There Is No Excuse For Recruiters Posting Jobs Like This Anymore
What is THE most important thing to recruiters - you know the one thing they just cannot do without? It shouldn't be a hard question to answer……….. candidates. So, why is it then there are still many recruiters (both internal and agency side) that do their best to try and alienate the lifeblood of their careers?
Let me share with you what got me started this morning. This footer was on the bottom of a job advert from a well known recruitment company:
"Please be aware we receive a high volume of applications for every role advertised & regularly receive applications from candidates who exceed the job credentials. We will only contact you within the next 14 days if you are selected for interview."
What an utter cop-out!
What they really mean is this:
"We are so arrogant and full of ourselves we can't be bothered to take the time to engage with the one thing that makes us all our money - you the candidate. We don't care about you and quite frankly you are lucky to even have a conversation with us. Yes we have the technology to communicate with you, but why should we bother? We don't need you - you need us, so suck it up and just apply to the next job instead. You might be lucky then (or then again maybe not!)"
At a time when everyone in the recruitment industry is talking about candidate experience - shouldn't this be consigned to the deleted folder?
Everyone involved in recruitment knows there is acute skill shortages in many sectors again. Candidates are back in the driving seat and in many cases have multiple offers on the table for interviews and jobs. So why would you distance yourself and alienate yourself (as a recruiter) from potential candidates for your roles? It just doesn't make sense - especially when you consider that you can use technology to eradicate this very easily.
Every company now uses recruitment systems, and even they don't (and are still using the recruiters favourite, the spreadsheet), they all use email systems like Outlook and GMAIL. ALL of these recruitment systems allow you to reply to applicants to jobs - yes, even Outlook.
Whether you choose to set up an auto-response (via your recruitment system) to candidates (set up for either an immediate or delayed response) or whether you choose to do a bulk (bcc!) email response at the end of each day it doesn't matter. The fact is this should be the absolute minimum action you should do as a recruiter.
I know that it is impossible to deal with 300 applicants you get for those popular roles, by calling all the applicants or emailing them personally. The candidates don't necessarily all expect that. But surely out of professional courtesy (you are a recruitment professional aren't you?), these people who have taken the time to apply to the job you posted for them to apply to, deserve at least a response from you?
For every candidate you ignore, or don't get back to or treat with arrogance (as above), there will be maybe 5-10 other people that these candidates will speak to and tell them the experience they had with your company. Heck, they might even share it on their social networks! All for the sake of you being lazy with your process and technology.
So then think ahead to the next job you have - do a search for on your system. One of these candidates you ignored the first time could be right for the next role. They won't forget you ignored them the first time. But imagine if you had treated them properly? They would remember you then for the right reasons, and suddenly the conversation is so much more positive - and even if they aren't right they may well then be happy to share some referrals!
If you think I am being over dramatic - trust me I'm not. The BIGGEST complaint from candidates is exactly this - they send applications and CV's in for jobs and NEVER hear another word from the company or recruitment agency ever again.
The same applies for each stage of the recruitment process as well. Whether you interview these candidates, keep them on hold in the process as backup, reject them or the roles get put on hold, you must keep the communication consistent throughout the whole process - verbal and written.
And remember, candidates are like elephants - they never forget! The next time they are looking for a job, a friend wants a recommendation of who to apply to, or even when that candidate moves into a hiring role, they won't forget their own recruitment experience with your company. As the market gets even tighter over the next few years, this could make all the difference!
I work with recruitment agencies and corporates to help them understand and leverage the different social media networks to improve their recruitment strategy, recruitment process, candidate attraction, employer branding and content marketing strategy. If you require guidance, advice or social recruiting training, get in touch today.
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Comments 16
Alasdair D Murray (@Alconcalcia)
That’s a real ‘Page’ turner
Seems they put that on every one of their recruitment ads. Very lazy, very arrogant and very short sighted.
Mking
Yes, yes, and yes. We created an infographic centered around this very topic I thought I’d share:
link to qualigence.com
plus.google.com/107399125943688956625
This is my experience also when following up with candidates about the service they’ve received from me.
Candidates HATE not being acknowledged when responding to ads and rightly so
With today’s modern technology and tools like Logic Melon there’s no good reason not to do this
Bondizapp
Can’t agree more on “you must keep the communication consistent throughout the whole process - verbal and written”.
That’s exactly our purpose at https://www.bondiz.com
Gavin Johnston
Hi Andy,
Actually for the first time I do not agree with one of your articles… so I had to share my thoughts on this.
Let me start by saying that my answer is specific to the freelance market where there has already been a telephone contact with the candidate explaining the assignment and getting the approval to send the CV in.
