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Saying no to "no time": A new approach to candidate feedback

Monday 15th February

Saying no to

We get it. Finding time to give graduates feedback can be tough. Especially feedback of the specific, valuable variety.

From what we’ve seen, recruiters and hiring managers already have their hands full. Whether you’re screening CVs, scheduling interviews, or doing any of the other hundred things you do so diligently, there’s not much free time left. Dishing out career tips to every grad starts to look unrealistic. 

But that’s not to say you don’t want to. You know as well as we do that a great candidate experience matters, whether that candidate is successful or not. All of which means, there has to be a better solution. A bit more on that later. 

For now, here’s why feedback matters, as part of a great candidate experience:

Word spreads

If you’re one of the many talent professionals with little time for feedback, you’re not alone. It’s been found that just 2.6% of candidates receive “specific and valuable feedback”. But how might that seeming-silence come back to haunt you?

A massive research project into employer branding by PepsiCo might have the answer:

  • If you hire 500 people annually, and receive 100 applications per role (this is below average), you’ll be rejecting 49,500 people per year. 
  • If each of these tells one friend about a poor hiring process, you’ll have negatively impacted perceptions of your brand for almost 100,000 people. 

It’s clear to see the financial toll it would have, if just a fraction of these stopped buying your product or service. Candidates really are customers in many cases. Feedback really can impact revenue.  

Talent today, talent tomorrow

There’s also the question of how a lack of feedback impacts your future talent pipeline. Picture a grad – we’ll call her Emma.

Emma applied to one of your roles, progressed through your screening stage, and thought she aced the interview. Only to find she was unsuccessful, with no idea why. 

Six months later, you’re advertising a new role. Emma may well be perfect for it. But she never applies, because she didn’t enjoy that process the first time round. And, as we’ve seen, she probably told her friends, too. 

In fact, LinkedIn found that one in four candidates who had a negative experience would “actively discourage” others from applying to that same company. The upshot of this is that, with a thinner talent pool, you’re at higher risk of hiring an  unsuitable candidate – which has cost implications of its own.

You are what you do

But, beyond the question of money, there’s the question of values

In today’s working world, where seven in ten millennials research your values before applying, it’s important that the experience they have actually reflects those values. Because you are what you do, not what you say. 

We see specific, valuable feedback as a sign of respect – a reward for the time and effort candidates invest in your process. So, if you want to be seen as an empathetic, engaging and respectful company, feedback can go a long way. 

Automated feedback loop

So there are all sorts of benefits to giving feedback, but it’s hard to find the time. Call it a Catch-22.

Unless, of course, there was a third way. Well, we think we’ve found one. Automated feedback.

This is the only way to satisfy Gen Z graduates’ proven desire for feedback, whether they’re successful in their application or not. That’s why every applicant who completes our assessment gets a tailored report, instantly. This gives them deeper insight into the natural behaviours captured by our tasks, giving them a window into their own personality. Not only do you see more in them – they see more in themselves.

So, to recap: automatic feedback that’s 100% specific and valuable, 100% of the time, with none of the hassle and none of the guilt. Candidates have one less CV out in the cold, and you can crack on with what you’re paid for.

Tired of the candidate feedback conundrum? The automated insight from our assessment can help. Arrange a call here to discover how.

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