Our industry is obsessed with the number of placements we make. (Of course. I have run a recruitment business all my life. I am most guilty)

Surely we need to apply equal attention to the number of people we do not place, and, more crucially, the treatment they get during that process?

This is not a new discussion, but how self-aware are we really?

Which industry disappoints a higher percentage of customers than ours?

What is your ‘rejection’ process?

I have trained thousands of recruiters on how to manage the recruitment process, influence the critical moments of truth, how to make an offer, and how to bed that offer down.

I don’t recall ever running a training session on empathetic candidate ‘rejection’. The let-down. The follow-up. The next steps.

That is a blemish.

Sure, I pontificate about looking after candidates and have done with sincerity for years. But was it embedded in the ethos and the system of the companies I ran?

Truthfully, even if I satisfy myself by saying we were ‘better than most’, the answer is ‘no‘, we did not work hard enough at ‘rejection‘ and ‘post-let-down management‘. Looking back, I regret that lack of care and focus. I should have done better than that.

You still can.

So, for you and your company, what documented manual or automation process do you have to ensure no one falls through the cracks?

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The successful candidate gets showered with love and attention, including flowers and a bottle of wine sometimes.

What about the also-ran shortlisted ones?

What about the ones who did not make the shortlist but still believe they might (because, you know, we kept them warm, on the bench, so to speak, in case our real shortlist fell through, right?)

What about the ones you dismissed at first resume read but who are home waiting for your call or email, because we never got around to communicating that to them (Terrible job, explaining to a keen candidate why they are not going forward. Right?)

Even if you ignore the basic manners and human kindness aspect of this (and you should not), the commercial reality of pissing off a high percentage of customers is a disaster.

Remember, even no news IS news to a candidate who is waiting…

And in tight talent times, this is key.

But it is when the wheel turns and candidates have fewer options, that they will remember the recruiters who looked after them!

So, now…..

You need to be a great recruiter, yes.

However, you must also be an empathetic, consistent and morale-building ‘rejecter.’

Because if truth be told, we are in the rejection business.

And classy rejection is a skill worth refining.

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