Getting feedback for your HR job application or interview process
Applicants and candidates demand the courtesy of feedback
There is no shortage of conversation about hiring companies and recruitment companies who fail to acknowledge or provide feedback to job seeking applicants and candidates. Social media networks are buzzing with people expressing their ire, and going so far as to name and shame the culprits.
This feedback failure has been present for years. Ironic, when you consider all the money and effort that is spent on creating or shoring up company brands, and how it all goes to pot when a HR leader or recruiter or hiring leader fails to follow up with candidates - every one of whom is a potential customer or brand ambassador for the organisation. Of course contingent recruitment agencies and executive search firms receive their share of bad press, for their shallow “loving” of candidates when there’s a chance they’ll bring in a placement fee, and ghosting them otherwise. Various professional bodies and agency certifications have been tried to reduce this practice, but still it continues.
Of course, there are variations of this, with agency recruiters doing all the right things for communication, and the hiring leaders not giving any care. Or recruiters who don’t give any thought to protecting the brands of their employer clients, and those companies never knowing about the damage being done.
As with most things though, there is another view. We have our own KPI’s and checks in place to ensure diligence for keeping our candidates informed throughout our hiring processes, even if its just to report a delay, or “no news yet”, and certainly to report bad news for non selection or hiring need cancelled. And within our firm, we have had a no exceptions rule in place for years, on extending the courtesy of a response to every HR professional who would like us to help them find a new job. In doing so though, we continue to work through a can of worms.
Managing volumes of candidate feedback requires resources and strong processes
For context, we are a clearly niche, boutique sized firm. We receive around 200 unsolicited applications from HR leaders all over the world, every week in addition to the applications we receive for active retained search projects at any given time. This is a tiny number compared to many other search firms, and certainly nothing compared to IBM who apparently receive 8,000 applications daily.
Unsolicited applications coming to us range from “My Resume is attached, call me”, to detailed introduction notes explaining why we’ve been approached and what the job seeker is ideally seeking, to……..not even a one liner but simply a file attachment. Regardless of the professional courtesy (or not) shown in these unsolicited applications, we like to think we do a good job of responding to everyone.
Our thinking has always been that if someone has taken the effort to email us to request job seeking help, or applied for a career role that we’ve advertised, it is decent courtesy to acknowledge their contact and advise immediately whether we can assist, or not. We know that the biggest frustration of all job seekers at all levels, in all sectors and professions, is lack of acknowledgement. We’re making our own stand to help fix this even though the level of unsolicited applications we receive requires hours of staff time dedicated to managing that communication flow. We’ve made a deliberate choice to review every application in person, rather than applying an artificial intelligence scan and screen tool so that if we can help, we advise immediately. If we cannot, we send a prompt response from one of our team, personally signed and with a clear explanation of why we cannot assist. We don't claim to be able to assist all HR professionals, because our stable of clients and our hiring remits tend to be very precise and niche in scope. Plus we’re in the business of fulfilling hiring assignments rather than searching for work on behalf of job seekers.
Feedback acceptance from HR professionals isn’t always gracious
Our HR professionals outside of the UK, typically acknowledge our responses to their unsolicited applications with thanks – for the effort of replying and letting them know the result even though it isn’t as they’d hoped for, and thanks for giving a considered and personal response over any bog standard automated reply.
Our HR professionals within the UK however, fall into 3 camps.
1. Those who receive our response, and do nothing further – we don’t mind, we’re not asking for action.
2. Those who respond like their international counterparts – pleasantly surprised at receiving any kind of personal acknowledgement from someone in the much maligned (and often deservedly so) recruitment industry.
3. And those who are plain rude which really puzzles us. Emailed comments we’ve received from this group include:
“You don’t know what you’re talking about so do yourself a favour and put my CV through to your client if you want to make some money.”
“What a f*****g pile of s**t”
“Bog standard reply, don’t know why you bothered you moron”
“You’re wrong, your client will be p****d off at you that they’re not meeting me”
“I don’t understand why you haven’t bothered to pick up the phone to discuss why you’re declining me, but consider your firm blacklisted when I’m in a new role and hiring”
"I know I'm perfect for this job, so you will put my CV forward or else"
“You clearly don’t know your client’s requirements, and so I won’t ever use your firm when I need a recruitment agency”
And other such gems. Some even follow this up with an abusive phone call.
Bad behaviour will not help your HR job application
It’s puzzling, because these are invariably well educated, accomplished HR professionals, with 20+ years of work experience. They’re mature, life savvy, and supposedly in the peak of their careers. How do they not understand the knock-on effects of their reactions?
Do they not appreciate that it’s a small world and a relatively tiny professional community and we’re bound to run into each other at some point That as talent advisors within the HR community, we’re constantly asked for our official (and unofficial) opinions on person X or person Y within networking events? Rest assured, we continue to remember exactly who these people are.
Do they not understand that this kind of reaction to a polite and courteous response, forces us to question to how professionally they behave when facing negative or difficult situations in the workplace? And that whilst they may have not been the right fit for this hire, we would well have considered them for other roles, but that such a response assuredly discounts them from any further consideration - there is no amount of financial gain worth us putting our hard won reputations on the line to endorse anyone who poses this kind of risk.
Presumably, if they respond this way to us, they're taking the same approach to other firms. Where they may not be so lucky in finding a recruiter who just dismisses such silliness. Why would any HR person want to risk the ire of a stranger in a recruitment agency, given they've just shared all their personal and professional details including those of any current employer. A vindictive recruiter could cause some real inconvenience.
Maybe this venting is out of frustration with the whole job search process? I fully appreciate that when you’ve dealt with 99 muppets as part of your job search, you might well assume that the 100th contact is also a muppet and use the chance to let rip. I struggle to accept that its a genuine belief of British HR professionals, that any recruiter, anywhere in the world (agency or in-house) should drop everything to talk to them because they’re the only person in the world who could be the absolutely perfect fit for any given HR vacancy? Maybe it’s a by product of the much debated entitlement culture within the UK?
I just don’t know. But I can fully appreciate why this behaviour may cause companies and recruitment agencies to stick to automated and anonymous responses when it comes to managing job applications.
Damned if you do. Damned if you don’t.
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