Collecting feedback from your hiring team is critical to making a good selection. But it can be challenge to compile and collect the feedback from each decision make. In this article, we’ll go over best practices for collecting feedback, and how to make the most of it.
What is a Hiring Team or Hiring Committee?
The hiring team includes everyone responsible for any part of the hiring process. In a very small org, it may be the hiring manager and business owner. In a larger company, it may include ten or more. This might include the hiring manager, director to which the hiring manager reports, and some members of the new hire’s team.
The hiring manager leads the hiring team. This is the person who requests to fill the position. Requesting a position is called a job requisition. It’s helpful to create a formal job requisition process.
Why is Having a Hiring Team or Hiring Committee Beneficial?
Companies that involve more than one decision maker have better hiring outcomes. Because each decision maker has a unique perspective, a collective evaluation is multi-dimensional. When several people in various roles participate in evaluating candidates, your process is more comprehensive.
A group decision is especially important for determining whether the applicant will work well with your team. Consider a scenario where the new hire will work closely with other team members but have less frequent contact with the manager. In this type of structure, it’s important that those who will work directly with the new hire evaluate the candidate.
You have to be careful when evaluating cultural fit, however. If members of the hiring committee use age, gender, or ethnicity in their decision, you’ll have difficulty building a diverse team–and increase the risk of a discrimination challenge. Decision makers should limit their evaluation to characteristics that aren’t discriminatory.
When assembling a hiring team, consider including people in your company who have a proven track record of picking winners.
The Challenges of Collecting Hiring Team Feedback
Once you’ve assembled your team, you can’t expect the process to work if you don’t standardize it. Unstructured evaluation processes are absurdly ineffective and inefficient. An unstructured process includes the following pitfalls:
Conversations dispersed among channels: face-to-face discussions, emails, texts, phone calls, inter-company apps like Slack
Failing to document hiring team collaboration: none of the evaluators has access to all evaluation discussions
No formal scoring system: each member of the team uses a different yardstick for evaluation, or none at all
Team members waste time duplicating processes: when the hiring manager fails to assign tasks like background and reference checking, assessments, interview scheduling, etc.
Losing track of applications: if the applicant database isn’t centralized, you can lose great candidates
Poor hiring outcomes: a haphazard system doesn’t take advantage of each evaluator’s unique expertise which downgrades the process
What is a Structured Feedback Process?
A structured process encompasses both administration and evaluation. Let’s look at each.
Hiring Workflows
A structured administrative process is also called a hiring workflow. The best practice here is for the talent acquisition or HR manager to design a hiring committee process. First, they identify necessary tasks. Secondly, each task is assigned to the appropriate member of the team. For example, the HR manager might contact references and the hiring manager maintains the interview calendar. Furthermore, there is a formal process for communication. For instance, some teams require all communication done through a group email sent to all decision makers.
In addition to electronic collaboration, make sure you have frequent in-person meetings to keep the process on track. The hiring manager can keep everyone updated on the process and remind members of any overdue tasks. Of course, in-person meetings are a challenge for remote teams, but at least hold meetings by video so the process isn’t completely asynchronous.
Hiring Stages
Identifying hiring stages allows the team to track each applicant’s status. This speeds up the process and prevents bottlenecks. Create folders (electronic or paper-based) to track applications–Schedule Phone Screen, Schedule First Round of Interviews, Do Not Pursue, Check References, Waiting for Background Check, etc.
Reducing time to fill improves the quality of talent for the simple fact that it is less likely the top candidates will be snapped up by a competing employer with a faster process.
Structured Evaluation
In addition–and this is super important–you use interview scorecards to rate candidates. Formalized evaluation combined with an efficient workflow gives you hiring superpowers. An interview scorecard addresses each necessary hard and soft skill required for the job. The evaluator assigns points based on how well the candidate meets the requirement. The scorecard can also address nice-to-have skills by using a lower point value.
The hiring manager should require decision makers to complete the scorecard during the interview or shortly thereafter. Then compare candidates by score.