My thoughts are the following: during periods of increased demands it is counter-productive to send a response to all candidates as it means we are talking to candidates rather than out prospecting and trying to get more requirements in. This is not good for candidates…
Obviously it is of utmost importance to have a (great) relationship with candidates. Obviously recruiters absolutely need to respect them. Obviously we need to be polite to them and make sure there is a good communication between us (especially for recruiters who operate in a niche market like us). However I am convinced that it is much better to contact candidates when there is no urgent requirement to work on and one can take 10-20 minutes to spend quality time with the candidate rather than spending time at the wrong moment to quickly write an email saying someone did not get the assignment.
Having said this I agree that from a marketing point of view putting that text at the bottom of an ad is off-putting.
I cannot speak for permanent recruitment as it is a quite different situation.
My 2 cents…
Gavin.
Andy Headworth
Nicely done the Alasdair!
Andy Headworth
Thanks Gavin, as you say you have a differing opinion. That’s great, let me try and answer accordingly, as I do think you have at it from a slightly different angle, which then opens the conversation up further
Firstly, the adverts that prompted me to write it are for new candidates not existing ones who are in dialogue - so I guess that aspect could apply to contract/interim or perm.
In answer to your point over time - I fully understand the need to be out there spending time doing what’s needed to place candidates. I am referring to technology that takes the legwork out of what you are doing and does it automatically.
The fact that you take the time to pick the phone up says it all. All I am saying is that look at the recruitment system you use and work out how best it can help you with your comms - especially when you have people contact you for the first time through adverts or your website jobs. The tools are there, it is just a matter of figuring out how they can help communicate better with more candidates. Doing it this way then allows you to focus on speaking to your candidates as you already do.
Think of at as a welcome addition to your process not a replacement.
I hope that helps explain where I am coming from?
Andy
Andy Headworth
Thank you Mking,
I will happily share that graphic.
Mking
Great, thanks Andy!
julia briggs
Hi Gavin
I am not sure that it is different in the interim market - maybe you are as a consultant and the way that you operate.
Firstly - not all consultants check that the CV can be sent
Secondly - a lot of agencies advertise on job boards for interim roles
Thirdly - any agency (temp or perm) could say that they should be out getting assignments. If you see it as binary - then I suggest you might want to think about hiring more staff?
Fourthly - I assume you get back to candidates you have approached to let them know if they are unsuccessful?
The rules, as I see it, apply to ANY candidate situation. Treat people with the greatest of respect.
Andy Headworth
Completely agree - it is what I hear every time I talk to candidates about the recruitment industry.
Gavin Johnston
Hi Andy,
Thanks for your reply and yes, we are looking at this from different angles.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to have a good relationship with the candidates so I definitely do not plan to treat them badly!
I think you are right on the fact that we do not use the technology enough. So far it has not been our top priority. Something to think about for sure.
Gavin.
Gavin Johnston
Hi Julia,
Thanks for your comments.
Interestingly I find it more disrespectful towards the candidates of not getting their permission before sending their CV in than not sending a mail or calling saying they did not get an assignment.
The thing about the market I operate in is that it is very very small. We only have about 4500 candidates to place. We also very rarely place ads. I don’t think I placed an ad this year yet. And it must also be said that we will cajole and provide feedback to a new contact. But as soon as the candidates know how we operate we will probably not always provide feedback if they don’t get an assignment. Obviously we will update the candidates on what happened the next time we have them on the phone. Typically it can happen quite fast (let’s say within the month) as we will be actively looking for assignments so long that the person is available. On the other hand it does happen that candidates find assignments rapidly through other channels and then we might only speak to them several months later and only update them then.
Rest assured that we treat our candidates with utmost respect. This is probably reflected by the fact that we are market leaders in our domain. All I am saying is that in the freelance world it is a balance, especially in a difficult market… but as Andy said technology can probably help.
Gavin.
Rebeca van Heerden
Couldn’t agree more Andy! A little courtesy goes a long way in the world of recruitment… As always thanks for the great blog post!
Adrian Thomas
Great piece and interesting debate. From an in-house recruitment perspective I always insisted my recruiters treat the ‘candidate as king’ - difficult when line managers are often trying to cut corners etc and putting enormous pressure on the recruiter. The piece focus’s on the unsuccessful candidates however recruitment (especially for the successful candidate) is a two way relationship - a candidate has to accept your offer of employment and if you have not treated them well through the process or they associate you with poor practice then they will simply take their scarce skills elsewhere!
Steve Carpenter
Bizarrely this practice is even common for HR roles where potential candidates are likely to be in the position to use agencies from the other side in the future.