Following up on candidate feedback

Following up on candidate feedback is an essential part of your candidate experience. To help you get started, we’ve put together ready-to-use message examples. We’ve split the message templates into different parts:

Rejected candidates

• Unhappy rejected candidates (Detractors)
• Happy rejected candidates (Passives or Promoters)

Hired candidates

• Unhappy hired candidates (Detractors)
• Happy hired candidates (Passives or Promoters)

Anonymous candidates

• Messages to anonymous candidates

A few things to help you get started to follow up on feedback:

• Start each message with thanking the candidate for taking the time to give feedback (regardless of their NPS score)
• Personalize your message by adjusting each template based on the candidate’s scores and comments
• Appoint an owner who will keep track of incoming responses and is the recipient of firefight emails from Starred
• In case you have high feedback volume, only focus on your Detractors and candidates who have been in contact with someone on your recruitment team (i.e. exclude rejected after application feedback)

For a step-by-step guide on how to send messages in Starred, please see this support page.

Unhappy rejected candidates (Detractors)

Template for unhappy candidates without commentary
Hi [Name],

Thank you for providing us with your feedback. We’re very sorry to hear that you have a negative experience with [areas in the survey where the candidate gave low scores]. Would you please be able to provide details on how we failed to meet your expectations? We take your feedback very seriously and would love to learn more about your experience so we know how we can improve.

Many thanks in advance and I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavours!

Best,
[Name]

Template for unhappy candidates with commentary
Hi [Name],

Thank you for providing us with your feedback. We’re very sorry to hear that we failed to meet your expectations. I will share your feedback on [recap commentary of candidate] internally so we can continue to improve our candidate experience. If you have any additional feedback to share, please feel free to reach out. Once again, I’d like to thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. We really appreciate it.

I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavours!

Best,
[Name]

Template for unhappy candidates without commentary
Hi [Name],

Thank you for providing us with your feedback. We’re very sorry to hear that you have a negative experience with [areas in the survey where the candidate gave low scores]. Would you please be able to provide details on how we failed to meet your expectations? We take your feedback very seriously and would love to learn more about your experience so we know how we can improve.

Many thanks in advance and I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavours!

Best,
[Name]

Template for unhappy candidates with commentary
Hi [Name],

Thank you for providing us with your feedback. We’re very sorry to hear that we failed to meet your expectations. I will share your feedback on [recap commentary of candidate] internally so we can continue to improve our candidate experience. If you have any additional feedback to share, please feel free to reach out. Once again, I’d like to thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. We really appreciate it.

I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavours!

Best,
[Name]

Happy rejected candidates (Passives or Promoters)

Template for overall happy candidates without commentary
Hi [Name],

Thank you very much for providing us with your positive feedback on your experience with [Company name]! We’re thrilled to see the positive rating you’ve given us. Even though it was not a match this time, please keep an eye out on our jobs page [link to your jobs page] for future opportunities. I wish you all the best in your future endeavours!

Best,
[Name]

Template for overall happy candidates with (some) lower ratings
Hi [Name],

Thank you very much for providing us with your positive feedback on your experience with [Company name]! We really appreciate it. I noticed that you gave a lower score to [survey question]. Would you please be able to elaborate on what we could do to improve this aspect of our recruitment process? Your feedback will help us identify ways we can continue to improve our candidate experience.

Many thanks in advance and I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavours!

Best,
[Name]

Unhappy hired candidates (Detractors)

Template for unhappy candidates
Hi [Name],

First of all, congratulations on your new job at [Company name]! We look forward to welcoming you on board.

We’re very sorry to hear that you’ve had a negative experience with [areas in the survey where the candidate gave low scores]. We take feedback like yours very seriously as it will help us improve in delivering the best possible candidate experience.

Once again, thank you very much for taking the time to share your thoughts. We really appreciate it.

Best,
[Name]

Template for unhappy candidates with commentary
Hi [Name],

First of all, congratulations on your new job at [Company name]! We look forward to welcoming you on board.

We’re very sorry to hear that we failed to meet your expectations. I will share your feedback on [recap commentary of candidate] internally so that with your help we can ensure to deliver the best possible candidate experience. If you would like to share any other feedback on your experience, please feel free to reach out.

Once again, I’d like to thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. We really appreciate it.

Best,
[Name]

Happy hired candidates (Passives or Promoters)

Template for overall happy candidates
Hi [Name],

Thank you very much for providing us with your positive feedback and congratulations on your new job at [Company name]! We look forward to welcoming you on board. We’re happy to hear you’ve had a positive recruitment experience. In case you haven’t already done so, would you please spend a few minutes to leave a review about your interview experience on Glassdoor? [link to your Glassdoor page]

Many thanks in advance!

Best,
[Name]

Anonymous candidates

When sending messages to anonymous candidates you can use the same templates as above to start with. There will be two important edits to make:

• You’ll need to adjust the salutation from ‘Hi [Name]’ to an anonymous salutation like ‘Hi there’.

• You’ll need to add an extra sentence to explain the anonymity of the candidate:
  You’ve responded to our survey anonymously, meaning that we don’t know who you are. We’re able to send you this message while you remain anonymous. Please note: in case you respond to this message, you will no longer be anonymous as we will be able to see your name and email address.