Here is an example of a section of an interview scorecard:
The Benefits of a Structured Feedback Process
When you combine a great team with a structured process, you increase your odds of finding superstars. You can standardize everything–from team communication to candidate scoring. Let’s review the benefits of a structured process:
Helps each evaluator consider each skill and characteristic
Is faster because members of the team follow a checklist
Helps prevent bias because evaluators use a scorecard based on the job requirements
Standardized communication keeps everyone in the loop
Helps differentiate applicants with similar qualifications
ApplicantStack Automates Collecting Hiring Team Feedback
ApplicantStack is an affordable applicant tracking system for small to mid-size businesses. It automates the entire process, but in this article, we will only discuss collecting team feedback. In ApplicantStack, the hiring manager can create scorecards and send one to each hiring committee member. The scorecard also contains links to the candidate’s resume and completed application screening questionnaire.
ApplicantStack Calculates an Average Rating for Fast and Easy Comparison
As mentioned previously, each member of the hiring team completes the form during or after the interview. Then—voila!—ApplicantStack combines the forms and calculates an average rating.
When each applicant has a consolidated rating, it’s easy to compare candidates. The process is also less likely to be influenced by unconscious bias.
Auto Reminders Reduce Hiring Delays
Do you have a team member who habitually forgets to send interviewing feedback? ApplicantStack helps with that as well. If someone forgets to turn in their evaluation form, ApplicantStack nudges them with a reminder email. This takes the pressure off the hiring manager. (They won’t miss the awkward conversations.)
Centralized Applicant Management
The evaluation forms and candidate ratings are stored and managed in ApplicantStack. Forget printing evaluation forms. And nobody has to maintain applicant files or log ratings into spreadsheets.
Let’s recap the benefits of using ApplicantStack to collect hiring team feedback:
Electronic evaluation forms are stored and managed in the system
Create custom scoring criteria for each job posting
Team members rate candidates with the same scoring criteria
The evaluation form links to the applicant’s resume and questionnaire
ApplicantStack calculates an average rating from the collective scores
Easily compare candidates with formalized scoring criteria
This article is part of our hiring guide for small businesses.
Once you’ve made your hiring decision, it’s time to extend a job offer! Keep in mind, however, that the deal is not done until the offer is accepted.Let’s discuss the final step in bringing on that perfect new team member.
What is a Job Offer and What Does it Include?
Let’s recap where we are in the hiring process. First, we created a job description and posted it to job boards. Secondly, when the applicants started flowing in, they self-filtered with a questionnaire that contained elimination questions. Thirdly, when the process isolated a pool of qualified candidates, we started reviewing applications and resumes. Fourth, we performed phone screens to determine which applicants to interview. Fifth, we we conducted interviews. Seventh, we made our selection for the top candidate. Lastly, we are ready to offer the job.
There are three main components in the job offer process:
Creating the offer letter
Communicating the offer to the applicant via phone call and email
Receiving their acceptance (hopefully!)
Don’t Delay!
It’s important to remember, however, that when you’ve made a selection, the clock is ticking! If possible, telephone the same day they complete their final interview. Never forget that you have competition. Now that you have identified this person as the ideal candidate, you can be certain others have as well. In fact, the applicant could be waiting for job offers from several of your competitors.
How to Make a Job Offer Telephone Call
Before you write a script for the phone call, confirm a timeline such as start date. Include all pertinent information even if it seems unnecessary. Indeed, repetition prevents misunderstandings. Let’s review some pointers for the job offer phone call:
Be excited! You want your new hire to feel your enthusiasm.
Clearly tell them that you are formally extending the offer and explain:
Start date
Job title
Compensation
Contingencies if necessary (background check, drug screening, reference check, I-9 verification)
Ideally, you have already completed these, but you may be waiting for a background check service to complete their investigation or references to get back with you and don’t want to delay any longer.
Ask if they can accept over the phone
Notify them that you are sending an email with the formal job offer letter
Ask them if they have any questions and answer them thoroughly
What Do You Include In a Job Offer Letter?
After the phone call, send the offer letter email. Note that the job offer letter initiates the employer-employee relationship. Therefore, it must be a comprehensive document similar to a legal contract.
