Selection Assessment Feedback and the Corporate White Lie

During the last 30 years, we have assessed over 8,000 people for jobs, mainly for professional roles, and from mid-management to the CEO.

As they should, clients ask us to make recommendations to hire or not to hire after weighing assessed strengths and weaknesses against the demands of the role, and cultural fit as well. Certainly, we urge clients to consider all aspects of the screening process including their interviews, references and background checks, and education and experience.

For ethical reasons, we believe that once the hiring decision is made, candidates should get a meaningful assessment feedback upon request whether or not they are hired. Candidates can put as much as 5-plus hours into the assessment, so we believe they should get honest closure if they want it. The vast majority of our clients agree and are willing to pay for the feedback time. They also see the feedback as a way to lessen legal risks, and to max their good will and reputation.

Interestingly, only 5% of assessed candidates request a feedback whether or not they are offered the job.

Often, companies will give candidates no real or useful information on why they were not selected. For example, “the job is on hold” or “someone came through with preferred experience that you don’t have.” In some cases, candidates get ignored and never learn anything that might help them in their careers.

Now, we are aware that companies associate frank answers with legal exposure. And, just as frankly, we have discouraged client companies from divulging assessment findings because they don’t typically do it very effectively.

While we do not disclose specific, client observations or proprietary information, we can give candidates a clear sense of how they impacted us and the career implications of their standard assessment data as well.

Assessment insights can help candidates move forward more effectively with their job searches, engender a sense of confidence and self-acceptance regarding strengths, and sensitize them to potential blind spots that can derail their effectiveness and careers.

So, we strongly recommend that job candidates going through assessment ask if they can get feedback whether or not they get offered the position. If they can, it is definitely best to take advantage of it!

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Dr. Mickey Fineberg is the Managing Partner of Delta Consultants, a business psychology firm based in King of Prussia, PA. Dr. Mickey has been assessing job candidates at all levels for 30 years, His clients are diverse public, PE and family businesses ranging from $10M to $1.5B in sales.

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