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Practitioner · Chapter 6 · 15 of 24 in the series
Handle Candidate Appeals in Quelixa
Follow a candidate appeal from a reasoned rejection message to an independent review and written outcome. In the Northwind Group example, a result of 44 falls below a pass mark of 50; a previously unmarked second sheet is found, the score is corrected to 53, and the application is reinstated.
01Lesson notes
Step by step#
Settings › Recruitment › Offers & Appeals
- Candidates may appeal — From their tracker page.
- Appeal window — 14 days after a rejection.
- Decision target — 7 days to decide.
Email › Arjun Pillai
- From Elena — Friday 12 February, 17:30.
- The reason — Failed the test.
- His result — 44%; the pass mark was 50%.
- How to appeal — Until Friday 26 February, decided independently.
Candidate portal › Dashboard
- You may appeal — Until Friday 26 February 2027.
Candidate portal › My applications › Customer Success Team Lead
- Rejected — Reason: failed the test.
- Your results — Written test 44% — not passed.
Candidate portal › Application › Appeal
- The deadline — You can appeal until Feb 26.
- Messages — A thread with the recruitment team.
Candidate portal › Messages
- His question — Where did I lose marks?
Recruitment › Applications › Arjun Pillai › Chronicle
- Her reply — Marks for each part of the case.
- Message — Not a note: the candidate sees it.
Email › Arjun Pillai
- From Northwind — A message from the recruitment team.
- Her words — Exactly as written.
- The way back — Reply from the tracker.
Candidate portal › Application › Appeal
- Lodge appeal — Grounds in his own words.
Candidate portal › Application › Appeal
- AP/2026/0026 — Lodged, with his grounds.
- The answer date — The committee will decide by Feb 24.
Recruitment › Appeals › Arjun Pillai
- Grounds of appeal — In the candidate's words.
- Rejected by — Elena Novak.
- Stepped aside — Priya Raman decides.
- Days left — 6, by Feb 24.
Candidate portal › Rohan Desai › Appeal
- Closed — The appeal window closed on 22 October 2026.
Recruitment › Appeals › Arjun Pillai
- The grounds — A specific, checkable claim.
- Uphold — Reinstates the application.
- Dismiss — The decision stands.
- Why her — Elena stepped aside.
Recruitment › Tests › Team Lead — written case study
- Arjun Pillai — 53 out of 100 — passed.
- The reason — Re-marked on appeal: the second sheet was not marked.
Recruitment › Applications › Arjun Pillai › Chronicle
- Test mark corrected — 44 → 53, with the reason.
Recruitment › Appeals › Uphold
- Decision note — Sent to the candidate.
- Uphold — Reinstate the application.
Recruitment › Appeals › Upheld
- On record — Reviewed by Priya Raman, 19 February, with the note.
- Upheld — The application is back in process.
Email › Arjun Pillai
- From Priya — Friday 19 February.
- Upheld — Your application is back in process.
- The reasons — The committee's note, word for word.
Candidate portal › Application
- Back in process — At the written test stage.
- Your results — Written test 53% — passed.
Candidate portal › Application › Appeal
- AP/2026/0026 — Upheld, with the decision.
Open Settings › Recruitment › Offers & Appeals and note your appeal window and decision target. Then open a rejected application and check that its letter states the reason and the result.
Transcript
Forty-four
Lina: Friday evening in Dubai. Arjun Pillai opens a letter from Northwind.
Arjun Pillai: Forty-four. The pass mark was fifty. And I can appeal until the twenty-sixth.
Lina: This chapter is about what a candidate hears after a decision — and what happens when they ask for a second look.
Lina: A candidate who is turned down is owed three things: the reason, their result, and a fair way to ask again.
What a candidate is owed
Lina: Four things.
Lina: The decision, and the reason for it.
Lina: Their own result — the mark, and the mark they needed. ISO 10667 asks for exactly that kind of feedback.
David: Most companies stop at 'unfortunately'.
Lina: And then the candidate fills the silence with guesses. Third: someone who answers a question.
Lina: And fourth, a fair second look: a window to ask, a date for the answer, and a decision by someone who wasn't part of the first one.
The rules, set once
Lina: James set the rules once, in Recruitment settings.
Lina: Candidates may appeal, from their own tracker,
Lina: within fourteen days of the rejection,
Lina: and the committee has seven days to decide.
David: Why a window at all?
Lina: Because a decision has to settle at some point — for the other candidates too. Two weeks is long enough to think.
The letter
Lina: This is what Arjun received on Friday.
Lina: The reason,
Lina: his own result against the pass mark,
Lina: and how to appeal — with the last day, and the promise that someone who wasn't part of the decision will decide.
