How can you give feedback to diverse candidates?

Sharing feedback is quintessential whether you are managing a team, or an Individual contributor or someone with decision making powers. Feedbacks should always go in an objective manner. The goal is to help build a positive outlook and that can only be highlighted if we are able to ascertain and pitch if it a skill gap, or if the individual needs to pick up a soft skill or could be simply furnishing the existing ones for a better output in current setup. The feedback could also be in relation to situation eg. an organizational change that is taking place and chances are the person has to only improvise or upskill due to that change and thus its very important to highlight things clearly and be descriptive about it. A consultative approach!

Sharing feedback is very important step, that is linked directly with your and organization's values and culture. 1) While sharing feedback, we need to be detailed and objective about their skills and performance. 2) Share the top performed and improvement required areas you found during your conversation, so that it is helpful for them to work on the weakness. 3) Share the feedback in either way (negative/positive). 4) Suggestion about the different ways to improve their skills for future interactions. 5) Hear the feedback or areas that he/she felt can be improved for better experience in future.

Context is important for both you and the candidate. When offering advice or feedback, it may be interpreted as placing yourself above the other person. Have you ever heard about mansplaining? If you are part of a majority and giving feedback to someone from an underrepresented group, you may unintentionally come across as belittling them. To avoid this, do not force feedback on anyone who has not asked for it. You can also ask for feedback first to demonstrate that you are also open to learning and that the conversation is between equals.

Being Neurodiverse myself, having ADHD. I would always approach it the same way if someone would speak to me. Communication is a massive thing for me, so tone, wording and how people approach me, could send me off the scale. So I am always precise from the start and understand how people want to be communicated with, so I can get this right everytime.

Following up is so important and can have a huge impact on any candidate, particularly diverse candidates. We will always provide feedback to candidates (and clients because this goes both ways!) And have some useful hints, tips, things to try, etc. ready to discuss. We schedule a follow-up and see what we can do to help them prepare for their next interview, whether it is some mock interview scenarios, run through some possible questions, practising answering questions, presentation preparation or anything else they feel they need to finetune. Some of our diverse candidates that struggle in interview situations, we encouraged them to make a small PDF presentation of their work/achievements/skills so they can talk through it at interview

In less direct cultures, the explicitness of feedback is often perceived as inappropriately blunt. If you are unsure how direct to be, pay attention to the candidate’s choice of words. People from direct cultures tend to use “upgrades” such as “absolutely,” “completely,” and “always.” On the other hand, people from less direct cultures tend to use “downgrades” like “a little,” “maybe,” “possibly,” and “just my opinion” to soften criticism. This can serve as a useful guideline for how they expect to receive feedback themselves.

Giving feedback to diverse candidates is not only essential but necessary. How so? Providing equality information on all scales based on the position at hand. Acknowledging and appreciating the applicant on their skills and in turn summarizing the needs of the company.