Closing the Loop: Why Feedback Is Your Secret Weapon in Hiring
Explore how thoughtful feedback between recruiters, hiring managers, and candidates can elevate your employer brand, strengthen pipelines, and turn rejections into long-term relationships.
Recruiters often find themselves in the tough business of saying “no” far more than “yes” — but how those “no’s” are delivered can shape the future of your talent pipeline. In today’s competitive job market, the way feedback is shared between candidates, recruiters, and hiring managers isn’t just a nice-to-have — it’s a brand differentiator.
This conversation goes deep on the power of qualitative feedback loops. We’ll unpack how open, constructive communication builds trust, enhances the candidate experience, and creates future-ready relationships with silver and bronze medalists. You’ll hear strategies for coaching hiring managers to give meaningful feedback, advocating for transparency, and creating processes that prioritize respectful rejections without losing momentum.
Whether you’re looking to improve your close rates, boost referrals, or keep doors open for future opportunities, mastering feedback is key.
Attendees Will Learn:
- Why consistent, qualitative feedback is a competitive advantage in today’s hiring market
- How to coach hiring managers to deliver timely, constructive feedback that recruiters can actually use
- How to provide candidate feedback in ways that are legally defensible, compliant, and aligned with risk-management best practices
- Best practices for rejecting candidates with empathy while keeping them engaged for future roles
- How feedback loops influence employer brand perception — even among declined candidates
- Tactical ways to capture, document, and close feedback loops across recruiter, candidate, and hiring-manager workflows
- How to turn silver and bronze medalists into warm, referral-ready talent pools instead of cold rejections
- What candidates expect from modern hiring communication — and how falling short quietly damages your brand
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Rob Lopez
VP of Talent
Thumbtack
Rob Lopez is the VP of Talent at Thumbtack, where he leads the company’s recruiting, talent management, and learning & development functions. His work centers on building high-performing teams and delivering an exceptional candidate experience.
With previous talent leadership roles at Chewy, Wayfair, and Vistaprint, Rob has guided recruiting and talent organizations through periods of hypergrowth, large-scale transformation, and sustained scaling. He’s led teams that have hired thousands of employees, partnered with business leaders through multiple stages of growth, and built feedback cultures that strengthen employer brand and long-term talent relationships.
Kevin Murray
Co-Founder
TalentScale Partners
Kevin Murray is Co-Founder of TalentScale Partners, a boutique executive search and recruiting firm. His expertise spans executive search, global recruiting operations, and guiding organizations on talent strategy that drives measurable hiring results.
Kevin has held senior talent leadership roles at Red Hat, athenahealth, Wayfair, and Vistaprint, where he guided organizations through periods of hypergrowth and large-scale transformation. He scaled Wayfair's TA function from 8 to 130+ recruiters during the company's growth from 500 to 7,000 employees, $500M to $5B in revenue, and successful IPO. He's built and led teams responsible for thousands of hires globally, including expanding hiring capacity across the Americas at Red Hat, while directing global recruiting operations for a team of 150+. He also rebuilt athenahealth’s TA function to deliver enterprise-scale hiring across the U.S. and India.
Vivian Dixon
SVP of HR
Confidential
Vivian Dixon is a global HR executive with expertise in scaling talent strategies through hyper growth and transformation. Currently the SVP of HR for a confidential global technology startup focused on AI infrastructure, she leads people strategy, global talent acquisition, and key HR business partner functions. A builder at heart, Vivian thrives in fast-paced environments that require scaling hiring, global expansion, and employee engagement.
Previously, Vivian held senior HR leadership roles at Chewy, Amazon Web Services, SAIC/Leidos, and Deloitte. Over her 25-year career, she has led global recruiting, workforce analytics, talent management, technology modernization, employee relations, and employment branding spanning regions in North America, Europe, and the Middle East.
Vivian is a graduate of The College of William & Mary and resides in the Washington, DC area. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, cooking, and spending time in the sun and sea.