Giving effective and honest post-interview feedback: For employers

Post Job Interview Feedback Or, don’t let a good opportunity go to waste

If you’re going to be bothered to offer feedback to folks who you are not hiring for a particular position, then you’ve gotta make it good. Give effective and honest post-interview feedback and you’ll build your own capacity as an individual for giving feedback, and you’ll also build your organization’s reputation for being transparent, honest and compassionate. Let’s take a look at the best ways to give effective post-interview feedback to those who will benefit from your thoughtful reflection on your process.

Be entirely honest. 

Everyone deserves honesty. When we tell candidates that they were “great” in a job interview, no one grows. This is especially true for people who know that they weren’t at the top of their game, and it will not earn their respect.  Be as honest as you can be, in ways that are kind and respectful and with an eye toward growth. Don’t be the kind of honest, though, that veers toward harshness. Use positive language that offers ways to improve, not negative language that is potentially critical. And most especially, keep your feedback and critique tied to the job. Be careful not to critique a candidate’s person–their voice, clothing, body language or ways in which they show up on the job. Don’t critique their “fit,” which is also often a cue or clue to a handful of biases that employers may hold but have not unpacked fully. Keep feedback tied closely to the requirements for the position, and describe how you are or were collecting that data. 

Write creatively but without cliche. 

If you are giving feedback in writing, don’t rely on cliche phrases like “someone with more relevant experience” or “a more diverse skill set.” This is language that candidates might then think you’re using to hide something, or offer platitudes, or worse, use to try to dodge their feedback request. It ends up being vague and euphemistic and ultimately unhelpful. Instead of using empty phrases, attempt to offer real examples based on the data you collected in their interview to offer advice for concrete improvement. This is where excellent note taking in an interview comes in handy, not just for data collection to mitigate bias but also to offer language for real examples and advice for improvement.

Be respectful and kind. 

False praise is never a good thing, and folks know when they’re hearing something fake. If there were things you truly liked about a candidate, please say so. Feedback after an interview doesn’t have to only be negative. Positive feedback can be useful and complementary, respectful and helpful, and can, when done well, point a candidate in the direction of specific opportunities for growth. Candidates need to know what they did well so they can keep doing it, and so that they will be motivated to do so.

Be a helpful example. 

Feedback should be meaningful and helpful. A laundry list of things you didn’t like about a candidate is insulting and will fall on deaf ears. Think specifically about what they could change so that next time will have a different result (in a different place, for a different position, etc). This will be good for them and good for your organization, because it will result in a better candidate in this person, and  better candidates overall: as a pool, candidates will improve their interviewing skills and be the employees you want to hire. In giving feedback, you can be the helpful model for giving feedback that the candidate can then learn from.