None of us likes getting rejected. In the past, many of you have cited “not enough time” as a reason you don’t send job rejection letters or e-mails. The reality is, we’re all under various types of constraints in our jobs, and while some things are prioritized, others fall by the wayside. Communicating with candidates, however, is a vital step in the recruitment process — and one that you should not be dismissing. But how can you achieve this important piece of communication without taking a chunk of time out of your work day?

The problem is twofold:
1) Candidates say there are not enough employers following up with them (particularly post-interview), which creates dissatisfaction among candidates.
2) Employers say there is not enough time to respond to all (or, in some cases, any) candidates whom they don’t choose to hire. So what gives?

Why should you care?

• Respect. No one wants to wait in agony for the possibility of bad news. Candidates shouldn’t have to chase you down to find out whether they landed your open job; they have applications to send out and interviews to go on! Think of the rejection like a Band-Aid, and give candidates the bad news rather than putting it off and dragging it out.

• Reputation. While today’s candidates are selling themselves to you, you’re also selling yourself to them.  Your employment brand and company image is at stake. Keeping the lines of communication open will help you build and maintain relationships with candidates who may become your employees at a later date. And even if they don’t become your employees, reputation is a powerful thing. If you don’t give candidates the respect of knowing whether or not they can cross your open job off their list, they might tell a friend. Who tells a friend. And before you know it, candidates may start to avoid applying to your company. Customers may also see your lack of communication as a sign of how you will work with them. A little communication can go a long way in how candidates — and customers — see your company.

• Organize and save time. Aside from reputation, keeping this piece of communication in your recruitment process can actually help you organize your process and save time. Why field tons of calls or e-mails from irate candidates who haven’t heard back from you? Why put them through the agony, and why go through it yourself? For not a lot of effort, you can get a big return.

Who has the time? Yes, time is an issue. But with the right tools, you can spend as much time as you have (which likely isn’t much) to get your message out there. If you do have the luxury of time, you can go the extra mile with candidates — but in my experience, making even a small effort is better than making no effort at all.

“It’s important that employers not lose sight of communication with candidates, which is so necessary, particularly in our current economic environment,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder.

“While employers are facing many challenges in the recruitment process, they must remember that candidates are facing a unique set of challenges as well. By facilitating candidates’ job search process, employers are not only making the process less cumbersome for the people applying to their jobs, but also building a strong reputation and a culture of respect.”

Options:

• My Letters: My Letters is a free CareerBuilder Job Posting tool that enables you to create and save up to 20 different automatic response letters to send to job seekers after they submit an application to your job. With My Letters, you can get necessary information out to candidates quickly, easily, and effectively.  Create letters concerning the job position, needed candidate information, interview status, to alert of next steps in the process, to thank candidates, and more — and automate many parts of the recruitment communication process, without losing touch with candidates.

• Snail mail: While the heart may swoon at an ink-stained, handwritten letter sent the old-fashioned way, it’s not always the best option for your candidates. With that said, however, getting a response of some kind out, even if it is not as timely as e-mail, is better than nothing; at least candidates receive some kind of confirmation and closure. They can then either cross you off their list entirely or keep your company in mind for future opportunities (depending how open you keep that door in the letter, of course).

Tips for the best rejection letters or e-mails:

1. Be candid but gentle. Remember, this is a rejection — be respectful of candidates’ feelings and wish them success in future endeavors.
2. State a clear reason for the rejection; For example: “We have selected other candidate/s whose credentials were better suited to this position.”
3. Be honest. If there are other future opportunities and you will keep the resume on file or want a candidate to reapply in future, say so. If not, don’t. Don’t promise to keep a candidate’s resume on file if you have no intention of doing so, and if you do, state a specific time frame (six months, for example).
4. Be personal. Personalize the letter with the candidate’s name, position, and, if possible, a remark — or at least your signature.
5. While this is a rejection letter, it is still nice to compliment a candidate if warranted – “although your background and qualifications are impressive, we have chosen someone else for this position.”
6. Don’t send a postcard; this isn’t a “hello” from your Caribbean vacation, and it reeks of impersonality. A letter format is more appropriate. Plus, if you go the e-mail route, your costs are even more minimal.
7. Do not say who was hired for the position in question.
8. Respond to candidates in a reasonable amount of time.

You can check out examples of rejection letters here and here.

