How to Provide Feedback to Candidates: Expert Tips

ITExpert team23.12.2024

It’s common knowledge that feedback in recruitment is essential and should be of high quality. Yet, all too often, feedback ends with a vague statement like, “We’ve decided to move forward with another candidate.”

While this response may be understandable — creating detailed feedback is no small task and requires skill (writing feedback can be just as challenging as writing code lines) — it’s far from effective. Fortunately, experts Maria Kutsevol, Recruitment Team Lead at ITExpert, and Sergey Nemchinsky, CEO/Founder at FoxmindEd, can help to build this competence. They outline what constitutes quality feedback and how to craft responses that turn candidates into ambassadors for your employer brand — even when the answer is a rejection.

Why candidate feedback is a must

There isn’t a single stage in the hiring process where feedback isn’t needed. Recruiters must maintain communication throughout the entire process — from the initial email to the candidate to their first day of probation. This process transparency ensures candidates are informed about where they stand and what comes next. Without it, ghosting candidates becomes risky, and companies may lose valuable talent.

Even short updates about the current hiring stage shape how candidates perceive your company. Surveys reveal that 81% of candidates expect consistent communication with recruiters throughout the hiring process.

After interviews and test assignments, providing more detailed feedback to a candidate is a must. It should be at least 4–5 sentences instead of just a few words. Well-constructed feedback improves the perception of your team, offers professionals clear insights into their areas for growth, and explains why a match with your company didn’t occur.

Important: “You’re not a good fit for us” is an answer, but it’s not comprehensive feedback.

Providing well-thought-out feedback after interview and at other stages of the hiring process offers numerous benefits:

Enhances the perception of your employer brand.
Reduces the risk of miscommunication, lost correspondence with candidates, and related issues.
Supports more objective hiring decisions, improving the overall quality of recruitment.
Generates future opportunities: for instance, rejecting a candidate today could lead to hiring them for another position tomorrow.

Further we will look at other criteria for quality feedback and provide some candidate feedback examples.

Rules for providing effective feedback during recruitment

Checklist for High-Quality Feedback from Experts

✅ Be specific and factual. When explaining your decision, reference the candidate’s profile and their answers, and include examples. Avoid relying on overly subjective evaluations.

✅ Provide growth opportunities. If appropriate, offer feedback that highlights areas for the professional to focus on in the future. Constructive candidate feedback, such as a review of key interview questions or a list of topics for further growth, is often highly valued.

✅ Address shortcomings politely and respectfully. For example, if a candidate applied for a senior-level position but performed at a junior level in the interview, frame your feedback as: “We’re seeking someone with more experience in these areas: …”

❌ Avoid excessive emotional tone. Displeasure, irony, or sarcasm are red flags in feedback.

❌ Refrain from comparisons with other candidates. For example, saying, “The previous candidate, Mike, demonstrated better CI/CD skills and requested a lower salary,” is unacceptable.

❌ Steer clear of unnecessary labels or premature conclusions. If you feel a candidate won’t become a good team player because they lack some soft skills and you cannot provide clear reasoning, it’s better to avoid such feedback. This can lead to negative reviews about you as an employer. Avoid subjective statements like: “Your eyes lack passion,” “Your energy didn’t stand out during the interview,” or “We’re looking for leaders, and you didn’t come across as one,” etc.

❌ Do not base decisions on age, gender, race, or religion. These selecting factors are discriminatory and illegal in many other countries.

The level of detail in feedback and skills assessment should correspond to the position’s seniority. Avoid using phrases like “correct” or “incorrect answer” when evaluating complex, nuanced ideas or case solutions.

Sergey Nemchinsky

“Providing precise answers to technical questions makes sense when interviewing a complete beginner, where the goal is to assess basic knowledge. For instance, questions about the three principles of OOP (Object-Oriented Programming) typically have clear, definitive answers.

However, multiple approaches are usually possible. It’s important to consider the context and each candidate’s characteristics. Avoiding rigidly defined answers has advantages: it allows candidates to demonstrate creativity and analytical skills.

Additionally, steering away from exact answers reduces the risk of other professionals criticizing the feedback, which can impact your company’s reputation among candidates. Developing such precise responses may also require extra time from your technical team. These drawbacks outweigh the benefits of this approach.”

What if you have no specifics to answer? Simply rejecting a candidate with a curt statement like, “You’re not a fit for us,” is poor practice. Instead, think critically about what specific skills or approaches did not align with your company’s needs and articulate this clearly. If you still can’t identify concrete reasons, it might be time to reevaluate the validity of your selection methods. It’s likely that you’re stuck in a phase of intuitive hiring, which could be stalling your company’s growth.

Maria Kutsevol

“When hiring IT specialists for a startup, you might expect them to have a product-oriented mindset. For you, this could mean someone who doesn’t shut their laptop the moment the clock strikes 6 PM, is willing to go beyond their formal job responsibilities and is eager to grow alongside the company. If a candidate doesn’t demonstrate an interest in such dynamics or expresses a negative attitude toward overtime, it’s better to be honest. Let them know that overtime may occasionally occur and that your expectations don’t align with their preferences for work. This ensures that neither party ends up in an uncomfortable position.

Of course, this type of feedback is subjective. However, it is honest and encourages dialogue.

Sometimes, a candidate may simply have been misunderstood during the interview. Providing feedback allows them to clarify the interviewer’s impressions.”

