Being honest to your candidates does not only show you really take them seriously but also hinting them to take on their plan B asap, no matter how crucial or sweet will the feedback be, especially the economy is currently in the bottom for everone.
I got my interview phone call in 1 month after my application, the interview was nice, easygoing, and chilled. The interviewer said he is going to hand in the interview reports to his manager, and they will give me the answer next week he believes.
After next week, I still did not receive the results so I called them back, they said they will give me the results today. Then the next day, an e-mail says "due to the situation of COVID-19, we have to postpone the application... " Hello? The COVID-19 was already under control, so that many companies started to suspend the short-time work and move back to the normal life! After 2 weeks roughly, they deleted the job posting and I got the refusal in1 week after the deletion.
The entire application process just shows that you do not take the candidate seriously, people would rather hear a extremely direct refusal from your side instead of being in the fog all the time. Respect and be honest, this is business instead of in a high school.