According to a Personified survey of 250,000 job seekers, nearly 60 percent of job applicants reported they never received a response from the last employer they applied to for a job.

With millions of job seekers applying to hundreds of thousands of jobs every day, it’s increasingly challenging for you, the employer or recruiter, to provide applicants with useful information about your hiring process. In fact, the “black hole” applicants enter once they apply to a job is considered by most to be the biggest challenge in recruitment today.

What are the consequences?

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that this absence of contact and communication leaves job seekers lost, frustrated, and lacking the information they need to manage their job search and career path. They don’t know who they’re up against, how they compare to other applicants or where the hiring process stands.

We’ve talked about this application black hole and the importance of communicating with applicants before, and while personal communication is ideal, it can be very time consuming to respond to candidates individually, particularly when the volume of applicants has increased in light of the recession.

But by not communicating with candidates, you are:

• Tarnishing your employment brand — frustrated candidates will start to think of your company negatively,  and will likely share their frustrations with others.
• Disrespecting candidates and showing them you don’t care about their needs in the application process.
• Making it difficult to maintain engagement with the talent pool into which you’ve invested so much money.

So, what can you do?

It’s apparent that employer/recruiter communication to candidates is very necessary — but often isn’t happening because of time or resource limitations. With this in mind, what can you do to protect your candidate relationships — and your company’s reputation?

Introducing hireINSIDER

hireINSIDER is working to solve the No. 1  issue facing employers and recruiters today: How can I communicate with candidates during the application process, when the time and resources necessary often don’t exist in a tough economy?
CareerBuilder’s new hireINSIDER solution serves both sides of the “black hole” problem by letting candidates know how they stack up against other applicants for a job, while also reducing the burden on you to provide constant, relevant communication to those whom have applied.

By getting an inside peek into the qualifications of other candidates, job seekers are able to better assess if they are a viable candidate for your job and the likelihood of you contacting them.

How?

Currently, hireINSIDER includes four key products, two of which are for candidates, and two of which are for employers.

A quick breakdown:

Job Competition Report –

• This report gives applicants a better understanding of who they are competing with for a job position.
• The report aggregates user-generated information (like education level, years of experience, and average current salaries) from applicants for a particular job listing.

Hiring Status Report —

• In exchange for sharing at which stage they are in the hiring process, job seekers receive an update on how many others in the aggregate applicant pool reported they were contacted by you, interviewed, hired or not contacted at all.
• Candidates can see if an you have made any actions on the job posting and, from there, evaluate his or her chances of getting an interview.

AppView —

• You, the employer or recruiter, can a deeper understanding of the type of talent applying to your open positions with AppView, a report that provides a real-time snapshot of the candidates whom have applied to your open positions.
• Quickly compare applicants (through metrics like current and desired salary, employment status and education level), ensure you are attracting the right candidates and become aware of changes you can make to your live job posting to enhance results.

Branded Job Competition Report –

• Get in front of job applicants with your company’s custom branding while they are using hireINSIDER data to evaluate their chances for a position.
• Job applicants who use hireINSIDER will get the higher-detail premium version of Branded Job Competition Report, wrapped in your customized branding and full of helpful, contextual communication provided by you.
• Let your applicants know what to expect from your hiring process, other roles that may be suitable for their profile, and more.

“hireINSIDER benefits employers who may not have the time or resources to respond to an increasing amount of applications in a tough economy.  By providing the feedback that job seekers need, it helps to alleviate the negative impact that a lack of response can have on a company’s employment brand,” said Brent Rasmussen, President of CareerBuilder North America.

If you want to find out more about how hireINSIDER can help your company manage your application process, call 866-438-1485 or send an e-mail to hireINSIDER@careerbuilder.com.

Last week, The Hiring Site ran a contest in which we asked you, “How does your company sell itself to ensure you win over your ideal candidates?“ Honesty, Family, Growth, Culture, Reputation, Respect, Listen, Communicate, Relationships, Understanding, Connect, and Fun — These are all words that, when reading through the near-600 comments to write this post, I came across more than once. In fact, you all talked about these concepts quite a bit when describing your companies — and that’s a good thing. This post focuses on the value-related responses I received; I’ll cover the more tangible ways you sell your company to candidates in Part II of this series.

You are fiercely proud of your companies — that is evident — and you have many ideas about how you’re getting an edge over your competitors, and what you think is important to candidates. Some of you even called out your competition in the comments themselves (we won’t mention any names).

