Employment in the headlines

Here is the digest from this week of employment in the headlines.  Hang on.

  • Employers cut 533,000 jobs in Nov., most since 1974
  • More than 10.3 million Americans were unemployed in November, the most in 25 years.
  • Bush told reporters: “Our economy is in a recession. This is in large part because of severe problems in our housing, credit and financial markets, which have resulted in significant job losses.”

Who do you think is on the front lines of this dilemma in our economy?  Corporate Recruiting departments for one.

Layoffs are always a tough time for Recruiting departments; with fewer openings and more applicants, the tension between job seekers and Recruiters escalates.  It’s like calling the cable company customer service person for the 5th time in a month - you may want to rip his/her head off even though you know it’s not his/her fault your cable is out again!

This tension is caused by the conflict of job seeker needs and Corporate Recruiter bandwidth:

  • Job seekers feel more desperate in times of massive layoffs etc.  It takes longer to find new employment and everyone’s senses are heightened in an environment of significant competition.  During this time, job seekers NEED more attention.
  • Job seekers may not “trust” that Corporate Recruiters are actually concerned about their ability to find employment and therefore doing all they can to help.  Job seekers NEED reassurance.
  • Recruiters are innundated with a significant increase in applicants for each job, reducing the time and effort they can give to each applicant.  Recruiters BANDWIDTH is minimized.
  • Layoffs in Recruiting Departments mean that at this crucial time in “candidate experience”, many recruiters are carrying larger requisition loads than in go-go hiring times.  Recruiters BANDWIDTH is stretched paper thin.

So what can a corporation do to ease the fears and concerns of their job seekers and provide Recruiters with a way to meet the needs of the candidates (customers).

OVER COMMUNICATE

Many ATS systems are set up to send a “Thank you” when someone applies.  Many Recruiting Departments feel this is enough effort and FAIL to communicate when a requisition is closed or put on hold or filled.  The “BLACK HOLE” of recruitment gets bigger in difficult times because rather than face the tension mentioned above, companies hide from it.  The effect is that the tension INCREASES instead of subsides.

Most ATS systems have the ability to automate communication when a requisition is closed (if yours doesn’t, then send this post to your ATS vendor and ask them to help you solve the problem) and ALL ATS systems have the ability to custom craft an email for this “end of the line” communication.  Fix the black hole by crafting an honest, caring email and make sure everyone gets it:

Thank you for your patience while we executed our hirng process for the Accountant 2 position you applied for.  Unfortunately this position has recently been closed.  You’re application will remain active in our system for the next 12 months and we will certainly call you should a similar posiiton come open.  In the meantime, we wish you the best of luck in your job search.  We realize these are unique times and while we wish we could hire everyone who applies, we simply can not.

Or even better yet - put an offer in your email to help them find work!

Thank you for your interest in a position with <company>.
We realize that you recently applied for the Accountant 2 position.  Unfortunately that position is no longer vacant.  We encourage you to check our website to see if there are other positions that match your background.

If you don’t see a role with us that is of current interest we would still like to assist you in finding a new position by introducing you to other great companies who may be able to give you the position you seek, right now.

<Company> is a Member of AllianceQ - a partnership of leading companies collaborating to increase our ability to find the world’s top talent.

It’s an easy, free and confidential service.  Simply share your background and what you desire in a new job.  In addition to being considered by <Company>, you are automatically and anonymously considered for thousands of other opportunities with leading employers every day.

To join AllianceQ or for more information, visit: http://www.AllianceQ.com/company

Again, thank you for considering <Company> in your job search and we look forward to considering you for future opportunities.

This communication is guaranteed to reduce tension and provide the job seekers hope and a continuation of their job search.

All they really want.

December 5, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment 

Paying it Forward

It is good to see that in this tough economy, people have not lost their ability to sympathize with those who are conducting a job search.  Great post by Kelly Dingee on Fistful of Talent on this subject.

That said, I am amazed at how many recruiting departments are OK with continuing to let candidates sit in the “black hole” of recruitment.  This “black hole” is created by not communicating with candidates outside of the original “we got your application” email that is sent by the ATS.  I estimate that anywhere from 50% - 85% of the candidates that apply each year to Corporate America hear NOTHING after this acknowledgment! 

Now back to “paying it forward”.  Recruiters don’t want to deliver the “no thank you” message for fear that they will be inundated with calls from candidates asking “why not?”.  These are long held beliefs that seem to be driving business process decisions even though it is unfounded.  I know of several F100 companies who communicate with ALL candidates after the initial aknowledgement and close the loop with 100% of the applicants - WITHOUT this imaginary call volume.  They simply give the candidate information that they are longing to have AND are offering them help in continuing their job search.

