Hiring Transparency: What to Share With Candidates (and When)

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A recent class action lawsuit against an HR technology company is raising questions about recruiting compliance — and underscoring the importance of hiring transparency.

The lawsuit alleges that the company aggregated data from outside sources to inform hiring decisions, acting as a Consumer Reporting Agency without proper Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) compliance. According to the complaint, job applicants don’t have the opportunity to consent to, review, or dispute third party reports that help determine whether they’re considered for a given role. In short, there’s a serious lack of transparency in the evaluation process, and it may be leading to unfair hiring decisions.

While the case is still active, it highlights a growing expectation for employers to be open and honest about their recruitment practices. This isn’t just about legal compliance. Hiring transparency has become a competitive advantage that can help you attract, engage, and retain talent.

What hiring transparency means in practice

Hiring transparency means giving candidates clear, accurate information about the role, compensation, hiring process, and how you’ll evaluate them.

Transparency exists on a spectrum. At the basic level, it may mean posting salary ranges and outlining your hiring process. At the high end, it could also mean sharing interview questions in advance, explaining exactly how you score candidates, and providing detailed feedback to everyone who interviews.

Best practices for building a transparent hiring process

Providing a basic level of transparency is fairly straightforward and you can build toward more comprehensive openness as your team gets comfortable.

Share detailed job descriptions with salary ranges

Your job description serves a very important purpose: to engage the right candidates in your recruitment process.

A well-written job description:

Highlights what makes your role, team, and organization unique — as well as why your ideal candidate should want to work with you
Details your open role’s skills and responsibilities, being honest about must-have qualifications versus nice-to-haves
Includes a pay range and benefits
Mentions in-demand perks like flexible work policies
Shares the less glamorous parts of the role, such as weekend work or on-call responsibilities

More transparent organizations might share things like company financials and pay philosophies to help candidates get a better understanding of whether the role is the right fit for them.

Outline your hiring process and timeline upfront

Half of all job seekers want to know what happens after they submit their application.

Plan your hiring process and ideal timeline before you start actively recruiting for the role so you can share it with candidates. You can provide information about your process on your careers site, job descriptions, or during your first interview so candidates know what to expect.

For example, communicate:

How many interview rounds to expect and how long each interview will take
Who the candidate might meet with during each interview round
Whether there will be skills assessments or assignments
Whether there will be a background check
When they can expect a decision

If anything in your process or timeline changes, communicate it immediately rather than leaving candidates wondering if they’re still in consideration.

Communicate clearly and consistently

Transparency in hiring is largely about communication. Make sure candidates have the information they need, when they need it.

For example:

Build a robust careers site. Your careers site can be so much more than a repository of job descriptions. Use yours to showcase your team and company culture.
Publish your candidate privacy policy. Let candidates know what personal data is collected during recruitment, why it’s processed, who it’s shared with, and how it is protected. You may also share how candidates can access, correct, or delete their data.
Send informative interview confirmation emails. Include the time, date, duration, location, format, and interviewer names. For added transparency, you could also add interview questions or include interviewer contact information.
Provide timely feedback after interviews. A personalized rejection email that acknowledges the candidate’s time and explains at a high level why they weren’t selected goes a long way. For candidates who made it to final rounds, consider offering a brief phone call to discuss feedback if they request it.

Use standardized evaluations

A transparent hiring process ensures candidates know how they’re being evaluated.

Create standardized evaluations by:

Using structured interviews where every candidate is asked the same core questions for a given role. This ensures fair comparison and reduces bias.
Training your interviewers on your evaluation criteria and how to assess candidates consistently. If you’re scoring candidates on specific competencies, those competencies should be clearly defined and shared with the interview team.
Sharing interview topics or questions in advance. This might feel uncomfortable at first, but it actually improves your hiring outcomes. When candidates know what to expect, you reduce anxiety and create a more level playing field. You’ll see candidates’ true capabilities rather than their ability to think on their feet under pressure.
Explaining how skills assessments or work samples will be evaluated. What are you looking for? How much weight does this carry in the final decision? Candidates perform better when they understand the evaluation criteria.
Document your hiring criteria before you start interviewing and stick to it. Change requirements mid-process or adding new evaluation factors after meeting candidates is unfair to those who interviewed under different standards.

Use compliant HR technology

Not all HR technology handles candidate data with the same level of transparency and compliance.

Choose technology partners carefully. Your applicant tracking system should allow you to easily include privacy policy links and obtain proper consent. Background check vendors should be FCRA compliant and provide candidates with the required disclosures, the opportunity to review reports, and a mechanism to dispute inaccuracies.

Stay informed with lawsuit rulings and new legislation that affects the processes and tools you use to hire. You may need proper disclosures and explicit consent to be in compliance.

How JobScore enables transparent hiring

JobScore is designed to support transparent, compliant hiring practices.

For example:

Enhanced job descriptions help you stand out to candidates by offering additional information about what it’s like to work at your organization
Candidate scoring enables you to set and weight each criteria based on information provided by the job seeker
Interview templates guide structured interviews and encourage interviewers to input real-time feedback
Automated emails keep candidates updated on their status and remind your hiring team to keep your process moving forward
Background check vendor integrations help you maintain FCRA compliance

Final thoughts on hiring transparency

Lawsuits and legislation may reshape how recruitment technology handles candidate data. Mitigate your risk by focusing on transparency and consent.

The safest approach is to base hiring decisions primarily on information candidates provide directly through applications, resumes, interviews, and assessments. When you do use additional data sources or tools, disclose them clearly in your privacy policy and obtain consent. Hiring transparency helps candidates understand how they’re being evaluated so they can feel confident that your process is fair.