There were so many great responses that it would be nearly impossible to talk about them all — but here are some highlights:

Honesty.

“We are honest with our candidates and don’t make outlandish promises. As one of my candidates said the other day, ‘You are the first recruiter to call me and actually tell me real information about a position.’ We also get to know our candidates, not as a candidate, but as a person. We want them coming back to us in the future.”
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“We use one on one conversations that are truthful and forthright to let our candidates know the true market they are facing.”
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“We make a point of being upfront and honest about our expectations for the position and who we are as a company. Starting with everyone on the same wavelength is absolutely vital.”

Family.

“Prior to a job offer, the candidate is invited to visit any of our six locations and talk with any crew members and/or manager, to experience our family oriented philosophy in action.”

Growth.

“Salary/benefits are black and white comparisons. It is the way a person perceives their place in the organization that will create a desire for them to be part of it.”

Culture.

“Our culture promotes a relaxed atmosphere that stimulates creative thinking, which leads to empowerment.”

Reputation.

“Even in times when we are not actively hiring, we continue to market ourselves in our community to keep the pipeline of interest open. Good community relations, name recognition, and good reputation are all very important in the efforts to continue to attract quality talent.”

Respect.

“We remember that all candidates have the potential to be or may already be customers. We treat all candidates in exactly the same way we treat customers – respect, gratitude and never taking them for granted.”
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“Every candidate receives a response to their job application – ALWAYS AND WITHOUT EXCEPTION.”
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“If we treat our candidates with respect and really listen to them — and find the right position for them — our company ’sells’ itself.”

Listen.

“We strive to change the negative image so many people have of the staffing industry. We are able to do this through creating a culture of responsiveness and empathy with our candidates and clients.”
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“Success begins by hearing the candidate first.”

Communicate:

“We’ve held several focus groups with diverse sorts of employees and engaged them in interactive discussions to understand what they like and dislike about our company, what keeps them here and what may cause them to leave. The information gathered was very consistent and defines our employment brand. We win over our ideal candidates because we have a very good self awareness and clearly communicate to candidates our strengths and weaknesses. It all adds up to new hires who are great cultural fits.”
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“We only use the internet and search engines for initial contact, after that we “go old-fashioned” and actually talk to our candidates. We build relationships as we’re in business for the long haul. You’d be surprised how many candidates make comments such as “I can’t believe I’m actually talking to a real person!”

Relationships.

“Simply stated, its about building a relationship with your candidate/customer.”
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“When we’re not hiring, we always conduct informational interviews to reference back to when a position opens up matching their skill set.”

Understanding.

“It is important to convey to the candidate that they are now your customer. In any good customer relation experience, the sales person/recruiter/etc. will seek to gain and understanding of what the customer wants and will seek to build a solution to satisfy that want.”
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“We’ve spent a lot of time and energy over the last couple years to understand our employment brand. The key here is to truly understand the brand – not what HR thinks we are, and not what we want to be, but what our current employees think we are.”
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“Most of us have been where our candidates are in terms of being out of a job. We can directly relate that to them if necessary.”

Connect.

“We win over ideal candidates by making sure the opportunities we present them with are a strong match for them technically and personally. It is one of the most basic expectations, yet is rarely done by most recruiting firms and wastes candidates’ time.”

Fun.

“We strive to keep our workplace a fun place to be. We constantly benchmark ourselves to other similar companies regarding benefits, compensation, and morale boosting activities. We actually do more “off-the-clock” get togethers than the norm to thank our employees and their families. One of my favorites is our annual truck rodeo. The winners go to the state competition. While they are competing, their bosses, including the President, is on the sidelines grilling and waiting on the employee’s family.”

Reality Check

While these are all excellent examples of how to set your company apart from your competition and reach your ideal candidates, it’s all for naught if you don’t first know who who and where your competitors are. Once you are armed with this knowledge, you can tackle your competitive gaps head-on and more effectively employ your candidate “sales” strategies. How do you find out this information, you ask? Check this out.

One Last Word…

I think this, from one commenter, really sums up the essence of a strong workplace — a workplace that cultivates candidate attraction from the ground up:

“No company can successfully run without happy employees.”

Agree with comments above? Disagree? What elements do you think are essential to win over your ideal candidates?