These are the basic elements in an offer letter, but your business may require additional information:
Position/Title
Name/Position of Supervisor
Reporting Structure
Work Schedule/Location
Full-time or part-time
General work hours
Shift, if applicable
Hybrid or remote work
Employee Type
Overtime exempt/nonexempt
Job Duties
Base Salary/Wage
Equity, if applicable
Bonuses/Commissions
Wage Disclaimers, if applicable
Benefits and Eligibility
At-Will Employment
Job Offer Letter Template
[YOUR NAME, ADDRESS, COMPANY, DATE)
[CANDIDATE NAME, ADDRESS]
Dear [CANDIDATE NAME],
[Company name] is delighted to offer you the [full-time, part-time, etc.] position of [job title] with an anticipated start date of [start date], contingent upon [background check, drug screening, etc.].
As the [job title], you will be responsible for [brief mention of job responsibilities and expectations].
You will report directly to [manager/supervisor name and title] at [workplace location]. Working hours are from [hours of day, days of week].
The starting salary for this position is [dollar amount] per [hour, year, etc.]. Payment is on a [weekly, biweekly, monthly, etc.] basis by [direct deposit, check, etc.], starting on [date of first pay period]. In addition, you will be eligible to receive [discuss additional compensation potential].
[Company name] offers a comprehensive benefits program, which includes [medical insurance, 401(k), paid time off, etc.].
Your employment with [company name] will be on an at-will basis, which means you and the company are free to terminate employment at any time, with or without cause or advance notice. This letter is not a contract indicating employment terms or duration.
Please confirm your acceptance of this offer by signing and returning this letter by [offer expiration date].
Here is letter for a job offer that is contingent on unfinished processes.
Dear Kimberly
It’s our pleasure to offer you the position of ICBM Propulsion Equipment Specialist, which is a full-time exempt position. The starting salary is $85,000 with a start date of August 1, 2022. This job offer is conditional upon a drug screening performed by an outside service. This conditional offer is valid until July 5, 2022.
Please complete the test before July 1, 2022. We’ve attached instructions for scheduling and completing the test.
If you agree to the terms of this job offer, please sign below and return this letter by June 5, 2022. If you accept this offer, we will contact you when we receive the screening results.
Depending on the position, you may need additional documents. For example, confidentiality and noncompete agreements. In addition, you may need invention assignment and intellectual property terms.
Rejection Letters for the Finalists
Of course, when your candidate accepts, you’ll need to let the other finalists know that they have been eliminated. Make sure you give these letters as much thought as the offer letter. After all, the applicants who make it to this stage are high performers that are interested in working for your org. Plus, they have spent time in interviews and taking assessments. Therefore, end the process on a positive note so they’ll be more likely to apply for future positions.
Rejection Letter Example
Date
Name of Applicant
Applicant’s Address
City, State, Zip Code
Dear (Applicant’s Name):
Thank you for your application for the position of shipping coordinator at DLT Industries. As you can imagine, we received a large number of applications. I am sorry to inform you that you have not been selected for an interview for this position.
The DLT selection committee thanks you for the time you invested in applying for the shipping coordinator position. We encourage you to apply for future openings for which you qualify.
Best wishes for a successful job search. Thank you, again, for your interest in our company.
Best,
Real Person’s Name and Signature
Example: HR Director for the DLT Employee Selection Team
Your ideal candidate has accepted your job offer. Hooray! You can’t rest, however. It’s time to maintain their enthusiasm with great onboarding. We discuss onboarding in detail here: The Onboarding Process–Steps and Checklist.
ApplicantStack Offer Letter Templates
Fortunately, there is easy to use software that automates the job offer process. ApplicantStack allows you to build templates for all types of candidate communications. Creating an offer letter template in your ApplicantStack document library is easy. Add as many merge fields as needed. A merge field imports information you have recorded elsewhere–candidate’s name, address and job description, for example.
The candidate will receive an email including the offer letter and can sign the acceptance electronically. The offer letter will then be available in the candidate profile record.
The Benefits of Using ApplicantStack For Extending Job Offers
Create offer letter templates for each position—you will always be ready to extend an offer
Merge fields in letter templates allow you to import information stored in the system
Brand your offer letter with your company logo and colors to reflect your company brand
Electronic signature allows your perfect candidate to accept the offer upon receipt of the email
Improve Recruiting to Find Better Hires in a Tight Labor Market
If you have a slow hiring process, you are at an extreme disadvantage. When you can’t find qualified people, you can’t implement your business goals. This is an unnecessary obstacle to success. Even in a competitive hiring landscape, there are growth opportunities! To take advantage of these opportunities, you need the right people to execute your vision.
