How to Get Consistent Interview Feedback from Hiring Managers

Getting consistent interview feedback from Hiring Managers can be as challenging as predicting the British weather. You assume you're on track, only to find their responses are inconsistent if they're there at all, leaving you without a clear direction on hiring decisions. Let's explore practical insights and strategies you can implement today to ensure your hiring team receives the reliable feedback it needs.

1. Understanding the Importance of Consistent Feedback

1.1 Why is consistent feedback necessary?

Consistent feedback ensures a unified hiring process, allowing you to make informed decisions. It also provides you and your team with clear insights into a candidate's strengths and weaknesses, the ability to ensure that all candidates are evaluated using the same standards, and helps to speed up decision-making by eliminating contradictory information.

1.2 The impact of inconsistent feedback on the hiring process

When feedback lacks consistency, your hiring process moves slowly and inefficiently. These discrepancies can cause delays, with the knock on consequences of:

• Lost talent - High-quality candidates may accept other offers due to indecision.

• HR bottlenecks - Additional resources and time are spent clarifying differences in feedback.

• Company reputation - An inefficient interview process can give candidates a negative impression of your organisation and affect your employer brand.

2. Strategies for Gathering Consistent Feedback

2.1 Establishing a standard feedback template

Implementing a standard feedback template such as a scorecard can significantly improve the consistency of interview feedback from Hiring Managers; a structured approach ensures that they evaluate every candidate on the same criteria, reducing bias and subjectivity.

When creating your template or scorecard, be sure to include key competencies relevant to the role, rating scales, and space for additional comments. For example, a portion of the template could include a five-point rating scale for skills like 'problem-solving', 'communication', and 'technical expertise'. Rollout feedback templates company wide by using tools such as Evidenced, to guarantee oversight on whether hiring teams are using them as intended.

Pro-tip: Make your feedback template flexible. Customise sections to fit specific roles while keeping the core attributes consistent across the board.

2.2 Implementing feedback training for hiring managers

Training Hiring Managers in effective feedback delivery is essential for achieving consistent and meaningful evaluations, as it can lead to improved recognition of bias, better question formulation, and more nuanced feedback.

Consider setting up workshops or webinars that cover foundational interview skills. For example, train managers on identifying competencies like leadership and adaptability, or recognising candidate behaviours that signal these attributes.

Incorporating real-time interview guidance can also be beneficial in that it ensures Hiring Managers don't forget about their training over time, helping to maintain the consistency of training application, leading to higher-quality feedback.

Pro-tip: Rotate interview skills training topics regularly to keep the learning process dynamic and reflective of evolving company needs.

2.3 Encouraging timely feedback submission

Procrastination in submitting interview feedback can massively hamper the recruitment process. Establish a timely submission policy to ensure feedback is fresh and accurate, and aim to have feedback submitted within 24-48 hours post-interview, but preferably immediately afterwards. This ensures details are still fresh in the minds of interviewers, providing more precise insights into the candidate’s performance.

You might also introduce automated reminders through your internal communications system to nudge managers towards timely submissions, or include embedded scorecards and feedback structure into the interview platform itself, as facilitated by Evidenced.

3. Overcoming Challenges in Feedback Collection

3.1 Addressing reluctance from hiring managers

Hiring Managers may hesitate to give clear feedback due to time constraints or the perception that it adds little value. Understanding their reluctance lets you tackle it head-on, so start by emphasising the impact that timely feedback has on recruitment efficiency and candidate experience. You should also try to:

• Simplify the process: Create a concise feedback form or scorecard that doesn't overload them with unnecessary questions. This can ease their burden.

• Set expectations: Clearly communicate how their feedback is crucial for evaluating candidates and refining your recruitment approach.

3.2 Ensuring quality in feedback

Achieving quality as well as quantity in feedback is essential for accuracy in candidate assessment. Begin by defining internally what constitutes high-quality feedback within your organisation, and then try to use:

• Clear examples: Share examples of good feedback versus vague responses as part of your training.

• Feedback templates: Introduce consistent templates that ensure pertinent aspects are reviewed and recorded.

• Interview transcription tools: Make sure that any key moments that may have been missed live can be assessed via interview transcripts.

You can also try incorporating peer reviews by facilitating a session where managers review each other’s feedback. This not only improves consistency but also fosters learning and contributes to a shared understanding of quality criteria.

3.3 Leveraging technology to streamline the feedback process

Technology offers a robust solution to streamline feedback collection. Embrace digital platforms designed for enhancing feedback workflows, reducing both time and effort. Examples of features include:

• Automated reminders: Use tools to send automatic reminders to managers for pending feedback.

• Centralised databases: Platforms centralise feedback and interviewer insights, making it easily accessible for HR, TA and other stakeholders.

• Embedded scorecards and interview frameworks: Tools such as Evidenced provide all the features necessary to get faster interview feedback company wide.

Pro-tip: Evaluate your current tools and see how integrating new technologies can solve time delays and data silos.

Ultimately, engagement, clear guidelines, and technological solutions form the bedrock of an effective feedback strategy. When utilised correctly, these methods ensure a more precise, efficient, and fruitful hiring process.

Discover how Evidenced can support your team in standardising interview feedback - explore our features here.