interview? Following interviews, the number one thing that causes unhappiness and a bad impression is poor quality feedback. This can be either a lack of feedback or the inability of the interviewers to give feedback that explains why the person didn’t get the job.

Candidates have invested part of their life in preparing for interview. They started to hope, to dream. Not getting the job is bad enough – but not to know why, or how to improve can be devastating. And people tell other people, when they think they have been treated badly. What you do after the application and interview is probably the most critical way of enhancing your ‘brand’ as a great manager, department and business to work for.

And sadly, in most cases managers feel that they don’t really know where to start. This leads them to focus on the individual’s skills and knowledge, when that’s only one area of why someone underperformed in the interview.

Here are four types of bad feedback often given by Managers:

1. Appearing to not really understand why they didn’t give them the job. Sometimes the feedback will be “well there’s no real reason you didn’t get the job, it’s just that the other candidate was better” or “you were really good”.


2. Giving reasons that can be too easily contested. I’ve heard managers say “you didn’t seem hungry enough for the job” or “you lacked the gravitas”. These are valid reasons, but if you’re going to give them you need to provide the evidence on which you drew that conclusion, or the candidate is likely to argue against it, or leave dissatisfied. Always think – what advice will help them to present themselves better next time?


3. Being vague. Sometimes managers skate over a lot of things and communicate few specifics. Instead, you need to decide on 1-3 things that were the main reasons you didn’t appoint the person. It’s particularly helpful to talk about anything they can work on, and improve.


4. Not hiring someone purely for the reason of “fit”. “Unfortunately we didn’t think you’d fit with the team so we didn’t appoint you” is a valid reason, but the individual will walk away thinking that there is nothing they could have ever done to get the job – which will lead to a degree of frustration.

So what are the alternatives? There are a range of things you can consider. Think about giving feedback in these four areas:

1. Interview technique. How did they present themselves? Were they clear? Did they have good pace and pitch? Were they lucid? Were they articulate?


2. The content of the answer. Did they answer the questions clearly, or was it vague or unclear, or not what you were looking for? Could they have done more research or preparation?


3. The structure of the answers. Did the person follow a logical pattern or did they miss elements of their stories? Did they repeat themselves? Were they very jumbled in how they responded?


4. Talk about capability gaps. Try to be clear about what it was you were looking for and where you felt the candidate didn’t have that skill or experience.

As well as “what” you can talk about, here are six quick tips to help you deliver better feedback:

1. Be specific and clear. Listen carefully and give examples of things they have actually said or done. This is best noted down directly after interview.


2. Be sincere. Really mean the feedback you’re giving – they will see through it otherwise. If you feel that they are not suited to the role, think about their strengths, and the kind of role that might suit them better. Don’t give false hope by encouraging people to take action that wouldn’t make enough difference to make them successful.


3. Be positive. When people receive hard messages, they don’t always receive it positively. Your objective is for them to be clear – they are unlikely to be happy. Make sure that you convey respect for them as an individual and their strengths.


4. Be fair. Try not to overstate the feedback, be honest but fair. Try to balance both negative and positive aspects of the feedback.


5. Be willing. Listen more than you talk, avoid judging them, repeat back what they have said to show that you are listening.


6. Be practical. Give them insights into how your feedback might be used in their next interview by focusing on action they could take.

TAKE AWAY
You’ve worked hard on creating a fantastic interview process for the candidate. Don’t ruin it by not following up afterwards. Gain a reputation for being a manager who cares about people who want to be in their team, and who will put in the work to give excellent feedback.