Rejection template for job applicants

Rejection template for job applicants

When your company selects the right candidates for the advertised job position, it is crucial that objective criteria is emphasised. It can, among other things, be education level, work experience, professional qualifications or personality.

You must not justify your refusal on the basis of gender, pregnancy, age, disability or ethnicity and it may cost your workplace compensation to the applicant if you reject a candidate on the basis of these illegal criteria. The size of the compensation may vary depending on the specific case.

It can be a difficult and timeconsuming process to reject candidates who have applied for your job advertisements. There are different scenarios for job rejection, e.g. rejection to applicants who have not been to an interview and rejection to applicants who have been to an interview. We will get into that in more detail in the next sections.

What do you write in a rejection letter to job applicants who have not been to an interview?

 

The applicants that you sift out before the job interview is held, must receive a rejection from your company. It can be a timeconsuming process depending on the position, which is why many organisations choose to send a standard written response that often does not justify the refusal further.

An example of such a standard message could be:

"Thank you for your application for *insert position*. We have received many responses for this position, and we have chosen to proceed with the profiles that we believe best suit our company. Unfortunately, we have chosen not to proceed with your application at this time.

We wish you the best of luck with your job search”

You can also include in the message that the candidate can keep an eye on future positions if it is relevant for your company.

You can use the following template if you want to politely decline an unsolicited application:

"Thank you for your application for *insert position*. We are not looking for candidates for this position at the moment, but we wish you the best of luck in your job search”

 

Alternativly, a good idea may also to ask for the applicants permission about retaining details one file due to the GDPR regulations. Its elaborated later on in this article.

What do you write in a refusal to the applicants who have been to a job interview?

It is permitted to give the applicants who have been to an interview a standard answer if you choose not to proceed with the candidates. However, it is recommended that you give personal feedback, e.g. verbally, even though it can be timeconsuming

Your reasons for refusal can be based on what you have emphasised in relation to the qualifications, abilities and work experience of the preferred applicant. The oral interview with the rejected applicant is also an opportunity to thank the candidate for their interest in the vacant job. In addition, you can advantageously highlight the positive elements from the job interview that the candidate can use for their next job interview.

This can contribute to the candidate - despite their disappointment - experiencing professional treatment in the recruitment process. If you would like to read more about the recruitment process, we have prepared an article which you can read here.

How long should an application be kept?

You should delete applications that your company does not choose to proceed with and are of no interest or relevance to the organisation, within six months at the latest. It is not required that you obtain consent from the applicant in this situation.

It is also possible to keep the candidate's application and CV if your company considers that the applicant is relevant for another position. However, this requires that the applicant has given consent. It is the Data Protection Act's requirement for consent that applies here.

In addition, your workplace can choose to keep the candidate's CV and application for later recruitment. However, it is recommended that you keep the information for a maximum of six months, unless there is a good reason to keep the information for a longer period of time. Here it is worth mentioning that you must in any case inform the candidate of how long you will keep the applicant's information.

Dansk Industri (common known as: DI), recommends that workplaces acquire the applicant's consent already during the recruitment process for the organisation to store the candidate's application and CV for six months. This is relevant if you want to be able to keep the information for later recruitment or to build a potential pipeline of talent.

We have also written an article that can make you more aware of the GDPR regulations.