Justin Treagus, CEO, reflects on the value of giving job application feedback after hearing from two of OMEGA's skilled immigrants.
A skilled immigrant and OMEGA mentee recently spoke at an EEO Trust presentation, and highlighted the value of a rare piece of feedback he had managed to receive from a job interview. “Your answer to overcoming not having relevant New Zealand Labour law experience did not give me sufficient confidence that you’re able to hit the ground running" offered him the chance to reflect and reconsider his course of action – whether that be by improving his interview technique, studying, or reviewing the type of roles he applies for.
Another new Kiwi has applied for nearly 500 jobs in the last nine months without success. The standard reply is that "despite having some exceptional experience, in this instance, other applicants' skills were more closely aligned to the client's requirements and we cannot offer specific feedback on why your application has not progressed further". I have great empathy for the individual going through this without a real opportunity to learn from the process. No feedback despite 500 attempts is a very disappointing return especially when you consider his attempts to receive it.
Many organisations aspire to embed learning as a core organisational value and capability. They acknowledge the importance of collegial feedback as a learning tool, as it offers the hearer the opportunity to apply the successes and mistakes of today to improved performance tomorrow. The stories we are hearing from programme participants however, suggest a worrying trend; that this same approach is not being extended to our future workforce.
Higher application levels in the current economic climate play their part, and this is often the reason cited for not being able to provide individualised feedback. This acknowledged, having a skilled, professional applicant make the same job application mistake 500 times (simply out of job market, cultural or sector ignorance) is in none of our interests, given our small economy. As a nation known for our welcoming spirit, it’s also not our style, and certainly doesn’t fit with the type of brand most companies aim to build.
Feedback is a gift, and particularly so for professionals trying to enter the New Zealand labour market for the first time. It is said "you don’t know what you don’t know", and for newly arrived skilled immigrants this is a particularly difficult barrier to job entry. For many, the "don’t know’s" are small, unrelated to their skills and easily addressed, but for some reason are magnified in the recruitment process. Having no established support network to offer advice makes this even tougher for them. There are so many things born-and-bred Kiwis take for granted whilst navigating the workplace; things that may be really easy for a new Kiwi to embrace, if they are offered a few constructive words of feedback. Feedback may be along the lines of CV style, interview technique, opinion on skills, cultural idiosyncrasies etc, and for many unemployed professional immigrants, this is their only channel of learning.
Company and organisational leaders, managers and HR recruiters would do well to revive their commitment (and policies if necessary) to helping new professional Kiwis in this way. The little things we do, can make a big difference, and as we have seen in our Mentoring Programme, it often is the little things that result in immigrant talent being introduced into the workplace and our economy. What it amounts to for the individual applicant, is that instead of being The Rejection, you and your recruitment function become The Learning Contribution to their growth. This is especially the case at the interview stage of recruitment, or if the applicant specifically asks for feedback. In our experience, skilled immigrants are looking for honest, straightforward and helpful feedback – let's give them what they want and help make a difference.