Are we sometimes forgetting that there are real people behind the resumes?
When I came across this article a while back titled Be Nice to Job Seekers. (They’re Shoppers, Too), I shared, tweeted and added it to a blog post right away. It’s core message: How an organization treats people “well before any of them become employees, says a lot about it, its brand and its values.”
I’ve been mulling over this issue yet again after reading a couple of back-to-back blog posts in recent weeks. The first was titled We Should Be Ashamed (ouch) by Kevin Wheeler. He touched upon some of the real frustrations those in his circle are encountering while on a job hunt:
· Poor quality (and that’s putting it nicely) career sites
· The all too often “tedious process” involved in uploading a resume into an ATS
· A total lack of response – even when the applicant had been referred by an employee (This one makes me sad. So not good!)
Mr. Wheeler is not alone. I am hearing much of the same from my circle and some of this, let’s admit, is not new news.
I’ve had people ask me more than once something along the lines of, “Is it really worth it for me to submit my resume through a company’s career page? Every time I fill out one of those online forms, I get a standard ‘thank you for submitting your resume’ message and that’s about it.”
This post on Laurie Ruettimann’s always entertaining Punk Rock HR blog posed that same question from a reader:
I have had a feeling that all my responses to internal job boards are being sucked into a vast black hole of effort and time. Over the years I can honestly say I have only been contacted by a single company and I have responded to probably more than 100 postings … how else is a candidate supposed to get in touch with the right people?
Even before the advent of today’s social networking websites, HR has benefited tremendously from the network created via employee referrals. Employee Referral Programs, particularly those that are well thought out and executed, continue to be the most productive pipeline for good candidates. My advice to the weary job seeker usually starts with: Let’s take a look at who you know.
Now, let’s consider another question often floated about by job seekers – whether active or passive – to their friends, family and acquaintances: “What do you know about COMPANY X?”
What’s the word on the street about your HR Department? If it’s overwhelmingly negative (“Don’t bother with ‘em, that company’s HR Department is just a black hole!”) you’ve got a real problem.
Take a look at how your organization is managing its flux of resumes (and the people behind them) these days. Be sure that you are implementing the processes that demonstrate courtesy and respect for their time and interest. There are lots more people checking out your job openings and ultimately talking about their experiences.
Theoretically migrating the application process from paper to electronic is a great idea, it saves a lot of trees!! The challenge from the employment side is wading through the responses to find the qualified applicants. In a weak job market job postings receive numerous applications and that alone makes it unrealistic to personally correspond with each applicant, which is equally frustrating for the recruiter as it is for the applicant. The last thing (I would hope) any employer wants is a bad rep from the application process after investing serious resources in getting the applicants attention in the first place.
It is absolutely critical that an application/resume be relevant to a job description or requirement. For example: having a goal statement thatm says you want to be a Registered Nurse in the Emergency Department while applying for the Cath Lab will not get a response!
Employee referrals is one of the best ways for a candidate’s application to be seen. It’s also helpful if the referring employee (or the person listed as the referring employee) actually contacts the recruiter! On-line applications usually have a place to list referrals.
There’s probably a webinar in this someplace.
Agree with J. Lavery, a reliable TMS is critical to a burgeoning talent acquisition practice and its automated functionality has to be leveraged to some extent. It really doesn’t take that much time, though, to overlay a personal touch from time to time. We use an administrative assistant to make phone calls…yes, phone calls…to candidates who submitted reasonably qualified resumes but don’t make it to a “short-list”. Most of the time the candidate doesn’t even answer the phone and only a message needs to be left. We’ve trained our admin to respond to the tough questions/comments like “why not me” or “can I come in and meet with someone anyway” or “you guys suck.” By and large, though, we’ve received extremely positive feedback. There’s nothing worse than not knowing…a simple call gets the good people past that. And yes, street cred means everything in the recruiting game…thx for the insights.