The best insights don’t always come from success stories
Last month, I facilitated two student panels where recent nursing graduates talked about their first-year experiences. The insights were valuable — we heard about preceptor approaches, communication challenges, confidence building. Standard stuff for process improvement.
But here’s what I kept thinking about: We only heard from the people who made it through.
Several years ago, I ran a focus group that changed how I think about process improvement entirely. We brought in candidates who had been rejected after initial interviews — the people who didn’t get hired — and asked them to tell us about their experience.
It was uncomfortable. Some hiring managers didn’t want to do it. “Why would we waste time with people we already decided weren’t a fit?” But we did it anyway.
Those rejected candidates told us things our hiring managers never saw:
“I knew I wasn’t a fit for THAT job, but I just wanted to get my foot in the door.” This candidate was applying, hoping that someone would see what she had to offer and get her to the right place.
“If I applied on Thursday and didn’t hear back by Friday, I thought I was rejected and was depressed all weekend.” We thought we were moving quickly by responding within a week. She thought silence meant no. By the time we reached out, she had already mentally moved on.
“Hearing something — even a no — is better than not hearing anything.” Multiple candidates said this. The uncertainty was worse than rejection. Our hiring managers thought they were being kind by not sending rejection emails until the position was filled. Candidates experienced it as being ghosted.
We changed three things based on that 90-minute conversation:
Implemented a “not this but that” email template to help recommend jobs better suited to the candidate.
We set up automated acknowledgments that gave specific timelines, like “you’ll hear from us by [date] either way”) – and my favorite “Friday Clean up – It’s not you, it’s us – we are waiting for responses. Have a great weekend!”
We started sending timely rejections instead of leaving candidates in limbo.
Our offer acceptance rate jumped 20% over the next six months. More importantly, we stopped losing good people to a broken process.
Here’s the thing: The people who succeed in your process can tell you what worked. But the people who fail out or drop out can tell you what’s actually broken. They see the cracks that successful candidates overlook or excuse.
This applies to more than hiring:
Onboarding: Talk to the people who left in their first 90 days. Not just an exit interview checkbox — a real conversation. “What happened? When did you know this wasn’t working? What would have changed that?”
Clinical training: Talk to those who didn’t make it through orientation. The ones who self-selected out or were counseled out. They can tell you where the support failed, where the expectations were unclear, where the culture felt unwelcoming.
Internal mobility: Talk to people who applied for internal positions and didn’t get them. Are they getting useful feedback? Do they understand what would make them competitive next time? Or are they just quietly updating their LinkedIn profiles?
These conversations are uncomfortable because they require admitting our processes might be flawed. It’s easier to assume the people who didn’t make it weren’t the right fit and move on. But I’ve learned that every person who fails out of your process has information you need. Maybe they genuinely weren’t the right fit. Or maybe your process has a hidden barrier that’s screening out good people. Maybe your expectations aren’t as clear as you think. Maybe there’s a gap between what you say you value and what you actually signal.
You won’t know unless you ask.
So here’s what I’m thinking about as we head into 2026 planning:
Who recently went through your key processes - hiring, onboarding, training, promotion? What would they tell you if you created space for honest feedback?
More importantly: Who didn’t make it through? Who dropped out, opted out, or was pushed out? And would they be willing to tell you why?
Those conversations might be the most valuable 90 minutes you spend on process improvement all year. You just have to be willing to hear answers that make you uncomfortable.