Gem ATS: Manage rejection and dropout reasons

Overview

Tracking rejection and dropout reasons helps your team understand why candidates leave your process and where hiring workflows can improve. In Gem ATS, Admins can manage the list of reasons recruiters use when rejecting candidates or marking candidates as dropped out.

Default reasons are managed by Gem and are included automatically. You can’t remove Gem’s default rejection or dropout reasons, though you can enable or disable them. You can add and manage custom reasons to better reflect your hiring process.

Default rejection and dropout reasons

Gem ATS comes with the following rejection reasons by default.

Rejected reasons:

• Duplicate.
• Lacking qualifications.
• Moved to another role.
• Not a cultural fit.
• Role cancelled.
• Role filled.
• Other.

Dropped out reasons:

• Accepted another offer.
• Compensation.
• Timing.
• Unresponsive.
• Wasn’t interested.
• Other.

These default reasons can’t be edited or removed, though you can disable them if they’re not relevant to your hiring process. You can also add additional reasons to capture other candidate and hiring team feedback.

Requirements

• Your team must use Gem ATS. For more information, see Gem ATS: Overview.
• You must be an Admin in Gem to manage rejection reasons settings. For more information, see Gem access types and permissions.

Add a rejection or dropout reason

You can add a custom rejection or dropout reason beyond the Gem defaults. These custom reasons will appear in the rejection reason dropdown everywhere it appears across Gem.

To add a custom rejection or dropout reason:

1. Select your account at the bottom of the main sidebar, then select the Admin settings option in the dropdown.
2. Select the Gem ATS header.
3. Select the Applications tab.
4. Select the Rejection and dropout reasons header.
5. Select the + Add rejection reason button.
6. Enter a name for the rejection reason in the Name field. This is what will appear in the rejection reason dropdown.
7. Select either Dropped out or Rejected in the Type dropdown. This groups the rejection reason into one of these two categories for reporting.
8. Select the Save button.

The page updates with your new rejection reason displayed. Your team can now select this rejection reason when updating applications.

Edit a rejection reason

You can only edit custom rejection reasons. You can’t edit default rejection reasons.

To edit an existing rejection reason:

1. Select your account at the bottom of the main sidebar, then select the Admin settings option in the dropdown.
2. Select the Gem ATS header.
3. Select the Applications tab.
4. Select the Rejection and dropout reasons header.
5. Select the pencil icon to the right of the rejection reason you’d like to edit.

6. In the Edit rejection reason pop-up, select the fields displayed to add or update them.
7. When you’re done editing the rejection reason, select the Save button.

The page updates with your updated rejection reason.

Disable or enable a rejection reason

Disabling a rejection reason removes it from the list of rejection reasons in your Admin settings and updates the Enabled setting to OFF. Disabled rejection reasons can’t be selected from rejection reason drop-downs in Gem.

You can enable a disabled rejection reason at any time. You can enable and disable default rejection reasons as well as custom rejection reasons.

To disable or re-enable an existing rejection reason:

1. Select your account at the bottom of the main sidebar, then select the Admin settings option in the dropdown.
2. Select the Gem ATS header.
3. Select the Applications tab.
4. Select the Rejection and dropout reasons header.
5. Select the Enabled toggle to the right of the rejection reason you want to disable or enable. Setting the toggle to OFF disables the rejection reason; setting the toggle to ON re-enables the rejection reason.

The page updates with the rejection reason status updated.

Additional resources

To learn more about related Gem ATS settings, see the following resources.

Related articles

• Gem ATS: Overview
• Gem ATS: Manage rejection and dropout reasons
• Gem ATS: Create a job
• Gem ATS: Edit a job

Have any issues or questions on this topic? Please feel free to contact your dedicated Gem Customer Success Manager directly or our Support team at support@gem.com.

• Overview
• Default rejection and dropout reasons
• Requirements
• Add a rejection or dropout reason
• Edit a rejection reason
• Disable or enable a rejection reason
• Additional resources
• Related articles