How do you tell people they haven't got the job?
Featured in the Recruiting and Keeping the Right People training manual
By Susan Iacovou
Category: Recruitment, Selection and Induction
Credit price: 3 download credits (Single user)
Some people with have applied for a new post without thinking that they have much chance of being selected – maybe because they just want to try their luck, or because of peer or family pressure. Others will have applied because they are convinced that they are the best, or amongst the best, on offer. Whatever the reason, rejected applicants will be disappointed. Nobody likes rejection. To make it easier for people to accept a rejection, you need to give them reasons for it which they can understand, even if they don’t necessarily agree with them. This training activity helps participants to give feedback to unsuccessful candidates. In particular, it focuses on ways of portraying the information in an objective and positive way, so that the disappointed candidate will feel good about your organisation, and feel motivated to continue to develop themselves and their career.
You open the training activity by explaining that giving feedback to unsuccessful candidates is a key part of a recruiter’s role. You then outline the main reasons why it is important to offer candidates feedback. Next, you split participants into two groups in order to identify possible rules of effective feedback. You listen to their suggestions, before going on to highlight the seven feedback rules. You then take the group through the four-step feedback process, before concluding the activity by reinforcing the key learning points covered by it.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to enable participants to explore ways of structuring and carrying out feedback discussions with unsuccessful candidates.
- Themes:
- Communication,
- Planning,
- Recruitment and selection,
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 4 |
| Max Group Size: | 20 |
| Typical Duration: | 01:15:00 |
| No of Pages: | 13 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use by trainers with participants who need to give feedback to unsuccessful candidates. It is most useful towards the end of a recruitment and retention training programme.
Download the training activity, How do you tell people they haven't got the job? as featured in the Fenman training manual; Recruiting and Keeping the Right People