Children's Aid interview questions

Three interviews: one with the hiring manager, one with an executive at the company and a general conversation with the entire comms team. The team came across as kind and supportive, and I was excited when I recieved an email from the admin assistant notifying me they enjoyed getting to know me and would like to move to the next stage of the process (which was a reference check). Despite giving my reference details and telling my former managers to expect a call, I was disappointed that my references were never checked. Followups to the admin assistant I had been communicating with went unanswered, and I eventually recieved a generic HR rejection email. I did eventually get a kind response from the hiring manager, but I wish the team had been more transparent with the hiring process.