Why Companies Don't Give Interview Feedback And What Happens As A Result

This post is in honor of the multitude of candidates who go on interviews either through recruiters, networking or job boards and are incredulous that they cannot get feedback on their interviews.  All too often, the interview ends positively with a promise of further meetings, but the candidate  then hears nothing. The experience just goes into a black hole.  

I cannot speak about other industries, but in advertising, this situation is all too prevalent. 

One of my pet peeves – actually all recruiters and HR professionals – is not receiving feedback after a candidate interviews. Some companies look at giving feedback as a nuisance. I once actually had a client tell me that the trouble with recruiters is that they want feedback.  What she didn't realize is that in failing to provide this information, she ended up costing herself more interview time as well as leaving candidates with a poor opinion of the company.  This is especially important when the jobs specs are vague, which is often.

Sometimes when we get feedback it is unspecific.  This is also useless.  We recently got an email after a candidate had had multiple interviews, saying that the company was “lukewarm” on the candidate.  I had no idea what that meant or how to interpret it, especially since he had been through a couple of interviews.  That kind of non-specific comment doesn’t help us, the company or the candidate.  

When professionals are told that a candidate has too much of this and too little of that, we are able to look more efficiently and effectively for additional candidates.  (I have cancelled future interviews of candidates when I have discovered that they would be wrong for a job based on feedback from someone's previous interview. Sending them would be a waste of their time and the company’s time.)  Feedback also gives us additional insight into candidates; after all, another opinion of a person is a good thing for us to have.

So why don’t people give feedback?

I am guessing that very often, the first level of hiring manager or human resources schedules multiple interviews and decides to wait until all people are seen. They would prefer to give simple feedback, like, “Let’s proceed with candidates number 1 and 3.”  But that provides no insight or direction into what is right about the two chosen candidates or what was wrong with number 2; it may well be that the HR professional or a recruiter has other candidates and some may be better qualified, but without the feedback and comparison to the other interviewees (even if we don't know them), it gives us no concrete direction and doesn’t allow us to move forward on their behalf.  Sadly, the manager thinks that he or she is being more efficient.

Another reason people don’t give feedback is that they are so busy that they cannot or will not spend the few minutes to provide insight into their interviews. And if there is no HR person or other middleman involved who can push them into being specific, the interview may just go into a black hole.  They just don’t want to spend the time.  Of course as a result of that, candidates spread the bad word that the company or the person is rude.  Every interviewer’s job is to create positive public relations for their firm. Getting no results after an interview drives candidates crazy.

A third reason hiring managers may not give feedback, is that they are not trained interviewers and simply don’t know what to say. They will interview until their gut tells them a candidate is right and simply accept that candidate, forgetting about the others.  To avoid this problem, all companies should teach their people how to interview (I have given many seminars on this subject). I would also recommend that a company create a feedback form which should be sent back to HR and passed back to recruiters, if appropriate.  It could make the process actually go faster and smoother.

There is a fourth reason.  Sometimes candidates screw up interviews.  But without telling us or them, whatever the problem is or was, we cannot help unless we can identify the problem.  I have never understood why companies are reluctant to give their recruiters bad news.

As mentioned, one of the jobs of a recruiter is to create positive public relations for their clients. Mostly, when I can tell my candidates the feedback, they agree with the truth.  And since I believe in telling my candidates the truth, they are appreciative.  That is far better PR than when we hear nothing.

Sometimes we hear nothing because the human resources person we are dealing with has been unable to obtain feedback from the person who did the interviewing.  When that happens, it is better to tell us or the candidate.  At least it is something.

Everyone who spends time interviewing can and should be able to learn from the experience.