My Employee Questioned My Change
Zack AllenOctober 5, 20262:27
A real 1-on-1 where someone on my team questioned a change I made to how we log candidate rejections, and why I want a concrete reason behind every rejection.
In a recent 1-on-1, someone on my team brought up a change I'd made to how we reject candidates. I'd updated the rejection reasons, and it was slowing them down. The reason that fit often wasn't on the list, so they'd pick "Other" and type it out.
Then they asked the right question: why did I put it there in the first place?
My first reaction was, great question. Question everything.
If "Other" is the answer every time, the list needs work
The first fix was simple. If they're typing "Other" on every rejection, I probably need to add a new rejection option. So the agreement was: send me a message saying, "Can you add this as a rejection reason?" or "Can you word this one differently?" and I'll change it.
Why a concrete reason matters
There were two reasons behind the change.
It makes the decision clear. I compared it to learning to fly. One of the things they teach you in flight school is to call out every action out loud. You lift off and say, "Gear up." Saying it makes your brain register why you're doing it. Logging a specific rejection reason does the same thing. It also gives me a clear view of what my team is seeing.
It gives us data to improve on. A month in, we'll have a solid picture of why people get rejected, and that becomes another point to iterate on.
For example, candidates already get a quick evaluation at the resume step. If we see most rejections come down to weak qualifications, we can tighten that resume step so fewer people make it to the pending stage in the first place.
Or say we notice people keep getting rejected for a bad camera. Right now the application warns you, or won't let you submit, if there's no audio. We could add the same kind of check for camera quality.
Why I like being questioned
The change only works if the team understands it. Being asked "why" made me explain the reasoning, and it surfaced a gap in the options I'd set up. Both of those make the system better.
Transcript
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Oh, oh, I noticed, the rejection reasons. You updated that. And what do you think that's I mean Well, honestly, it takes me like a lot longer to I mean not a lot longer, but like cuz you have to think of a reason. I mean there's always a reason, but not the exact one that's listed on there. And so you go to other and you have to type it. So it takes a little bit longer.
Okay.
But do you think it's um Like why did you put it there in the first place? I guess that's my first question.
Wonderful question, Danielle. Question everything. Question everything. So first off, I think that if the if you're needing to type other on every single one, maybe I need to add a new reject button. Why did I add it? First, I think it's good to just have a concrete reason in our head of like, this is why this person is being rejected. I think it just helps for my view of like what you're doing.
Um it's kind of like when I was learning to be a pilot and like was doing flight simulator and stuff, one of the things they teach you in flight school is like you have to call out every single thing that you're doing. It's like when you start going up in the air, you're like gear up. Yeah, exactly. So you say it so that your brain like recognizes why you're doing that. So I think that's a part of it.
I also think it'll be really helpful for us to gather data on that. Cuz like a month in, we'll have a pretty good idea of why people got rejected. And so that can just be another point of iteration for us to be like okay, how can we avoid, you know, if everyone is rejected because their qualifications are bad, how can we make our resume like cuz cuz people get denied at the resume step.
It does a quick evaluation at the resume step. And so maybe we need to make that better. And now it's like, cool, now we're getting less it it's just trying to figure out how we can get less people to make it to pending.
Better prompts basically for Okay, I see.
And it's like if we're seeing that everyone's getting denied because they have shitty camera let's add a better camera filter to like filter out because like right now we have it so that it filters like it doesn't let you submit or like warns you if you don't have any audio. Let's do one if it had they have shitty camera, too. You know, we could figure stuff out like that.
Okay. Okay, I see. Okay, that is a good that is a good. Okay, and I don't think it's worth it now. Um okay, then I guess I'll just send you like uh
Yeah, just be like, "Hey, could you add this as a reject option?"
Yes. Basically like
Word this one differently, you know, just like that. I'll I can just change it real quick.
