How to Disqualify Candidates Without Creating a Bad Candidate Experience

Candidate experience is one of the essential aspects of attracting the best candidates to your company. But what about providing the best candidate experience when it comes to rejecting candidates? The candidate experience you provide plays a major role in the success of attracting the best candidates for your company. 

Words travel fast, especially nowadays, when people share a lot of things online, including their experiences with employers. Public reviews and word of mouth about bad candidate experiences could affect your reputation and even ruin your efforts of employer branding. People who hear of others’ bad experiences won’t consider working for your company and, in many cases, won’t consider buying or using your product.  Keep in mind that your rejected candidates can also be your potential customers.

The Best Ways to Disqualify Your Candidates

Candidate rejection is an unavoidable part of every hiring process. Being the bearer of bad news is never an easy task but what you can do is take the time to show them you respect the time and effort they’ve invested.

Most importantly, don’t keep candidates waiting for your response. Just imagine investing your time on an application or an interview, only to never hear back. It’s frustrating, and it comes as no surprise that so many job seekers feel distressed and demotivated. 

Secondly, talk to your candidates and explain why they weren’t a good fit for the position. Remember that most rejected candidates will be grateful that you took the time to explain why they didn’t get the job.

Here are a couple of ways you can make the disqualification process less painless:

Personalize Rejection Emails

According to research, around 90% of recruitment emails aren’t personalized. With the technology we have nowadays, you can significantly reduce the time spent on repetitive tasks in the hiring process. With that said, there’s no reason for leaving your candidates waiting for you or, even worse, entirely in the dark.

Create automated rejection emails without losing the personal touch. You can use pre-existing email templates to save time, or you can create your own custom email templates for every occasion. By using email templates for each step of the recruitment process, you don’t have to write every email from scratch. 

Instead, you can send multiple emails at the same time and customize them for different candidates. For instance, if you want to stay engaged with a certain candidate you think might be a good fit for roles in the future, you can create a whole email template telling them you would like to keep them in your database for future vacancies.

These actions don’t have to be overly time-consuming. By using recruitment software, like ZenATS, you can automate your hiring process and reduce the number of repetitive tasks.

Communication 

Poor communication or no communication whatsoever will leave candidates even more disappointed. Disappointed and frustrated candidates will likely ditch their brand loyalty due to their negative experiences. Would you purchase products or services from a company that didn’t take the time or put any effort into letting you know you didn’t make the cut?

According to a survey, around 75% of workers who applied for jobs didn’t hear back from employers. One of the biggest reasons applicants have a negative candidate experience is that they don’t hear back from recruiters. Don’t ghost your candidates; let them know where they stand, even if it’s a prompt rejection. 

Send post-interview rejection emails containing a sincere thank you note and a brief explanation of why they didn’t meet the criteria. By showing candidates that you’re willing to give feedback and that your process is timely, fair, and respectful, those same candidates will probably want to stay in your database for future employment. These applicants are also likely to refer others to work for your company.