Why You Should Consider Being Politely Rude When Rejecting Potential Employees

At the end of the day, hiring is a numbers game. You need to have a high volume of applicants if you want to have any chance at finding the right person for your company. But that doesn't mean you should accept every candidate that applies. Sometimes, even if they're qualified or a good fit for your culture, it's better off if they don't join your team because hiring someone who isn't passionate about what they do can cause problems down the road - and cost time and money in hiring fees (not to mention bad morale).

You should reject someone promptly.

As a hiring manager, you should reject job candidates promptly. This is not because they're failures; it's because they're humans.

Hiring is an inherently personal process, and rejection can feel like a personal affront to the candidate. You can't afford to let the candidate stew in their feelings of failure and shame for very long - if you do, they may become bitter or angry about your company's decision, which will make it harder for them to accept future employment offers from other companies (and thus hurt your business).

In addition to ensuring that an offer isn't made after too long of a wait period (which could lead to bad press), rejecting someone promptly also allows them time to understand where things went wrong so that they can improve themselves professionally and move on with their lives more quickly than if they'd been left hanging indefinitely by a recruiter who wasn't sure what he wanted out of life yet but would get back in touch once he figured it out - even though this has never happened before and your company really needs someone now.

Try not to make promises.

Don't make promises you can't keep.

It's easy to get caught up in the moment and get excited about a potential hire, but don't offer information that isn't true. If you're not sure if someone will be back for a second interview, don't say they will - just tell them "I'll let you know." Similarly, be wary of saying things like "We'll follow up next week" when what you mean is more like "we're currently looking at other candidates." This can come across as disingenuous or dishonest.

Send a polite rejection email.

To send a polite rejection email, follow these steps:

• Be polite. Don't ignore the person. If you reject them, they might be wondering why and it's your job to tell them. Remember that even if they don't get the job, they might still be your future employee one day; you never know who might have been referred by someone else in the meantime!
• Don't be rude or use a template rejection email (unless of course it's a template rejection email sent by someone else). And don't make promises that you can't keep - like saying "We'll definitely be in touch if anything opens up," when there isn't anyone on staff who can hire this person yet!

If you're hiring, don't ghost job candidates because it's the right thing to do.

If you're hiring and you decide not to hire someone, don't leave them hanging.

It's easy to forget that hiring isn't just about the candidate - it's also about the candidate's time, which they've taken out of their busy day to interview with you and for which they probably spent money on travel or childcare. They've already invested a lot in this process, so don't make them invest any more than is necessary by stringing them along and then rejecting them last minute. If someone doesn't make it past your first interview round, let them know quickly: "Thank you so much for coming in today," said with sincerity as soon as possible after said person has left your office will be a much better way of letting them down than ignoring their emails (which I've done).

People often think "I'm not going to respond because she'll take it as an insult." I'd argue that the insulting thing here is leaving someone hanging for weeks without giving any indication whatsoever whether or not we're interested in hiring her; who knows what she's thinking? Did she promise another job? Did she have some other reason not to respond? Were there no jobs available at all? You don't know why she hasn't responded yet - but trust me when I say that if she hasn't gotten back yet, chances are very good that something happened during her interview or in her life altogether that prevented her from doing so (and might prevent her from responding even now).

Conclusion

There's no reason to be a jerk when rejecting someone. Be polite and honest, but most importantly, be quick. If you're a hiring manager who doesn't want to just ghost job candidates because it's the right thing to do, try following these tips!

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