In 2015 marketers were due to spend $514 billion worldwide advertising their companies products and services. All this money is spent to attract more customers and to generate more sales. The engagement of customers is top priority for businesses, and if done right, it will create new and return customers.
So would you ignore a customer…of course not!
This brings me to my pet hate. All too often in the recruitment industry, both in-house and agency recruiters, ignore their candidates. This happens in a number of ways, the most common are:
- Candidate emails are not replied to.
- Job applications are not replied to.
- Phone calls and voicemails from candidates are avoided.
Throughout my career in the recruitment industry, I have been passionate about the service that recruiters provide to candidates and I believe we should treat candidates like customers. After all, there is a good chance that in the future, some of today’s candidates will be customers.
Imagine you see an advert and decide to buy the product advertised, but the company ignores you. Would you ever consider buying from that company again? No, I didn’t think so!
One of the most common complaints from recruiters is that there just isn’t enough time, so here are some time-saving tips to help you communicate with candidates:
Job adverts:
Make sure you include a call to action on all job adverts. I know it sounds obvious, but adding “Apply now” or “Apply here” will encourage the candidate to do so, rather than spending time finding you on social media or emailing you. You could also include a sentence like:
At #Company Name# we receive many applications every day and use an applicant tracking system to help us make sure we hire the best candidates possible. By applying for a job using our careers site, you can be assured your application will be received and you will be kept up to date with its progress.
Emails:
I wouldn’t recommend going as far as an auto-reply, but there are other ways to speed up replying to the applications you received overnight. If you use outlook you can use the auto-text “Quick Parts” feature.
Try using something like:
Hi,
Thank you for your CV. The best way to apply for jobs is to visit our careers site here. We receive many applications every day and use an applicant tracking system to help us make sure we hire the best candidates possible. By applying for a job using our careers site you can be assured your application will be received and you will be kept up to date with its progress.
I have added your CV to our applicant tracking system and you should receive updates from this email address ATS.email@domain.com
Best Regards,
Name
Phone calls:
If you are going to be a recruiter, you need to accept that your job is to work with people and you are going to need to speak to people on the phone. In fact, I enjoy this part of the job. Sometimes as recruiters, we are busy and the only way to complete our daily tasks is to bury our head and ignore all distractions. If you need to do this then set up your voicemail. Try using something like this:
Hi, you have reached the voicemail of #Iain Hamilton#. Thank you for your call, unfortunately I am unavailable at the moment. If you would like to apply for one of our open vacancies you can do so by visiting #www.company.com/careers_site# where all our current vacancies are listed.
ATS:
This is the main tool in the application process and if set up correctly can help you communicate with candidates, ensuring they know what is happening with their application throughout the process. Most ATS systems have the ability to send notifications to candidates when their status is updated on the system. Here are some ideas of how notifications could be used:
Job Application:
Hi #name#,
Thank you for applying for the position of #job title#. We are currently reviewing all job applications and you will hear from us within 7 days on the status of your application.
All our jobs are listed on www.company.com/jobs and we encourage you to search and apply for any jobs which fit your profile.
Regards,
Recruitment Team
Company Name
Rejection:
Hi #name#,
Thank you for applying for the position of #job title#. We regularly receive a large number of applications for each job and unfortunately your application has not been successful on this occasion.
All our jobs are listed on www.company.com/jobs and we encourage you to search and apply for any jobs which fit your profile.
Regards,
Recruitment Team
Company Name
Summary
None of the advice above is groundbreaking but many recruiters and companies get it wrong. Remember the next time you think about hitting the delete button without replying, the candidate may just be a customer in the future. If your systems are set up to automate some of these emails, it doesn’t even need to be time-consuming!