David: That's more than most rejection letters say.
Lina: And every line of it comes from the record, not from someone's memory.
Next steps
Lina: Wednesday morning, on his portal, the same offer sits under next steps.
His application
Lina: His application says it plainly: rejected, and why,
Lina: with the result that decided it.
David: No guessing what went wrong. It's right there, with the number that decided it.
Two ways to speak up
Lina: Further down, the appeal, with its deadline,
Lina: and a thread with the recruitment team.
David: He isn't sure it's a mistake yet.
Lina: So he asks first.
A question
Lina: Where did I lose marks on the case study? I'd like to know what to work on.
Elena answers
Lina: At ten, Elena answers him from his application's chronicle.
Lina: Part A, eighteen out of thirty. Part B, twenty out of forty. Part C, six out of thirty — the marker noted that his answer stopped after the first paragraph.
David: Message or note — does it matter?
Lina: A note stays inside Northwind. A message goes to Arjun.
And by email
Lina: It reaches him by email too, from the company's address,
Lina: with her words as she wrote them,
Lina: and a way back to the thread.
The second sheet
Arjun Pillai: Stopped after the first paragraph? My answer went on over a second sheet.
Lina: Now he has a reason to appeal — and a specific one.
The grounds
Lina: He writes his grounds: the answer to part C continued on a second sheet, handed in with the rest. He thinks it was never marked.
David: That's a good appeal. It says what went wrong.
Lina: And it asks for something the committee can check.
Lodged
Lina: Lodged,
Lina: and he knows when to expect an answer: by the twenty-fourth.
A fair second look
Lina: Three things make a second look fair.
Lina: It's independent. Elena rejected Arjun, and she chairs Northwind's appeals committee. She can't be the one to decide.
David: It would be marking her own homework.
Lina: Exactly. It has a date the candidate can see,
Lina: and the reasons are written down and sent to him, whichever way it goes.
The appeal, on Elena's screen
Lina: Thursday. Elena sees the appeal arrive,
Lina: against her own decision.
Lina: So the system passes it on: Elena made the original decision, so Priya Raman — the other member of the committee — decides.
Lina: Six days left.
David: So nobody has to remember the rule on a busy Thursday.
Lina: The record knows who decided, and routes around them.
A window that has closed
Lina: For contrast: Rohan, turned down for another role last October. His window closed on the twenty-second, and his tracker says so rather than hiding the door.
David: And if he writes to ask something?
Lina: The message thread is still open. Only the appeal has closed.
Priya's screen
Lina: Priya's screen shows the same appeal,
Lina: with the decision in her hands:
Lina: uphold, which reinstates the application,
Lina: or dismiss. Either way, she has to write a note for Arjun.
Both sheets
Priya Raman: Before I decide anything: do we have both sheets of his script?
Elena Novak: The invigilator scanned every page. The second sheet is there — unmarked.
Lina: Priya asks a second examiner to mark it. Part C: fifteen out of thirty.
The mark, corrected
Lina: Friday morning, Elena corrects the mark on the test's score sheet: fifty-three, now above the line.
Lina: With the reason next to it.
David: So a closed test can still be corrected.
Lina: It has to be, when a mistake is found — openly, with the reason attached.
On his record
Lina: And his application's history records the change: forty-four to fifty-three, with the same reason.
The decision note
Lina: At eleven, Priya upholds the appeal, and says why: the second sheet was never marked; a second examiner marked it; fifty-three, above the pass mark. He'll be invited to interview.
Lina: Uphold.
Upheld
Lina: Upheld.
David: Two days after he lodged it — the promise was seven.
Lina: Who decided, when, and why, all on the record.
The answer
Lina: And Arjun hears it the same day,
Lina: the outcome,
Lina: and the reasons, word for word.
David: Would he have got the reasons if it had gone the other way?
Lina: Yes — a dismissal carries the committee's reasons too. That's the point.
Back in
Lina: His tracker: back in process,
Lina: fifty-three per cent, passed.
The appeal stays
Lina: And the appeal stays on his page, with the decision — not just in an inbox.
Lina: Next week, the same kit and the same panel as everyone else.
Three things to keep
Lina: Three things to keep.
Lina: Say it plainly: the reason and the result, in the letter.
Lina: Answer questions — on the record.
David: And when they appeal?
Lina: A window, a date, someone independent — and the reasons in writing, whichever way it goes.
What do you keep?
Yuki Watanabe: I'd like to know what Northwind keeps about me. And then I'd like it deleted.
Lina: Next chapter: data rights and fair recruitment.
Lina: That was appeals and candidate communication. See you in chapter seven.