Pay it forward is as simple as choosing to communicate with your candidates and giving them information about their application.  Really, it is very simple.

November 25, 2008 | Filed Under Industry Commentary | Leave a Comment 

Problem or Opportunity?

In an article from Monday by Dr. Sullivan titled;

Managing Recruiting During an Economic Downturn: The Top 10 Action Steps to Take

he also mentions “10 Recruiting Problems You Might Face During Tough Economic Times”.  Problem #4 is of high interest to me.

An increased volume of traffic. Normally, all great recruiters focus on the employed candidate (the so-called passive candidates). However, layoffs and high unemployment may mean that some high-quality people are now available among the ranks of the unemployed. Unfortunately, if you actively recruit during tough times, the volume of mediocre but enthusiastic unemployed people who will apply for your jobs will also increase dramatically.

So I’m a glass half full guy and see this as an opportunity and not a problem.  Increased flow of applicants during times of higher unemployment is one of the greatest opportunities a company has to cement its employment brand as positive.  How you treat the “mediocre but enthusiastic” (really judgemental and subjective and NOT my words) applicant today dictates your success when the unemployment rate dives and we are back fighting for talent.

Here’s the logic.  When you have 5 openings in marketing (as opposed to 55 during high growth boom days) it is very easy to classify really good candidates as “mediocre and enthusiastic” because it’s a sellers market and you and your hiring manager can be as picky as possible for these few hires.  But when the market comes back and it is once again a buyer’s market (we all know it will happen) how you treated these candidates will come back to bite you.  Remember, we are still in the age of Facebook, myspace, the vault etc. so if you fail to make a positive impression on the hoardes of people who need you today, you will find yourself wanting when you need them.  And you will.

Here’s the action plan (so simple it’s crazy that it isn’t being done by most companies):

  1. Disposition everyone.  No, not only in the ATS to cover your EEO butt but actually communicate with everyone who has applied to your company through the automated email process available in everyone’s ATS.  Most companies don’t understand that not communicating with someone who has applied is NEVER an acceptable business rule.
  2. Talk to anyone who meets minimum qualifications.  Really, you don’t have time?  5 openings in Marketing?  What are you doing if you aren’t talking to candidates?  Find the candidates who meet your needs today or who MAY meet your needs in future growth times and treat them like diamonds, not dirt.
  3. Give people reasons.  Again, most ATS vendors allow you to add a reason; doesn’t meet minimum qualifications, wrong location, salary too high etc.. but recruiting departments turn off this functionality because they don’t want to “upset” a candidate (meaning they don’t want to have to defend their decision in the event a rejected candidate calls)
  4. Don’t trust me, trust your candidates.  Again, you have time (I know you do) so hold an impromptu candidate focus group and find out what your candidates (selected and not selected) want from you.  You’ll find they simply want communication and not to fall into the black hole that corporate recruiting departments create to protect themselves.

The true measure of your employment brand is how you treat the people you CAN’T hire, not how you treat the people you desperately need.

October 22, 2008 | Filed Under Industry Commentary, Industry Perspectives | Leave a Comment 

Are Recruiters solely responsible for the ‘Black Hole’?

Here is an interesting article by Dana Knight that references two issues near and dear to my heart; a candidate’s right to know where they stand with regards to an application and the ‘black hole’ that exists in the job search process. Have a quick read:

I’m in search of a humongous black hole filled with millions of job applications and resumes. It has to be somewhere, because every other day I hear from someone who sent out a resume to a company and it “disappeared into some black hole.” Never heard of again.

It seems employers are forgetting their manners, being provocatively rude and outright snubbing potential candidates. Now I have no hard stats to prove this. But lots of you have been writing in to say, “What’s up with this?”

http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news4502.html
Hartford Business, 7 February 2008

I believe all candidates deserve timely communication when they apply for a job. After all, didn’t the Company advertise the job? Would we purposely drive traffic to our company and then treat people so poorly they write to journalists to complain?

I realize this IS an issue and many companies are actively working on it. However, before you start blaming 100% of the ‘black hole’ issue on Corporate Recruiting departments, did you know that up to 40% of emails never get delivered to their recipients? So maybe, just maybe, some of these “you didn’t get the job” emails end up in spam boxes or junk mail boxes and then the company is blamed for it? If you want to guarantee that your messages are being delivered and your candidates are actually being communicated with check out this company; http://www.mailprimer.com/home/

June 18, 2008 | Filed Under Industry Commentary | Leave a Comment