The number of people who want to work for you is far more than the number of available positions. You have spoken to hundreds of people and reviewed dozens of instances of past work. Nevertheless, you can only choose one person for the position, so you’ll have to contact the other hundreds of applicants to break the news that they didn’t make the cut. Disappointing someone by telling them they didn’t get the job is difficult. Yet, it is crucial to keep applicants updated on the status of their applications and provide them some kind of resolution. This is the rationale behind the hiring decision and the best approach to communicating it to unsuccessful candidates. So here are the tips for how to tell someone they didn’t get the job.
Is it Really Important to Tell Unsuccessful Job Candidates Why?
Whether a candidate has just submitted an application and cover letter or has made it to the final round of interviews, they should constantly be informed of their status. This is true even if the candidate has advanced to the final interview round. Applicants that are ghosted may wonder where they went wrong in the selection process and whether or not their efforts were acknowledged.
Delivering the bad news to a job candidate that they did not get the job
Having to tell someone they didn’t get the job is never a pleasant or easy experience for anybody involved. This is not an easy topic to bring up, especially after many interviews during which you have been very familiar with the candidate. The challenge now is figuring out how to break the news in a way that is both sympathetic and less distressing for the recipient. Several considerations are provided below.
Be careful of the language you use.
It goes without saying that you should always be polite while informing a candidate, but it is especially important to be mindful of your message and word choice when rejecting a candidate. When offering constructive criticism to a candidate, it’s important to think about how you word your remarks so that they really help the person develop. Avoid saying or doing anything that may be misunderstood as offensive or that could give rise to a claim of discrimination. You shouldn’t engage in any of those activities.
Get them excited about applying for different jobs.
Finding the most qualified applicant isn’t always easy. You’ll have to choose one of them, and it would be ideal to hire both of them, but it won’t work. You should encourage them to apply for the job and any others like it your company may have open if they seem like a suitable match.