Why aren't you receiving feedback during the recruitment process?

Feedback is a message from others about our actions, intended to confirm, develop, or change those actions. Although there isn't always room for traditional feedback in recruitment, its role is crucial for both candidates and recruiters. Candidates most often expect information about the status of the recruitment process and the final decision on whether their application has been accepted or rejected. The ideal scenario would also include receiving a rationale for the recruitment decision. 

Challenges of the Recruitment Process

The recruitment process, consisting of several stages, begins with the determination of needs by the manager (known as the hiring manager). Defining these needs by the hiring manager is key to providing final feedback to candidates. A need is essentially a description of the candidate profile being sought. This profile should include the expected level of experience, education, skills (both "hard" professional and "soft" social skills), and attitudes (alignment of values and behaviors with organizational culture). In organizations that have implemented a competency model, HR and hiring managers should know which competencies they are looking for in potential candidates, be able to assess them, and make personnel decisions based on specific guidelines. The competency model serves as a guide to the specific skills needed for a position, how these skills are defined and graded. It is very helpful in evaluating potential candidates because it facilitates assessment (we know what we are assessing), allows for comparison of candidates' competencies, enables the preparation of a sensible argument for choosing a candidate, and the delivery of feedback. HR and external recruitment firms strive to meet the hiring manager's requirements by identifying and evaluating candidates based on defined competencies. Using competency models can facilitate the assessment and selection of candidates, but not every recruitment process is perfectly organized, which often leads to ambiguity and frustration on the candidates' side.

Reasons for the Lack of Feedback

Unfortunately, many reasons contribute to the lack of feedback for candidates. The most common include:

• Lack of detailed information from the client – in the case of headhunters/recruiters. Unfortunately, such situations do occur. Clients then limit themselves to information about which candidate they plan to sign a work contract with, somewhat forgetting about the other participants.
• Lack of feedback skills – fear of providing feedback, and moreover, fear of the candidate's reaction to the feedback.
• Forgetfulness - sometimes unintentionally, due to being overwhelmed with other duties.
• Limiting to dry feedback received from the client ("yes/no"). In the case of recruitment conducted directly by the company representative (usually HR specialist, "talent sourcer," recruitment specialist) – a mistaken sense that the information ("yes/no") is sufficient.
• Too weak arguments for providing more detailed feedback, fear of the candidate's reaction, which may be justified.
• Errors in the recruitment process – expectations regarding candidates' competencies are not well-defined, criteria are unclear – the assessment is not conducted rigorously (more based on feelings than facts).
• Lack of time – not recognizing the importance of feedback. Suboptimal recruitment process (does not include "feedback"), lack of investment in building future relationships, not recognizing the impact of feedback on "Employer Branding."
• Other related to individual characteristics or the recruiting person's work style. It's important to understand that the main mission of a headhunter or recruiter is to find the right candidate in the shortest possible time, which is directly related to their compensation system. Leaving a position unfilled generates measurable losses for the company. As such, providing detailed feedback is not at the top of the priority list – recruiters and headhunters are not engaged to act as feedback consultants. The process of providing feedback is treated as a long-term investment, although it's important to remember that the scope of feedback received is mainly limited to the analysis of competencies necessary for the position. Waiting for a detailed analysis of one's skills in this context may prove to be inappropriate. Preparing detailed feedback is time-consuming and incurs costs, which, with a large number of candidates, constitutes a significant burden for organizations.

Quality of Feedback

The expected feedback, especially the more detailed, should focus solely on the candidate's competence adequacy to the employer's requirements. It happens that awkwardly delivered feedback can demotivate candidates.

Truly constructive feedback, which serves development, is rarely available during recruitment processes. When it does appear, it is usually limited to the specifics of the job and organization, making it selective. Therefore, it should not be taken as a comprehensive personal assessment. If the priority is a deeper analysis and development of one's competencies, it is worthwhile to seek advice from a coach or career advisor.