How to Turn Down a Candidate

Unfortunately, if you are a hiring manager you will have to turn down more candidates than you hire over your career. It can be the hardest part of the recruitment process, especially if the candidate was a great option. If you have to turn down a candidate, check out these 5 tips…

First things first, don’t settle for a candidate that isn’t the best option just because you are in a time crunch. It’s tempting to pull the trigger and hire because the person is “good enough” and you aren’t willing to wait any longer to find the best candidate. Hiring someone who is not qualified can send the wrong message to your team and your productivity can take a hit.

Once you have made your decision on who you will make an offer to, be prompt in letting the other candidates you know. It’s frustrating for a someone to have to wait for a response from an employer weeks after they didn’t get the job. If you delay, you may be losing out on a future employee.

You have certain criteria you are judging each candidate with. These could include experience, technical skills, and culture fit. If there are 5 important characteristics you are looking for and a person is missing one of those key characteristics, let them know. When you are honest with the candidate about what was missing for them to get the job, they will have a clear idea of why they weren’t chosen.

Be honest and give useful feedback to the candidate of how they can develop their career further. Recommend skills they can improve or develop to be more competitive when applying to future jobs. Your genuine feedback can leave a good feeling with them and can build your employer brand.

Use this time to ask the candidate for honest feedback about their experience interviewing with your company. They have no reason to lie so you can receive great feedback on how to improve the candidate experience in the future.

You can’t control how a someone is going to react to being rejected. If they are a great candidate and have potential, open lines for communication with them and stay in touch. Connect with each other on LinkedIn, put them into your ATS system, and invite them to job fairs or career events that you will be at.