Email templates for every stage of the candidate journey

The best recruiters know that while candidates are doing their best to impress recruiters, recruiters are also doing their best to create a positive experience for the candidates. A key ingredient of crafting a seamless and positive experience? Emails.

Saying that emails are important isn't groundbreaking. Afterall, we all know candidate communication is centered around InMails, calls, and well, emails. While nobody lives to read or write emails, the reality is that they still play a critical in shaping the candidate's experience. Emails are used to tackle tricky situations, relay exciting news, or to just check in - but perfecting your email communication can be a small, impactful, and time-saving change.

In the following email templates, you will find examples of common situations you will face as a recruiter (along with a few more bonus emails). To keep things a bit more human, we use names for the candidate, the recruiter, and the company. In these scenarios, a candidate named Manu has applied for a job as a Recruitment Consultant at Acme. Joe is the recruiter on this project and will be Manu’s main point of contact. We hope you can use these to create impactful communication with your candidates! 

👉 This post is a long one - feel free to use the table of contents in the sidebar to jump to different templates! 

Standard emails

Application followup

Subject: Application received for the Recruitment Consultant role at Acme.

Dear Manu,

Thank you for taking to the time to apply for the position of a Recruitment Consultant at Acme.

We have received your application and will aim to get back to you with an update in 2-4 weeks.

In the meantime, if you have any questions regarding your application or our data privacy policy, please get in touch with us at recruitment@companyx.com

Thank you.

Regards,

Joe

If you are using an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) such as Pinpoint, Ashby, Workable, Bamboo HR, etc., this email can likely be automated, so double check that it is implemented into your workflow. 

Invitation to interview

Subject: Application for the Recruitment Consultant position at Acme.

Dear Manu,

As a follow-up to your application for the Recruitment Consultant role at Acme, we would like to invite you for an interview with us.

When: Wednesday 19th October, 14:00-15:30 CET. If the proposed time doesn’t work, let me know as soon as possible, and we will try to find an alternative.
Where: The interview will take place at our offices (include the address and any instructions if you’re hard to find)/online (include a link to the meeting room, or let the candidate know where they can find it.)

You will meet two fantastic team members in the interview, Anand and Kim. They will have some questions about your previous experience and how you will approach this role. They will also want to hear what questions you have about the role and are happy to answer anything you are wondering about.

If you have any questions, please do get in touch. We are looking forward to meeting you!

Regards,

Joe

Quick tip: To make interview booking as easy as possible, use a service like YouCanBookMe or Calendly.

Rejection email

Telling a candidate that they haven’t got a role is no one’s idea of fun. Most candidates invest a lot of time and energy in the process, not to mention the emotional investment. So it can be hard to hear that they have not been successful.

One tip here is that if you have met or spoken to the candidate, try to do this via telephone rather than email. As well as providing a more personal touch, this provides the candidate with an opportunity to ask follow-up questions. Write down a couple of sentences for yourself before the call so you cover the points you want to.

Whether you are providing the feedback verbally or in an email, it’s best to follow three simple tips; be prompt, be compassionate, and be constructive.

Subject: Your application for Recruitment Consultant at Acme.

Dear/ Hi / Hey Manu,

It was great to meet you last week; thank you for taking the time to visit us. I am emailing to let you know the outcome of the interview process.

We have unfortunately decided not to proceed with your application, and I wanted to take the time to outline why.

We were impressed by your communication skills and how you approached the challenges we discussed in the interview. You clearly have an approach that aligns well with our culture. With that said, we had other candidates who demonstrated a greater understanding of our company and had more experience working with end-to-end talent solutions.

Although you haven’t been successful this time, we encourage you to keep an eye on our careers page - other suitable roles may pop up in the future.

Thank you again for taking the time to apply for the role and meet us. It was great to hear about your experience working with talent acquisition in a large organisation, and your track record really impressed us.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me if you have any questions.

Regards,

Joe

Job Offer Email

Hurrah! You get to deliver some joy to someone’s inbox.

As with rejections, it can be good to have this conversation on the telephone. Why? It’s more personal, it allows you to gauge the candidate's interest, and gives you space to agree on things like salary verbally before putting them into a contract.

But if you aren’t able to call, you can use the below as a template. Remember, you will need to tailor this according to what has already been discussed.

A few other things to consider; if you are sending documents to a candidate, do so in PDF format. This will preserve your company’s branding and prevent edits. Sending a PDF containing personal or confidential information? Consider sending it in a password-protected format, or even using an e-signature service.

Subject: Job offer for Recruitment Consultant at Acme.

Dear/ Hi / Hey Manu,

We have spoken to all of your references and are delighted to offer you the Recruitment Consultant role here at Company X!

As Recruitment Consultant your salary will be ________ per year, with ___ days paid holiday. As part of our team, you will also receive the following benefits:

• • (Outline the benefits)
  •  
  •  

These are outlined in more detail in the contract of employment.

Our proposed start date is 1st December, but we will gladly welcome you sooner if this can be agreed with your current employer.

To accept the offer, please sign and return the attached contract of employment and confidentiality agreement. The deadline for accepting the offer is Friday 28th October.

We’re all looking forward to you joining us and can’t wait to welcome you to our team! Don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions.

Regards,

Joe

Bonus emails

We aren't done yet! In addition to "regular" emails touch points, we know that recruiters navigate a lot of interactions not covered in a typical candidate journey. That's why we compiled a list of bonus emails to help fill in the gaps of a typical process. 

Requesting additional information

Subject: Requesting additional information - Recruitment Consultant at Acme

Dear Manu,

Hope you are keeping well.

I am writing this email in reference to your application for a Recruitment Consultant at Acme.

In order to consider your application, we require you to send through some additional information.

Could you share your portfolio/ Resume in English/ LinkedIn profile/ phone number we can contact you at?

You can respond to this email, and please ensure to share any password or login details where required.

Thank you.

Regards,

Joe

A follow-up email to candidates post interviews

This is not a compulsory email to send to candidates, but can be essential if you as a recruiter want to establish a good relationship with the candidates.

Through a follow-up email such as this, you can highlight some of the important things that happened in the interview while also maintaining a dialogue with your candidate.

Many candidates might not be as comfortable in person or via video as they are through text or email. An email such as this could also open the door for the candidates to ask questions that they might have missed during the interview.

The ideal wait time for a candidate should not exceed the 3-day mark.

Subject: Interview followup at Acme

Dear / Hey / Hi Manu,

Thank you for taking the time today to chat with us at Acme about your interest in the position of a Recruitment Consultant.

It was great to know about your skills and experiences in the field of Recruitment. The team was impressed to know more about your work at your previous company and your ability to manage and grow a team.

As mentioned in the interview, the team and I will aim to get back to you with an update in 2-3 days.

In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reply to this email.

Thank you.

Regards,

Joe

Rescheduling an interview

Subject: Your application for Recruitment Consultant at Acme

Dear / Hey / Hi Manu,

I am writing this email in regard to your scheduled interview with the Acme team for the position of Recruitment Consultant.

Unfortunately, it looks like we will have to reschedule this chat as (name) had a (reason), and will not be able to join.

As a result, could you provide me with some time slots that will suit you next week? Here are a few that could work for me:

(time slot 1)

(time slot 2)

(time slot 3)

If none of these fit with your schedule, please feel free to propose other time slots that work better for you.

I apologize again for the inconvenience and I look forward to hearing from you!

Thank you.

Regards,

Joe

The recruitment process is delayed

Subject: Recruitment process at Acme is delayed

Dear / Hey / Hi Manu,

I wanted to give you an update about your application for the role of Recruitment Consultant at Acme.

Unfortunately, we are experiencing some delays in the process, which means we won’t be able to let you know the outcome as soon as we had hoped.

We are doing all we can to move the process forward and want to let you know that we are still interested in pursuing your application. We hope to get back to you by the end of this month (please note: only include a timescale if you have one, and make sure to be realistic!).

Thank you for your patience, and if you have any questions in the meantime, please do get in touch.

Regards,

Joe

The recruitment process is put on hold

Subject: Your application for Recruitment Consultant at Acme

Dear / Hey / Hi Manu,

Thank you so much for putting in the time and effort to apply for the role of a Recruitment Consultant at Acme.

I wanted to let you know that we have decided to put this position on hold at the moment. Although we are not actively recruiting for this role at the moment, we might resume this process later in the year (please note: only include specific time frames if you are confident that it is accurate).

Please accept our sincerest apologies for this delay, and if you are willing, we would like to keep your application on board and reach out to you when we start recruiting again.

In the meantime, do follow us on LinkedIn as we regularly post Company updates. You can also keep an eye on our career page and feel free to apply for future roles.

Again, thank you for your time and patience, and I wish you all the best in your future endeavours.

Thank you.

Regards,

Joe

The recruitment process is closed

You can use a template such as this to address a candidate you have already interacted with.

If you have not had any level of personal interaction, the status quo is to send a rejection email to the candidate that lets them know that they will not be considered for the role in question.

Subject: Your application for Recruitment Consultant at Acme

Dear / Hey / Hi Manu,

Thank you so much for taking the time to actively apply for the role of Recruitment Consultant at Acme.

I wanted to let you know that we've just closed the recruitment process as we have been able to fill this position sooner than expected.

I was very excited after our chat and it is really unfortunate that we could not move ahead. But, hopefully, our paths will cross again!

Please follow us on LinkedIn as we regularly post Company updates. You can also keep an eye on our career page and feel free to apply for future roles.

Again, thank you for your time and patience, and I wish you all the best in your future endeavours.

Thank you.

Regards,

Joe

Suggested for other roles

Subject: Your application for Recruitment Consultant at Acme

Dear Manu,

Thank you so much for putting in the time and effort to apply for the role of Recruitment Consultant at Acme.

I wanted to let you know that we have decided to put this position on hold/ position has been filled.

It is unfortunate that we could not move ahead with your application but I think you would be a better fit for another role we are looking at, in Acme. (Link/Attach job description)

If this role interests you, please let me know, and I can put you in touch with the person in charge/ set you up for an interview with the Manager. We can also chat about compensation, benefits and any other questions you might have in this call.

Please do get back to me by the end of the week.

Thank you.

Regards,

Joe 

As a recruiter, you are the first - and more frequent - human touch point a candidate has with the company. We hope that you found these templates useful and that you can take them into your own recruitment process!