Why do companies still treat candidates like crap?
It makes absolutely no sense, but the reality is that too many companies still treat job seekers and candidates poorly — from the minute the job seeker is introduced to the company via a job description or their career web site, through the application process and beyond. The experience sucks.
Jason Buss shares this story from a recent job seeker:
I actually applied for one job online that literally took me through a two hour application on their website. They asked me to upload my resume and a cover letter, and then took me through a complex application in which they asked me the same questions that my resume already covered, such as my education and intership experiences. It was one of those situations that I was expecting to spend 20 minutes filling the form out, but once I was already one hour in to the application, there was no way I was going to quit and start over some other time, but I had no idea how long it was going to take me to finally finish it. And that company has yet to follow up with me at all.
Even if the company was trying to filter out the wrong people from applying, it shouldn’t require a 2-hour process! You can probably block most people from applying with just a few additional questions. It shouldn’t be that complicated or frustrating.
Why did obsessive filtering start?
Companies went overboard with their filtering and data collection processes because they were being overwhelmed with resumes. Having to go through 300 resumes is time consuming. It is like looking for a needle in a haystack. So I understand the interest in pre-screening people out. But there are limits!
Recently, I was speaking to a recruiter who told me that some companies will simply select a pool of candidates to review at random. They get 500 resumes, set a target of 50 for review, and automatically discard 450. Then at least, it’s much less work to review 50 resumes. Except it was random! Very scary…
The candidate experience has never been more important
- If you treat leads and prospects poorly they don’t buy from you.
- If you treat customers poorly they leave.
Generally, people have more choice and consumers are in the driver’s seat.
The same holds true in HR.
Job seekers should be some of the most carefully and well-treated people your company does business with. They’re active (in terms of their involvement), engaged (in terms of their interest in your company), and they’re also the future.
If you can’t hire the right people, your business is dead; so why treat those people poorly from the get-go?
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