HRMToday has a very interesting and amusing story about a rejected candidate that was eventually hired and became a star player. It’s a great anecdote and reminder of a couple things:
- We reject too easily.
- We always benefit by treating people well.
Quick Resume Rejections
The fact is, when resumes start coming in, companies reject quickly. In some cases they have to, because they don’t have the time to really explore each resume. Criteria get setup to reject people quickly - it might be typos in a resume, or missing the magic number of years experience that the job required. I don’t think we can eliminate rejection criteria, although stories like this do give us pause to reflect on whether we owe it to ourselves, as employers, to look at each candidate a bit more thoroughly. I wonder how many more star employees are missed because of hasty rejections?
Treat Rejected Candidates Well
You rarely win by treating people poorly. You almost always win by treating people fairly and respectfully. The HRMToday article points out a few reasons why rejection letters are often vague. I understand these points, and I wouldn’t expect most employers to provide detailed rejection letters. Fact is, too many employers don’t even bother with rejection letters at all. Even the simple step of saying, Thanks, but no thanks is too time consuming and difficult for a lot of employers. And that’s a very bad thing.
I’ve had numerous experiences where I’ve rejected candidates via email only to have them email me back and say, “Thank you. Most companies never respond at all. I appreciate that.” It’s never led me to hire anyone that I’ve rejected, but at least I’m more confident in the idea that the candidate had a decent candidate experience with me as an employer.
People Talk
I don’t have the statistics in front of me, but rest assured that people who have a bad experience with your company talk a lot more than those who have a good experience. This is common knowledge when it comes to sales & marketing departments, but too few companies think about this from an HR perspective.
Treat someone poorly through the application and recruitment process and they’ll talk. More than that, they’re less likely to buy from you. So now you’ve tarnished your corporate brand because your recruitment process sucked. That’s ridiculous, and so easy to fix.
Just Communicate
HR is really about sales and marketing. And you can’t market or sell effectively without communication.
Communication is easy. It’s natural for most of us (we are human after all!) but HR is too often caught up in the day-to-day exercise of “processing applicants.” If that’s all HR is about - moving people through the recruitment process like cattle - then you can be sure that candidates will get frustrated. They’ll tell others. And your corporate and employer brand are tarnished.
Rejecting candidates is hard. I feel bad when I do it, but you’ll always reject more than you hire. Given that fact, HR should focus on policies that ensure a positive candidate experience for rejected candidates. It starts with simple communication, and can go beyond that.
For example, could you offer an Amazon.com gift certificate to thank applicants for applying? Or maybe a discount at your store? Or better yet, think viral, and see if you can’t give rejected applicants something they can share with friends … even if they were rejected for employment, they’ll have reasons to speak positively about you to others. That will lead to an improved brand overall, and might lead to new candidates too.
Unless you are a chronic job hunter who distributes your resume like an STD, the hurt of rejection stings, and more importantly, sticks with you. Now if I’m rejected by IBM, does that mean I’ll never buy one of their products again? Maybe!
I agree that simply hearing a human voice say, “sorry, we’ve decided to go in another direction,” leaves the candidate grateful. Most people just want to know - either way.
I think it is more an issue of respect. If someone has taken the time to apply for a position, they deserve the courtesy of a reply to let them know where they stand. If a job seeker has called with questions about a job ad, it is fair to expect a return phone call, yet little over half ever receive a phone call back.
Likewise if someone has interviewed for a position, the courtesy of a call, not an email to let them know the outcome is reasonable to expect.
A wonderful HR professional I know who has recently been looking for employment commented how frustrating he found the process. He spent an hour and a half applying for one particular job through a company online application process. He then received a generic email your not suitable for the role which was fine. Also included in the thanks but not thanks email was some curt text around it is your responsibility to keep your details updated and current on our system. Now this is perhaps taking it too far. The effect of this approach is as you would expect, he longer has any interest in working for this company.
[...] much of what we know about social media can be leveraged for recruiting. Even when it comes down to rejecting candidates you can create a positive experience and encourage viral spreading of your [...]
Kelly - I agree wholeheartedly that it’s about respect. But I think to motivate employers to be more responsive (and respectful) it makes sense to point out that providing candidates with a great candidate experience will result in positive returns for the employers. There’s an ROI to being respectful, which should motivate even the most disinterested HR departments or companies.
I have to wholeheartedly agree with the sentiments here that it’s both respectful and profitable to treat candidates well. Every company can produce a standard e-mail to send to candidates to say “sorry”. It doesn’t take that much time. If you start from scratch it can take two days to create a job application, even in you’ve already a CV you’re counting on at least an hour, so three minutes from a company to respond is not too much.
The recruiting process is often the biggest experience anyone will have with the internal workings of a company, you get to experience their value systems, how they treat each other and yourself. Of course, it is all about marketing, the company, the position - the candidate is selling too. Yet, it’s so easy to make both a good and bad impression. A small effort from an employer can make a big difference in terms of ROI and profits. A rejected candidate that was treated really well could easily turn into a great reporter of how good the company is. Treat candidates well!
Richard - You’re absolutely right, and thanks for stopping by and commenting. Much appreciated.
Receiving a response would be great.
I wonder at times if the electronic submission even went thru. A response would be an affirmation. It would also be nice to know when the position is filled.
Connie - even an autoresponder would be worthwhile to let you know that a submission was sent. So I agree with you 100% on that.
And knowing that a position is filled makes a lot of sense - just having a sense of where you stand in the hiring process would benefit a lot of applicants.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting!