What should a candidate rejection email include?

A candidate rejection email should include a prompt, personalised message with the candidate's name and the role, a genuine thank you, a clear and kind no, brief feedback where possible and an honest invitation to reapply or join your talent pool if you mean it.

How soon should you send a rejection email?

A rejection email should be sent as soon as a decision has been made. A good standard is within a week of the decision and within 48 hours of the final interview. Any delays read as indifference and raise the chance a candidate leaves a negative review or comes away with a bad experience.

Should you give feedback in a rejection email?

Yes, you should give feedback in a rejection email wherever possible and especially for interviewed candidates. Candidates who receive specific, timely feedback are far more likely to reapply and to recommend you to others, even after a no.

Does a rejection email really affect your employer brand?

Yes, a rejection email affects employer brand. Most job seekers check reviews before applying and candidates who are ghosted or rejected poorly often share it publicly. How you reject people really shapes who applies to you next.

Applications are up. So why does hiring feel harder?

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There have never been more candidates in the market. Very few employers are enjoying it. The gap between those two things is the whole story of this report.

Download the Talent Insights Report

There are around two and a half unemployed people for every vacancy.
There are fewer vacancies than at any point since 2021.
Time-to-hire is the fastest we have recorded in five years.

So, on paper, this should be the easiest hiring market in a decade. But it isn't. Two thirds of the people who joined our latest How Talent session told us attraction is still their single biggest challenge. More applications, not better ones.

The July 2026 Talent Insights Report explains why. It draws on more than 10,000 candidate voices, 12,500 tracked vacancies and 19 UK sectors, with five years of trend data behind it. The problem is not supply. It is a set of mismatches between what employers assume candidates want and what candidates actually tell us they want.

Gary Towers, Jobtrain's Talent Intelligence Director, breaks down some of the learnings in our latest webinar. Watch the recording below 👇

Candidates have swapped the career ladder for stability

Five years ago, Gen Z was building what Gary calls "the career Swiss Army knife." Short stints, broad skills, frequent moves. That has reversed. 66.5% of Gen Z respondents now say they are looking for stability and longevity, a figure that has climbed steeply since we first asked.

Career progression is still the number one reason people look for a new role, as it has been for years. What has shifted underneath it is unemployment as a motivation, which has roughly doubled over the same period. So the pool is bigger, more anxious, and more interested than ever in being developed.

If your board will not sign off on higher salaries, that is your opening. Training, a visible progression route and genuine exposure to AI in the role cost far less than a pay rise and answer exactly what candidates are asking for.

Don't assume Gen Z means AI first

This one surprised us. Candidates' use of AI to research roles and write applications is high. Reported use of AI in the job itself is much lower, particularly at entry level.

That cuts both ways. AI skills are fast becoming a genuine differentiator on a CV, so offering them is a real attraction hook. It also means your personal statement box is no longer telling you what you think it is telling you. Invite a free-text answer and you are inviting a copy and paste.

Scored assessment forms are the practical fix. They are quicker for someone applying on the bus, fairer for people who are brilliant at the job but not at essay writing, and far harder to game. Where clients use them, we have seen hiring manager screening time fall by as much as 95%.

What actually gets people to apply

Direct messages and job alerts still beat almost everything else as an influence on applying. The unglamorous stuff works because a well-matched approach cuts through the noise for someone drowning in it.

Video is another underused lever. Where our clients use video showing real life in the role, roughly twice as many applicants meet the suitability threshold for interview. An honest video also lets people deselect themselves. For instance, a hospital porter role involves moving deceased patients and clearing up bodily fluids. Say that on camera and everyone who applies has already decided they are up for it.

It doesn't need a production budget. Younger candidates tend to trust phone-recorded footage more than a polished corporate film.

Finish the way you started

Salary leads at the offer stage. Career progression and flexible working sit immediately behind it, which are the same two things that started the search in the first place.

Most employers put real effort into the advert and then send an offer that reads like pure admin. Remind people why they applied. If you promote internally, give them the number. If you say flexible, say what you mean: is it hours, location, timings or something else. Vagueness at the offer stage becomes attrition at month three.

What to do this week

Pick one live vacancy. Replace the personal statement box with a scored assessment, add a two-minute phone-recorded video of someone doing the job and rewrite the offer email so it repeats your three strongest attraction points.

Then check your own numbers against the benchmarks. The full report has conversion rates across all 19 sectors, so you can see what healthy looks like for yours.