ApplicantStack Was Created by Human Resources Professionals Using Best Practices
ApplicantStack hiring software was created in 2007 by recruiting professionals. Since its launch, the ApplicantStack team has continually improved the platform, adding dozens of features in the process. In-application texting, for instance.
ApplicantStack makes it easy to use best practices to find quality employees in a timely manner. Regardless of the size of your company, you can follow our step-by-step How to Hire Your Next Employee guide. After all, there is no reason to reinvent the wheel when it comes to recruiting workflows.
Brand New Employer?
If you are a start-up, congratulations! Take the time to incorporate recruiting best practices from your first round of hiring. That way, you will start out strong and build effective hiring workflows that will serve you for years to come. Plus, your hiring team will never become burned out with tedious manual processes.
Do You Have a Recruiting Mess on Your Hands?
On the flip side, however, If your hiring process is in trouble—no problem. Follow our guide to revamp your recruiting system. With the right software (ApplicantStack, of course!) it won’t take long to identify and remove process bottlenecks. Your hiring team will also appreciate using the best hiring tools for their critical job roles.
ApplicantStack Helps You Create an Applicant-Centric Hiring Process
Job boards are websites that typically serve as search engines for jobs. They allow employers to post open positions, and they allow individuals to review the postings and apply for jobs. Some job boards specialize in specific industries, regions, or roles. Others have a breadth of postings from many different industries. Still others also serve as social platforms where individuals can build networks of business contacts and share their work histories.
Examples of job boards
There are more than 25,000 web sites that list employment opportunities. There are a few well-known sites like LinkedIn, Indeed and Monster. Other niche sites may be especially popular in your industry or for the position you seek to fill.
How do job boards help businesses fill job openings?
By targeting job postings to the collection of boards that best match your ideal candidate, you can increase the breadth and depth of the talent pool you reach. You can also actively recruit from many job boards, to identify the individuals you want to apply for your open positions.
How do I post a job to a job board?
Job boards usually have a process for you to manually upload a job posting, whether free or paid. However, this can become cumbersome when posting to multiple boards. Fortunately, applicant tracking systems (ATS) make it easy for you to post to many job boards simultaneously.
Which job board is best for my business?
To streamline your recruiting efforts, start by identifying which job boards target your industry, the skills required for each job posting, geography and more. Better yet, use a service like JobTarget, which aggregates your data across all of your job ads and all of your publishers. With reporting you will be able to understand how effective each job site works for each job opening. You’ll be able to compare data across all of your activities. And ultimately, you’ll be able to make more informed decisions about how to recruit.
Is there an easier way to post to multiple job boards?
Yes. Utilize your applicant tracking system to connect to multiple job boards simultaneously, including aggregators like JobTarget. You can find niche and specialty websites that are the most effective for reaching the right audience for each job opening.
How do recruiters use job boards?
When certain jobs are posted, you will need to hunt for the ideal candidate. Using an applicant tracking system and an aggregator allows your company to use technology to search the dispersed resume banks and create networks of recruiters, on-call, and ready to work your jobs for you.
A manual candidate screening process make hiring harder than it needs to be. Fortunately, it’s not difficult to create a formalized process. Does your candidate screening process affect quality of hire? Absolutely!
What Are the Challenges of Manual Candidate Screening?
Before we dive into the details of formalized screening, let’s explain why manual screening will stymie talent acquisition.
The Problems With Manual Candidate Screening
No way to compare one applicant from another
If you don’t have a screening process and resources, it’s difficult to compare candidates. This is one of the easiest ways to let bias creep into your process.
Inability to identify a pool of qualified candidates quickly
You don’t have time to engage with everyone (especially those without minimum qualification), so you need to isolate the cream of the crop. Application questionnaires are a great automated pre employment screening tool. When candidates apply, they self-filter by taking a carefully-designed questionnaire based on the job description and each necessary skill.
Difficulty keeping track of multiple job boards and sources
If you promote your job well, applications will flow in from many sites–careers page, social media, job boards, employee referrals and internal job seekers, outside agencies. if you don’t set up a process for organization, you may lose track of some great applicants.
