As a recruiter I talk to people looking for work nearly every day. One of the largest sources of frustration for them is that their CV was put forward to a role and nothing further was heard.
Now, unfortunately, many recruiters are as guilty as anyone else on this front, treating their candidates badly and not providing any feedback to them. This poor situation is often exacerbated by the recruiter's clients in turn not providing any feedback regarding unsuccessful CVs or simply not reporting that their situation has changed and they no longer need to make the appointment.
I cannot defend the behaviour of the recruiters; it is unprofessional and doesn’t help my industry, which has been fighting hard to shed a bad reputation developed 20 years ago. And it is difficult to defend the hiring company that doesn't provide feedback either. The end result is that candidates become disillusioned with recruiters and with the prospective employers too.
From your perspective, as an employer, we all know that bad news travels fast and good news doesn’t travel anywhere, so imagine what's being said about your company when you don’t acknowledge a candidate who has applied to your role, whether through a recruiter or applying directly to you.
Positive Rejections
I know we are all busy people and time is no-one's friend. Administration which doesn't help us toward our final goals gets in the way and is frequently put aside and ignored. Rejecting applicants can easily fall into this category ... but it's a mistake to let it do so.
The trick is to turn the rejection into a positive process if you can, and to make life easy for yourself along the way.
For example, I've created simple letter and email templates for my rejection responses so every applicant. They are brief, polite but in them I will also try and give enough information to allow applicants to understand why they are not being considered.
To try and make it a positive process, if an applicant is working in the right general commercial environment, I will add a little about the specific job opportunity in question and the referral scheme we operate, so if they know a person who would be a good fit they have something to pass on to colleagues and still gain from us. (As we've already discussed, it is human nature to only refer someone who will make the referrer look good, so offering this to a rejected candidate is still a safe course of action.)
For example, if someone without the right experience has applied for a role at my own company, Osirian, I might write back along these lines if they nevertheless show promise and are coming from the right general commercial background.
Dear ...,
Many thanks for your CV for our position as a (...)
I appreciate your application and would like to retain your CV on our records. We are anticipating further growth in future and would like the opportunity to invite you to be involved if appropriate at a later date.
Regrettably, for this position though, we have received applicants who have carried out (the activity) previously and as such are not able to progress with you.
We will be interviewing for the (...) position next week and we would be willing to look at additional candidates too. We would appreciate your help if you know someone who is looking to progress their career rapidly and has carried out (the activity) in the recent past or is currently doing it. As you are aware from your own application, the post represents an opportunity for the person you might refer to us to (details of some of the ongoing opportunities).
Should you know anyone suitable, as a way of saying 'thank you' we will forward £250 of Amazon vouchers to you if we hire your suggested candidate.
If appropriate, I hope to hear from you with your referral/s in the near future, and I will be in touch with you again should opportunity that's more applicable to you arise in the future.
Kind regards and best wishes in your career.
Colin Lapthorn.
Managing Director.
We don’t receive many referrals via this method but those we do are almost always very good, so it makes it worthwhile to go beyond a merely polite refection letter. (Once you've prepared a letter like this, you can always set it up as a template to base future letters on, keeping the time required to a minimum.)
Even if the unsuccessful applicant doesn't seem to show much future promise and/or doesn't work in a suitable commercial environment so is unlikely to be able to suggest a referral, I will still always make sure we reply. A few simple words such as 'good luck with your search for a job' can go a long way. As they say, it costs nothing to be polite. And, issues of politeness aside, whatever the precise nature of the reply, your aim should be to leave even the disappointed applicants feeling that your company is decent. Doing so will reflect well on you in future - and your reputation as a good company to work for will be preserved.
Next Time:
Setting and structuring the initial interviews.
No comments:
Post a Comment