Difficult Conversations

One of the most difficult things for me to do is to let good candidates know that they did not get the job. I have already interviewed these candidates and I feel that they did very well and that they would be a good fit. Unfortunately for them, someone else did a better job during the interview process.  Most of the time, our HR department contacts the candidate and lets them know of our decision. It is not an easy job. 

In our district, our HR department communicates to all candidates our decision. First, I will give them the names of my top-choice candidate as well as a list of everyone that we interviewed for the position. The top-choice candidate will meet with the director of HR and the Superintendent of Schools for a short interview. The HR Director will then go through all of the contracts, benefits, tasks to be done, and check all requisite certifications, fingerprints, etc.. Then, if the top-choice candidate signs, the HR department will send out notifications to all of the other candidates to let them know that they did not get the job.

In certain cases, I feel that it is pertinent for me to contact the unsuccessful candidate personally. There are several reasons for this. In some cases, I already know the candidate through past work experiences or they might have been recommended by a colleague. I would rather tell these candidates then let them receive a form letter. In other cases, the candidate did so well, I wanted to personally let them know. In these cases, I will offer a recommendation on their behalf to any other institute that they are seeking employment. In two cases, I ended up hiring these “unsuccesful” candidates at a later date. I am confident that I would not have been able to hire them if I did not make the phone call letting them know of our original decision.

I never want to give bad news to good people, even when I believe that we have made the correct hiring decision. When I have in the past, I strongly believed that it was important for me to reach out and personally thank the candidate for their time and effort. I do not enjoy these phone calls, but it is the right thing for me to do.

Difficult conversations are never easy. It is important to decide when a difficult conversation is necessary and to take the actions (preparation) needed to have a productive conversation. Never sugar-coat your conversation, be honest, and never let the conversation go longer than needed. When you believe that you need to do the right thing, make sure that you do it well.

Every day is an Interview.