The World's Best rejection letters

In an age where "ghosting" candidates is common, where even job boards say "if you do not hear from us in 14 days assume you've been unsuccessful" there is an opportunity to stand out by taking the time to acknowledge the interest and effort made by each applicant.

Candidates who don't get jobs could still be customers, they could be future hires, they could be referrers, they could be brand ambassadors (or detractors) on social media. Importantly they are human beings engaged in an exercise of vulnerability - trying to convince others of their worth and value.

Start with a philosophy

The first philosophy I introduce my clients to is simply this. "Everyone who applies here should still want to work here when they exit the interview process." This philosophy is there to establish a duty of care for candidates. My hiring managers and I share a responsibility to deliver a first rate candidate experience which allows us to choose the most suitable candidate but still leaves all the other candidates with a positive impression of the company.

Starting with a philosophy allows the Talent function to build a process with the candidate at its heart. It compels hiring managers and interviewers to abide by a code of conduct which puts Talent first, and it demonstrates to everyone else within this business that the company is serious about caring for, and attracting, high-calibre individuals. This last point helps increase confidence in the business from existing staff and thus generates more employee referrals. In other words, the value is multiplied.

A candidate experience philosophy means better prepared (and trained) interviewers, less wasted time, more effective conversations with prospective hires, more fully considered job roles, responsibilities and deliverable objectives, a higher calibre of hire and better onboarding and first 90 days. All of these things are a subset of putting the hiring experience first.

Make the process serve the philosophy

Talent teams can be extremely busy. Lacking a philosophy they will dedicate time to urgent tasks and immediate need. Unless KPI’s are in place these activities will usually actually be low-hanging-fruit work - easy to reach candidates, the most straightforward role fills, list building etc. In this case, candidate relationships aren't built upon, rejected candidates get stock replies (if they get replies at all).

With KPI’s in place from the Talent lead this busywork can be replaced with deeper searches, longer term talent pipelines and more strategic activities. Now rejected candidates get a little more attention, but only so long as there is time between KPI work.

Building the process around philosophy however changes focus entirely. Transactional work becomes relationship work, and by taking care of relationships, longer term hiring growth becomes more straightforward. Treating applicants like potential customers and interviewees like employees speaks to the wider ethos of the business too - it will reinforce the message that the business cares about its impact - and it will help the Talent function speak with authority on those values.

It will also mean your Talent team spend more time on longer term relationship building with the very best candidates, not simply trying to get the next urgent hire in the door with anyone who will open their LinkedIn InMails. Freeing them to do the pipeline cultivation might initially slow the hiring pace, but will end up increasing the quality and quantity of the applicant pool as these relationships develop.

Craft the message

Once you have a philosophy in place to guide the process, create the comms content to share this process in a meaningful way. Think of the candidate journey as a discrete event with a defined beginning and several exit points along the way. If the goal is to meet my "Everyone who applies here should still want to work here when they exit the interview process." philosophy, then what process steps in terms of communication, interaction and interview events accomplish that?

Plenty of great guides exist for this sort of journey mapping, but the basic premise is to create a candidate persona and imagine their experience of the current process. Think about times they are excited, nervous, discouraged, uncertain, overjoyed along the pathway and what you can add to the process to mitigate (or enhance) those feelings. For example, what happens when they first apply? At that point they are presumably excited to find a role that interests them, but also curious about what isn't revealed by the job description. What kind of company is this? What are the people really like? How do they go about getting their work done, and will that approach help or hinder me?

What kind of interaction can you provide here that goes beyond the usual Thanks for your application message? This is where your marketing collateral comes in handy, videos of staff talking about the work and the workplace for example, or links to a Glassdoor page to highlight culture scores. What about a guide to interviews and timescales, or an intro to the Talent team and the recruiters looking after the process? You could ask them ahead of time to rate the process when they finish, or reach out to them about their preferred pronouns and how best to engage fully with them in the coming process. There are hundreds of ideas that could be implemented here (all of which work as templates) but the work to do this will only start with a strong philosophy behind it.

Explain your timeframes

…and apologise when you're unable to stick to them.

In my experience, engaged and excited candidates are happy with any sort of total interview timescale, providing they know the length of process going in. It's very frustrating to be in the dark around feedback dates, number of interviews and process expectations. If you are going to want me to present at a particular stage of interview, I can start gathering my thoughts early on in the process if you tell me at the start. This means a better presentation from me (I am able to show my full capabilities) and more value for you, the interviewer. Giving me upfront timescales also helps me plan my time in my current role, my other interview options and is generally the decent thing to do. Letting me know stages, participants and expectations right at the start is the kind of common courtesy that shows me you value my time and effort (and are therefore likely to do so if I work with you).

An email committing to interview timeframes is easy to create, and puts you at an instant advantage over other companies your candidates are considering. It doesn't work, however, if you've not invested time in designing your job descriptions, real life requirements and key competencies beforehand. It doesn't work if you haven't fully committed to a Talent First way of thinking either because your managers will find it too easy to prioritise other things over potential interview slots and consequently the promised schedule becomes an embarrassing and idealistic dream.

Explain your numbers and processes and ask key questions before you interview.

The clearer you can be about process requirements, interview stages and objectives the better. Having already established a detailed timeline, adding context and insights into the interviews themselves helps prospective applicants fully understand the need and prepare appropriately. Interviews are doubly intimidating when the nature and agenda for the meeting is unclear.

There is no value in hiding the agenda for your interviews from your candidates. Surprising a candidate with a question doesn't (alone) get to a deeper truth. If anything, people who feel under pressure are more likely to be guarded in their responses and less likely to reveal valuable insights. Far better then to fully brief candidates on the nature, objectives and even the questions used in an interview beforehand.

