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.