What happens when a candidate is rejected via an application page?
One of the biggest benefits of the custom application page feature is that you can set questions which will automatically reject the candidate's application if they have not provided the correct answer. This is an optional feature, and the nature of the questions which will trigger this behaviour is entirely up to you.
But what happens inside idibu when this occurs, and what is the candidate experience?
In this article we will answer both questions, and guide you as to where you can make custom adaptations for that candidate experience.
(If you want to know more about how questions can be set up and configured for your application pages, then take a look at this article.)
What happens inside idibu
Although the candidate will be rejected for the vacancy, and not appear in the ATS system for further processing, there are a few key differences to the standard 'red traffic light' rejection workflow.
When a candidate appears in the ATS and is rejected using the red traffic light, they are not only rejected from the vacancy, but their details are also completely removed from idibu.
Because it is not possible to determine from any appliation page answer whether the candidate is unsuitable for other or future opportunities, we still upload them into idibu and retain a candidate record on file. We do still however mark them as rejected for that vacancy.
Let's break that down step by step in a workflow summary:
1. The candidate applies to the vacancy via the application page, and answers a multiple choice question with an answer set up to trigger their rejection at that stage.
2. The candidate appears inside the vacancy, but listed under the 'rejected' area of the ATS. Unlike the records which are deleted and removed via the red rejection button, we display their name details.
3. A full candidate record is simultaneously created and retained inside idibu. This will be:
a) Included in the results of any future local search queries that match the candidates experience
b) Searchable using the quick search feature
c) Fully visible inside the vacancy when ATS mode is switched off
In this view mode, if the record is accessed the status against their name will be marked as 'Rejected'. This will not be editable as with the other ATS statuses.
The candidate experience
The workflow above has many benefits to you as a recruiter, and will clearly save time by reducing the percentage of unsuitable applications you need to review.
But what about the candidate experience? Remember, just because they didn't meet the criteria for this role, doesn't mean they won't be suitable for an opportunity in the future. They also might still be willing to recommend other candidate from within your industry sector.
So for this and many other reasons, we know that creating a good candidate experience is vital.
We facilitate this as follows:
1. When the candidate completes their application, a new page opens and the following on-screen message appears.
2. You can also set up a custom URL for the candidate to be redirected to thereafter. For example, you might want to redirect them to the vacancy page on your website. This will happen automatically after 5 seconds, but we also give them a link to click if they wish to do so earlier.
3. An application rejection email is automatically triggered, and sent from the Candidate engagement suite. This is completely customisable, but the standard text reads as follows:
Customising your rejection email
1. Go to 'settings' and click on 'candidate engagement'
2. Scroll down to 'Landing page rejection'. Click on the blue title to open the message editor
3. At the bottom of the page you will see the 'write your message' block. Click 'edit' on the right hand side.
4. You can now edit the message text.
5. Remember once you have saved your changes to ensure that your message is activated:
The same rules apply here as when creating or editing any candidate engagement message, including the option to insert your own custom HTML.