Editor’s note: This article was first published in April 2012. Its mention of SMS as one of the new channels for contacting candidates reflects 2012.
This example is based on a company that receives dozens of CVs every day and whose selection processes are open to hundreds of candidates. The way it treats and communicates with candidates can be applied to any kind of company, whether small, medium-sized or large, and it rests on a few key principles:
a) The company’s own image: everyone who approaches the company, in whatever way, is important and deserves the company’s time and respect.
b) Understanding: the company understands the candidate’s hopes and enthusiasm about taking part in its work, and keeps them informed and interested in the company.
c) Mutual benefit: I gain up-to-date, suitable candidates for future selection processes, and they speak well of my company because I make them feel valued from the very first contact.
What should I do, and what do I get out of it? Read on.
Communicating with potential candidates
Let’s start from a basic matter of good manners: everyone who approaches us deserves our time and our respect. Under this simple, elementary principle, every person who comes to our company with their CV, whatever their chances of success, deserves to be taken into account and listened to.
Today, computers make these processes faster. Let’s respond courteously and kindly to their hopes and expectations, and send a letter, an email or some other message to every potential candidate who offers us their education and experience so that we can work together.
We gain in trust, in quality, in image and in respect. Let’s put ourselves in their position and remember how we feel when we send a letter somewhere and nobody bothers to reply, either yes or no.
If our company has an online form for entering applicant details, it’s even easier, because the system itself sends out the letters and messages.
Let’s not forget to change the wording of these letters from time to time. Give just the right amount of information, without raising expectations, but acknowledging receipt of the CV.
Communicating with candidates during a selection process
Candidates have greeted the opening of a selection process with excitement and hope. They have taken the first tests and are waiting for the results.
This is real. Let’s put ourselves in their place and resolve that insecurity and uncertainty. Let’s give constant, timely information about the process. Let’s tell the candidates who have passed the first tests what the next steps are, but… let’s also tell those who have been ruled out that they were unsuccessful.
Technology opens up new channels: email, text messages or, most effective and most thankless of all, a phone call. Everyone deserves to know where they stand and what came of their efforts. This brings us back to image and respect. We never know whether we will cross paths with that candidate again in another process, nor what they will tell their circle of contacts about our company. So, for better or for worse, it is important to keep all candidates informed throughout the selection process.
From the candidate’s point of view
How many CVs can a candidate send out while looking for work? Countless.
From most of those companies they will never hear anything again. They will assume their application has been rejected and that they are of no interest. And they will tell their friends and contacts: they never replied to my application.
From other companies, however, they will receive a courtesy letter telling them that they are not suitable for the company at this time. They will feel disappointed and rejected, but they will also be convinced that someone at the company took the trouble to read their application and reply. For a moment they will have felt important to that company, and what they will say is: they turned me down, but they had the decency to tell me.
The effect on the company’s image and perceived quality will be very different, and the cost of doing it is minimal.
Featured image: CHP, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
