The Art Of Saying No

One of the more difficult parts of any recruitment process can be the bit where you have to say no.  In the recruitment world this is a daily occurrence and in the early stages of a process, as long as you handle it in a timely and respectful manner, that is usually all that is required.  The more challenging part is when you’ve been working closely with a candidate for a period of time and there have been lots of hoops (multiple interviews, phone conversations, skills or psychometric testing, medical checks... the list goes on!) and then for whatever reason the final outcome is not in the candidates favour.

I often find that through-out the recruitment process I build up a strong relationship with candidates and in the process get to find out a lot of personal information about people as they entrust you with their confidence that you are working to find them a role that works for them as much as for your client.  This is a double-edged sword.  On the one hand, it makes that deep breathe I take before I pick up the phone to say “no” be accompanied by a little flutter in my stomach – as I have a sense of how important this news is to them, what their response might be, and the implications for them professionally and personally. On the other hand, if you have built this trust with them it can make the feedback more palatable for them, knowing that you have the best possible outcome for both parties at heart.

In any recruitment process I am a part of, I want candidates that deal with me to have a great experience and take some learning’s and useful feedback away from it – no matter whether the final outcome is in their favour or not.  Part of this requires being brutally honest with specific feedback.  Is this easy? No. Our overly-PC environment does not help.  Do I get it right 100% of the time? No – I am often working with people during a very vulnerable time.  How many times are candidates brushed off with “you were over-qualified” or “there was another candidate with more ‘xyz’ experience”?.  When a candidate has jumped through the many hoops that have been put in front of them and invested their time and energy into a process, isn’t the least we can do to give them the honour of some specific on-target feedback that will help them in their future applications?  Things like: what is the area that they need to get more experience in and why wasn’t the experience they had enough? How might they go about getting it? And more importantly, if the reason was something else, tell them.  If the business felt that the culture fit wasn’t right, tell them about the differences that were observed.  Yes, giving diplomatic, specific, compassionate feedback is an art – but I believe it is one that all those involved in recruitment need to develop.

^JY