Rejecting a candidate based on cultural fit or work approaches is a standard approach. However, avoiding hasty conclusions about a candidate’s values or making unnecessary judgments is crucial. A tactful rejection might look like this: “After careful consideration, we’ve decided not to proceed with your application. Your approach to team-building and processes doesn’t fully align with our expectations for this role. We are looking for someone who is more interested in fostering team rituals, participating in team-building activities, and addressing bus-factor risks.”

Writing feedback: examples of feedback after interview and in other stages

High-quality feedback to candidates contains not only an update, a decision to continue or cease communication on a vacancy but also the reasons for all the above. Even in cases of rejection, companies should invest time in providing comprehensive feedback.

Start by summarizing the internal interview results. For example:

Strengths: Understanding of traditional networking technologies; experience with Azure.
Weaknesses: No experience with Kubernetes or Cloudflare; unwilling to learn new cloud technologies.
Conclusion: The candidate is not an ideal match for the role, as Kubernetes expertise is critical for this position.

Next, decide how best to present this information to the candidate. Using ready-made feedback schemes and templates can help.

The “Sandwich” method

This approach involves delivering feedback based on a scheme that balances positives and negatives: The letter is written according to a script:

Start with strengths and highlight the candidate’s positive attributes.
Introduce areas for improvement with polite “buts”.
End with motivation, such as noting that you enjoyed speaking with the candidate.

See more details

The DAKI scheme

DAKI stands for Drop, Add, Keep, and Improve. When using this method, your feedback should outline which skills or behaviors fall into each category.

Here’s an example of feedback structured using the DAKI Scheme:

Keep: An understanding of traditional networking technologies.
Add: Hands-on experience with Kubernetes.
Drop: Negative attitude toward cloud technologies.
Improve: Process automation skills.

This approach can provide clear, actionable insights that can complement a decision to reject or invite a candidate to join your team.

The CAS (Criticize-Ask-Suggest) model

This method combines constructive criticism, questions, and suggestions. It’s especially useful when you can offer the candidate alternative opportunities.

For example: “Unfortunately, for this position, we’re looking for someone with more extensive Kubernetes experience. Are you open to considering other opportunities? I’d be happy to send you a job description for a Network Engineer role that might be a better fit.”

Providing feedback between recruitment stages and handling delays

The recruiter should stay in touch with the candidate throughout the process. Below are examples of organizational messages that help keep candidates informed and engaged:

“I’ve forwarded your resume and technical responses to the IT specialists for review. I’ll update you as soon as I receive their feedback.”
“The interview process includes three stages: 1) technical, 2) managerial, and 3) a team introduction. You are invited to the first stage, which will be conducted by the team lead in English via Google Meet and will take about an hour. When would be a convenient time for you?”
“How did the interview go? What were your impressions? I’ll receive feedback from the interviewers within 2–3 days. As soon as I have it, I’ll let you know.”
“We’re in the middle of a release, and the technical team is fully occupied. However, interviews are scheduled to start in about two weeks. Would you be able to wait until then?”

If detailed feedback isn’t immediately available — for example, if the hiring manager is on leave or the interview hasn’t taken place yet — it’s crucial for recruiters to perform regular syncs or check-ins with the candidate. Recruiters in outsourcing or outstaffing roles often face unique challenges, such as sudden process holds or client decisions to reject candidates without detailed explanations. In these cases, it’s better to be transparent with candidates, apologize for the situation, and, if possible, provide insight into what the hiring manager typically values. This can help candidates understand what might have influenced the negative decision.

Pro Tip: Even the lack of feedback is a form of feedback. Adopting this mindset can encourage candidates to return for future opportunities and inspire them to recommend your company to friends and colleagues.

How recruiters can foster a culture of quality feedback in their teams: practical tips

According to Indeed statistics, the average time it takes to provide feedback after an online meeting or in-person interview is 28 business days. However, agreeing on an email response within 2–5 days is common practice. To achieve these standards and deliver meaningful feedback, recruiters should actively cultivate a feedback-friendly culture within their teams.

It’s essential to align expectations with technical specialists early on:

Create a timeline for providing feedback, such as within 1–2 days after a test task. If delays are expected, ensure candidates are informed in advance.
Decide on a feedback structure. Create a universal feedback format. For example, outline each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses or evaluate specific skills based on predefined criteria. A structured table comparing candidates on key skills can streamline this process.
Choose where and how candidate feedback will be managed. Whether managers are given access to the ATS or feedback is provided in a table or separate chats on the vacancy/candidate.

How to motivate the team to follow feedback rules? Encourage adherence to feedback guidelines by emphasizing their value. Follow the principle of data-driven recruiting: prepare analytics on how many candidates “drop out” due to a long waiting period and what reputational risks this causes for the company.

To streamline the hiring process, prepare a standardized list of questions or topics you want candidates to answer. The interviewing team can evaluate each item on a five-score scale: knowledge of databases, Java Core, Spring Boot, etc. This will greatly speed up the decision-making process and writing feedback to candidates and make the assessment more objective. The scoring approach also helps to determine the grades in IT: perhaps the candidate does not reach the senior level, but you can offer them a similar position with Middle level requirement.

Scorecards — tables that compile candidate evaluations — are handy when hiring for roles with similar skill sets (e.g., middle Java developers).

See more details

Final Recommendations: Make high-quality feedback a mandatory rule. Avoid reviewing new candidates until decisions have been made for those already interviewed. Synchronizing these processes benefits candidates and hiring managers in your team. They will appreciate it.