Why It’s Important to Keep Job Seekers in the Loop
Mutual respect is one of the biggest problem areas for employers and job seekers to tackle, and how you handle a job application can reflect more on your company than you think. This article provides employers with tips on how to handle their recruitment process.
Imagine this, you’ve recently advertised a role with your business on SEEK and begin to receive applications. The first one you see has failed to include a cover letter and doesn’t meet your key selection criteria.
What do you do?
a). Delete the email and/or place the job seeker into the Not Suitable category
b). Nothing, just leave it and don’t respond
c). Write a response to the job seeker explaining why they’re not fit for the role
d). Send the job seeker a generic template to explain they’re not suitable for the role
If you answered a or b, read on, as this article explains why you might want to re-think your recruitment process. If you answered c, or d, well done, you deserve a high five, but this article can still benefit you too.
Back in 2015, SEEK conducted extensive customer research to identify the biggest problems for job seekers. The top five problems were all centred around the post-apply experience:
- submitting an application and not hearing back from the employer
- not getting any feedback
- worrying that the application was going into a black hole
- not being aware of how their application was progressing
Taking all of this into consideration, we added some new functionality to the SEEK Advertiser Centre so that employers could easily manage applications while keeping job seekers informed of their progress.
What did we change?
When an employer views an application using the SEEK Advertiser Centre, a push notification and/or email are sent to the job seeker. “It’s almost like a reward for all the hard work and effort you put into an application knowing that a real human being has viewed your application,” says Lyndsey Woo, Product Manager of the SEEK Notifications team.
It’s a really positive signal to job seekers, and it puts them in a positive frame of mind. I think that’s what is encouraging people to go on and keep looking because they know that their efforts weren’t for nothing
Employers also have the ability to place job seekers into categories such as Shortlist, Interview, Offer, Accept, and Not Suitable. When an employer deems a job seeker unsuitable for a role, and marks them as Not Suitable, the job seeker receives an email notification after 48 hours to let them know that their application is unlikely to progress.
This email also provides job seekers with insights into:
- the number of other applicants
- the average number of jobs other applicants applied for within the last four weeks
- the number of jobs the job seeker has applied for
- how many job seekers met the employer’s requirements for this particular role
- if the job seeker met the employer’s requirements for this role
These insights help to put the job seeker at ease. If a job seeker hasn’t heard back from an employer and sees the same role re-advertised, chances are they’re going to reapply for the role. A simple message to mention they haven’t been successful and a reason, not only alleviates the job seeker’s stress but also sets the employer up for success (see example below).
Clear Communication is Key
Keep people informed along the way. A lot of the anxiety that goes with job hunting is underpinned by the unknown, the uncertainty and the lack of control, so where you can honour some of those for the applicant, why not?
At every touch point, the employer has the choice to offer feedback, to validate, to give thanks, to acknowledge, and I think those small acts can really change the experience for the job seeker despite the outcome of their application
— Sabina Read, SEEK’s Resident Psychologist and Ambassador
Where you can, ensure you’re openly communicating with your job seekers, whether they’ve been successful or not.
“It can be really bruising, because you put your heart and soul into an application and when they just disappear into the void and you hear nothing about it, you’re left wondering what you’ve done wrong (if anything), and the reality might be you’ve done nothing wrong” says Craig, who worked at a mainstream media company for 12 years and recently took a redundancy package.
Craig is a model job seeker. He applies for roles where he meets all the selection criteria, follows instructions provided by the employer, and wants to be an asset to his future employer. One thing which frustrates him as a job seeker is a lack of time frames and deadlines.
The Importance of Time Frames
Notifying job seekers when applications are due will ensure you receive them in time. “You need to meet the deadline but sometimes there are none, so you get the sense you need to get the application in quickly. I’ve started preparing for applications and when it’s time to apply you’ll find that the job’s closed without warning, and that can be very annoying,” Craig says.
He also believes job seekers benefit from “a time frame to work on because hearing nothing just leaves you hanging.”