No tool for tracking applicant stages
A candidate screening process is essentially a workflow that includes stages. These may include Application Received, Resume Review, Do Not Pursue, Phone Interview Complete, Pending Live Interview, etc. With no workflow, you have no hiring stages, and this will make it hard to know the status of each job seeker. To screen candidates efficiently, build a workflow based on your needs.
Inability to filter out unqualified candidates
In today’s competitive hiring environment, you and your Human Resource team are in a race against time–spending precious hours engaging with unqualified applicants leaves less time for the top job candidate. Screening candidates automatically during the first pass gives you a head start. Using a formalized method for phone screen and interviews keep you on track.
EEOC compliance risks
If you can’t document a fair evaluation process, you are at risk of an EEOC challenge if a rejected job seeker suspects bias. In a way, this is a self-fulfilling disadvantage. Without a formal screening method, you ARE more likely to have a biased process. Consider, for example, if your hiring manager uses a ‘gut feeling’ to judge which applicant is a qualified candidate.
Difficulty collaborating with the hiring team
If each decision maker is using their own evaluation criteria for screening resumes or interviews, there is no way to tell which candidates are the most promising. In addition, as mentioned previously, this puts you at risk of bias, or at least the perception of bias. A disorganized team can’t identify a suitable candidate if they don’t even have a common benchmark.
What is Prescreening?
Now, let’s discuss the components of candidate screening. The first step is prescreening. This refers to evaluation that happens before any communication from the hiring team. As mentioned previously, this step can easily be automated. Using the job description, create a questionnaire that candidates will complete when they apply. Include elimination questions that filter out those who don’t meet the minimum qualifications.
Should you review resumes as part of the prescreening process? It will depend on the open position. If you are hiring for an entry-level opening, the questionnaire may suffice. Furthermore, if you are hiring for a high level position with relatively few applicants, you may want to take a look at the resumes. An applicant tracking system ATS can help you organize resumes and applications. Remember, however, not to base your decision solely on resumes–unless you are hiring a resume writer.
ATS search functions can help with resume review. Suppose you have 100 applicants and want to identify those with particular skills. Use keyword and boolean queries to zero in on your applicant pool.
Social Media Screening
Should you look at applicants’ social media sites? There isn’t a consensus among talent acquisition specialists. However, many employment law experts counsel waiting until after interviews if you insist on doing a social screening. A review of a candidate’s social media will reveal demographic information which shouldn’t be used in the hiring decision. If a rejected candidate accuses you of bias, you will have an easier time defending your decision if you interviewed all the top candidates–including those from underrepresented groups. For more protection, don’t have a decision maker do the social review. Bottom line, seek legal counsel to design a policy.
The First Screening Interview
Most hiring teams do the first interview as a phone call. The purpose of this interview is to isolate the group of candidates to move to the next step. For example, verify the skills and qualifications listed on the candidate’s resume. It’s also an ideal method to evaluate communication skills.
Useful questions for the phone screen include:
Tell me about yourself.
Why are you applying for this job?
Why are you leaving your current position?
What are your salary requirements?
(For jobs that require travel) Are you willing to travel?
What type of work environment are you looking for?
Notice that you can eliminate even high quality candidates if their salary expectations don’t match up or if they don’t want to travel and the position requires it.
Additional Screening
Every company has different hiring needs. Some do verification of the candidate before the first interview. These may include:
Calling of references
Background checks
Credit history checks
Education credentials
Prior work performance
How do you know which screens to perform before the interview? Review previous hiring experiences. If a relatively high percentage of previous candidates have failed the background screen, move that up in the process. It will save you time in the long run. If something in a job seeker’s application raises a red flag–say educational experience listed–check it out.
In-Person or Video Interview
At this stage, you should have a pool of great candidates: 1. They weren’t eliminated by the filtering questionnaire due to lack of qualifications, and, 2. They weren’t eliminated in the phone screen.
The best practice for all interviews is structured interviewing scripts. They allow you to compare candidates using the same yardstick and protect you legally.
Before we continue, let’s review where we are in the series:
Recruiting Software: Find & Attract Your Ideal Talent Faster and With Less Effort We know the process. We lived it during our years in HR. So, we created ApplicantStack Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software to mimic the processes you already follow, making...
![The Job Offer: The Offer Letter [with Templates]](https://www.applicantstack.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/offer-job.jpeg.webp)
