Business Wisdom for the Recruiting Department
An article in today’s USA Today spoke to the lengths that retailers (specifically electronics companies) are going to to “keep customers”.
”now is when I most want to keep my customers, because it’s much harder to get new ones”.
Is anyone taking this stance for candidates? Probably not. It seems that in our world of too many job seekers for too few jobs, we are more than willing to treat our candidates as if they are in infinite supply.
But this is a dangerous mistake. The candidate who applies for a role at your company today may turn out to be a customer or even worse, someone you desperately need to hire in 2010. How you treat them today WILL dictate how the perceive your company in every interaction in the future.
I’m not advocating sending fruit baskets to everyone who takes the time to apply to one of your open positions (chances are they applied for the wrong job for a myriad of reasons) but at the very least, you need to close the “black hole” and communicate with everyone, both thanking them for applying AND letting them know the final disposition of their application.
You can do it, your ATS can automate it for you. You just have to realize that it’s not a burden to do it. It IS the right thing to do and it’s just common business sense.
First, I would like to applaud Bayer for the efforts they are making to find suitable candidates. Let me give you my experience with Bayer.
I have over about 20 years of experience in operations and maintenance of HVAC , steam, hydraulics, and utility systems and associated equipment. Maintenance is maintenance regardless of the industry. It is a mindset for maintenance. I applied for a psition at Bayer, but was not called in for an interview. The same thing has happened to a friend of mine with over 15 years of experience. HR makes comments like, not an exact fit for the position. So what is an exact fit?.
May be HR can look at candidates more closely.
Ben Venktash, FRSH(UK), FIET (UK), REA, CHCM