Saying “No, Thanks” to the Candidate You Didn’t Hire. How to Do It. Why You Should.

Can you remember a time you lost on a proposal and the client didn’t tell you why? You didn’t feel respected, and neither will your candidates. That’s not the reputation you want for your practice when it’s already hard enough to attract and keep quality talent.

For many BV/LS professionals, applying and interviewing for your job will be the only experience they may have with your firm. That makes it even more important not to leave a bad taste about that experience. You never know when the candidate you rejected for today’s position will be tomorrow’s new hire.

Let’s be honest. There’s often a point in the process when you may not know who will get an offer, but you do know who will not get one. That’s the time to act. Candidates don’t like to be left hanging any more than you do. When you’ve made a decision not to pursue someone, say so. If you train yourself to do that as soon as the decision is made, you’ll be in a better position to communicate more clearly about the decision.

You don’t have to reveal every detail, but simplistic formulations like “not a good fit” or “taking a different direction” can be more aggravating than no explanation. Just like you would like feedback on the proposal you didn’t get, your candidate would like some, too.

Email is fine. Even a couple of lines will do the trick. If you’re writing to multiple candidates, it’s OK to make the message more generic and copy & paste as necessary. If you’ve been communicating through LinkedIn during the process, that’s a perfectly acceptable conduit for a rejection message.

Quality talent is hard enough to find in most professions but is more problematic for BV practices. There’s no percentage getting a bad reputation for not communicating with the candidates you don’t hire.