For example, employers could say that they will only be responding to shortlisted applicants, or if the applicant doesn’t hear back after a month, they should assume that their application is no longer being considered.
Laura Paton, Global Talent Manager at print and software company PaperCut Software agrees:
Keeping up that communication even with the job seekers that you may know you’re likely to reject, it plants the seed in their mind that you do care about their application, and that reflects well on your brand and your company as well
Save Time With Templates
Don’t have time to send every job seeker a response? I recommend creating templates, even if it’s just in a Word document which you can copy and paste to send via email. Laura Paton explains why:
They’ve put the effort in, and you put some effort back. If I already have a template that is 95% written and all I have to do is write one more sentence to give the job seeker peace of mind that I am looking at their application, or the feedback they need that will potentially help them understand why they’re not moving forward, then I can get through a lot in one day.
Sometimes we get an influx of job seekers and at that stage we might be able to give a relevant reason, but it might not be personalised. For example, we may not be looking to bring in overseas job seekers at that time, so instead of giving a generic ‘thanks, but no thanks’ I’ll use an email that says ‘thanks for your application, but because of the local talent we have, we’re not looking to fill the role with overseas job seekers. Should you relocate here or get working rights in the future, reach back out.’ We try as best we can to identify a reason, and we have templates set up to send back to people.
Responding to job seekers not only alleviates their stress but also reflects well on your company. “Very few employers will respond and get back, and for those who do, I have the utmost respect, because they probably get a lot of requests for that sort of feedback, so to actually show that level of respect for job applicants is good, and it says to me they’re a good company and someone I’ll keep an eye on for future positions,” explains Craig.
The Benefits of Feedback
Feedback can be an incredibly useful tool for both employers and job seekers. Especially for people like Craig who sometimes takes 2 days out of his schedule to create a well-curated application.
If we’ve applied for numerous jobs and received no feedback, it’s not uncommon for self-doubt to creep in and we may wonder where we went wrong, feel disappointed, fragile, despondent, or hopeless
Invite feedback from applicants to ensure the job-hunting process is a learning opportunity for the hirer, not just job seekers. Every interaction with job seekers reflects either positively or negatively on the culture, values, process and professionalism of the organisation therefore it’s imperative to treat every job seeker as a valued and respected stakeholder, remembering that these applicants may apply again in the future — Sabina Read
Feedback can be as simple as providing a short reason why the job seeker was unsuccessful, or if requested, more in-depth comments on why it didn’t work out. Companies like PaperCut Software aim to provide feedback as they want to put their “employer brand out in the marketplace as a company who cares, who you will hear from, and even when you don’t get the role, you have a positive experience and you get feedback that will help you land your next role, or will help you develop further in your career,” says Laura Paton.
Practice What You Preach
Your recruitment process should reflect your values. At PaperCut Software, two of their values are ‘caring’ and ‘honesty’. “We really want to treat these job seekers as people and not just a name or an application on the screen, so where we can we want to make sure they’re not stressing and wondering when they’re going to hear back from us next. And also wondering ‘why?’ ‘Why didn’t I move to the next stage?’ Because that will just push them to apply for more and more roles that they’re not suitable for, rather than focusing their search,” Laura says.
Employers should also be wary of the way they treat job seekers, as this can affect them in the long-term, as Laura explains:
Any job seeker can become a customer, especially for a lot of businesses that are selling B2C, or even B2B, and if they have a negative job seeker experience, that may mean they choose not to purchase your products or may become a detractor in the market for your company or products
And, job seekers agree. “People who are applying for these jobs, they’re humans, and they’re potentially valuable assets, and if you treat them poorly or create a negative experience, you’re turning a potentially valuable employee into a lost asset, or a lost future client or customer”, says Craig.
We can help
“A lot of employers don’t use the SEEK Advertiser Centre to its fullest extent, so I think for hirers knowing that SEEK does help them close the loop and take the burden off them is really valuable”, says Lyndsey Woo. If you’re interested, you can find out more about the SEEK Advertiser Centre here.
What steps do you have in place to keep job seekers in the loop? We’d love to hear about it in the comments below.
