I don’t relish being the bearer of bad news but, as a recruiter, it comes with the territory. Or so you would imagine.

I’ve been dealing with candidates for over 30 years and have become more than a recruiter. Most days I’m a personal career coach and matchmaker, investing time and energy in my candidates, coaching them through the interview process, helping them hone their ‘pitch’, setting them up for success, making sure they connect with their interviewers and ensuring it will be a match made in heaven.

But the reality is, regardless of our joint investment of time and energy, the majority of my candidates won’t be successful. This is especially true in the current market given the glut of job seekers and dearth of vacancies. My clients have rich pickings.

The successful candidates are over the moon and it’s a joy to bring news of success. Close of play Friday, making that call is rewarding, helping them on the next stage of their career journey and listening to delighted clients congratulating me for a job well done.

It’s uncomfortable, difficult and not a COP Friday job to let the others down. It’s by far the toughest part of my role and yet, strangely, the most rewarding. Giving honest feedback, however much it hurts. And, more often than not, I get thanked for it.

I hear from candidates involved in other processes that they are victims of ‘computer says no’ automated rejections, falling foul of algorithm selection or, worse still, recruiter ghosting, stuck in limbo land trying to second guess, not learning from the process and blindly plunging headfirst into the next one. By my book, that’s not good recruiting.

That’s why I believe feedback is the breakfast of champions and why, as recruiters, we should skip the granola and indulge in a full fry-up, helping candidates embrace feedback rather than recoil, turning critical feedback into action, and giving them ROI.

I may be old school (and it seems feedback is a dirty word these days) but we do have a fundamental responsibility to glean the truth from our clients and turn that into practical and valuable feedback to share with our candidates.

So, I’m refuting the The Feedback Fallacy. I believe it’s all about what you say and how you say it and, at the very least, say something!

I welcome your feedback.

 

 

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