Hiring Managers – Accept you have a responsibility

Being asked to put time into and present a task seems commonplace in many interview processes nowadays within the Digital Marketing world.

It’s a great way for companies to not only truly see how a candidate thinks, but also to see through those who are able to talk a good game, yet can actually deliver very little.

By way of a side product, it also acts as a great way for companies to really test a candidate’s true interest and commitment for the company and role in question.

Over the years I’ve had many candidates that I’ve represented send me their finished version the day of or day before to get across to the client for them to review pre-interview.

And on the whole, I must say, 90% of those candidates absolutely impress me with what they can get together in such a short space of time.

Given the fact that the majority are also still working their day jobs, are looking at other roles, and at the end of the day have lives to live.

However, with this stage becoming so normal, hiring managers need to remember they have a huge responsibility at the other end.

Yes, we all know that on most occasions only 1 hire will be made and if there are 3-5 candidates in the process, this could mean there are 4 people who don’t succeed.

After putting in so much time and effort this can be demoralising for those candidates, but the disappointing feeling can be alleviated by hiring managers who provide them with ADEQUATE feedback.

If these candidates are putting in 2-3+ hours’ worth of work PLUS taking time out to come in for further interviews, hiring managers MUST remember they have a duty to take the time necessary to fully explain what they did wrong and how they can improve next time.

I see many hiring managers give very brief rejection feedback which is understandable IF you’re at the 1st stage and not much time has been invested by either party, but get someone to create something they’re proud to put their name on and time MUST be allocated in explaining why they weren’t right.

Failure to do so could end up in poor reviews on sites such as Glassdoor and general word of mouth. The Digital Marketing world is a pretty small one, so don’t create problems for future hiring by not taking feedback seriously.

Ask a candidate to create a presentation and make sure you as a hiring manager accept the responsibility of providing detailed feedback afterwards.