It's a simple matter of using templates effectively.

eg. Our first interview is a mutual information gathering exercise. We'd like you to know everything about working here, about the challenges and opportunities facing the team and why we've decided to hire for this position. We'd like to learn about your motivations in applying and compare a few ideas about how you see this role adding value. Our aim for this session is for us both to leave with a full understanding of hope working here might work.

Our second interview focuses on real world problem solving. We've designed a simulation of a real world project meeting and would like you to participate in the discussion and problem resolution stage. Top help you get up to speed see attached glossary of our house terms and a rough synopsis of the problem we'll be discussing. You'll be joining our Head of Projects, one or two members of our engineering team and a Customer Success Manager. I've attached their LinkedIn profiles too

etc

Talk to candidates about rejection early

How many times have you asked a candidate about their frustrations in interview processes? If you try it, most of them will tell you that delays, lack of feedback and unclear decisions are the biggest problems. If you have asked the first question, have you ever taken time to acknowledge those issues and how your process will deal with them if they arise? Even this step puts your process in the top 1%. If you have a top 1% process already, do you ever ask candidates how they like to be rejected?

Ask candidates how they would like to be rejected as part of your interview process. "If this application can't proceed what would you like to know, and how would you like to hear it?".

Different humans have different needs. Some candidates want to know full details about a decision, all the many reasons you've said no. Some want a decision within moments, for others bad news coming too close to an interview can be a little too much to cope with. A rejection in the car ride home from an interview they worked hard for can be a little too difficult to hear.

If your Talent team doesn't have the capacity to handle this bespoke feedback it might be time to ask for more investment in the talent program, but as an immediate fix, why not write an email template explaining your rejection process as well as any follow up actions (retaining resumes against other roles for example) you might take? It's important that this template be more than just a basic "thanks for your interest, we won't be progressing". Address the specific need and why the candidate was rejected relative to that need. Have several versions, one for each stage of the hiring journey so that a candidate leaving the process at final interview gets a far more substantial, and more personalised message than an applicant who was not selected for first interview.

By developing a rejection strategy we are living the values of our Talent first philosophy. The fact is that 90% of applicants will necessarily be rejected, so the return on investment in building a value-added exit for these people is considerable. It's also the right thing to do, considering the effort put into these applications by the candidates. And as above, this commitment to the candidate can be fulfilled to a certain extent through templates (if necessary) but templates designed to deliver valuable content in an efficient way, rather than to simply brush off a candidate the business is no longer interested in.

Be there for them through the process

Guided tours are far more memorable and valuable than discovering something alone. The value added by an internal champion for talent is similarly impressive. Build a system that cares for talent and then embody that system for each candidate as they pass through the process.

Explain the process, talk about objectives and timescales. Ask about preferred pronouns and interview needs, and share this insight with others in the interview process to demonstrate attention to detail and a high level of care for the individual.

It's okay to share the interview style, approach and even the questions themselves ahead of an interview, providing the interviewers are well trained and the process it's fair. The point of the interviews is to genuinely decide on the candidate who will deliver on the needs of the role and will enjoy doing so. Nothing else. Knowing the questions simply allows the candidate to be relaxed enough to bring their fullest selves to the interview. If you share the interview format, questions and tone ahead of time with all the selected candidates then all have the same opportunity to impress and you will still be hiring the best applicant.

If there is time, make sure to greet candidates before and after interviews. You're the inside champion and these moments help solidify your relationship with the candidate. This bond is tremendously useful in really getting extra insight into the team fit, and it is these knowing relationships that will also help the candidate to choose your organisation over others when it comes to offers.

This works even in Zoom and Teams calls. Logging in early to spend time with the candidate and then to make the introductions makes the process smoother and, importantly, more effective for all concerned. Interviews mean giving up hours of valuable time for both parties. Well planned and executed interviews for trained hiring managers and prepared candidates are the best way to maximise the ROI on this time investment.

When it comes time to reject, be clear and be valuable

The problem with building relationships with candidates is that rejection can become more difficult. It's harder to reject a candidate who you have guided through the process and established the beginnings of an understanding with. The temptation to deliver bad news in a good way to these individuals can mean the process of rejection can become a big deal to the recruiter. Wanting to craft just the right message to somehow maintain the relationship whilst removing the candidate from the process can become such a big and difficult job that finishing it can get delayed or avoided entirely.

Remember you have a professional duty to the candidate to not be too personal. The role is to guide a selection of people - the best talent options - through the process in order to find the individual who meets the hiring criteria most closely (that is to say the individual who can deliver most closely on the mission for the role whilst getting the most enjoyment from doing so). Fulfilling this duty will always mean delivering rejections. In fact your career will involve delivering an order of magnitude more rejections than offers.

If we know we need to deliver rejections at a far greater frequency than offers, and if we firmly believe in a Talent First philosophy then it is imperative we learn to deliver bad news well, that we not take (nor feel) these rejections personally, and that we not dress them up in order to maintain the candidates good opinion of us individually (i.e. having them like us, but not the business, is a failure).

By developing a formal interview process which allows for direct comparison and reduces bias, you will be creating equal opportunities for all to succeed. Conducting relaxed and relevant interview sessions with good notetaking will give you an genuine and meaningful picture of the candidate. These notes should, in the end, be truly insightful, and using these notes as part of the rejection process "Here's where we feel you were strongest, here's where we were less certain of the fit" is a true value add. Make sure your feedback at rejection time seeks to help the candidate understand that you have some understanding of them.

Be a good human

None of us like to be rejected, but we recognise we can't fit all jobs. Importantly, we all like to be seen, heard and understood. The secret to writing the world's best rejection letter is to design a process with the human at its heart, to interview for clarity and understanding and to show this process and understanding to the candidate as they exit.

After all, that's how we would like to be treated when we are candidates.