Todays Jobseeker may be tomorrows customer

Matt Steel-Jessop, managing director of HR software specialist P&A Software Solutions, discusses the importance of maintaining a good relationship with job applicants and the benefits of online recruitment.

If you have ever been unemployed or made redundant you will be familiar with the roller coaster of emotions that arrive every day with the postman. It’s not necessarily the letter of polite regrets that leads to depression; at least you tried, and at least they had the courtesy to acknowledge your CV. What hurts far more and is far longer-lasting is the big black hole of not knowing; that creeping disappointment that overtakes you when companies fail even to acknowledge you exist.

Let’s take a look at the other side of the equation. For many organisations that find themselves fielding dozens or worse, hundreds of speculative letters of application, the resources of time and human effort can mount to intolerable levels - and that’s before any advertisements have been placed. The inevitable response is no response. Eventually it simply becomes impossible to reply to everyone.

To view this problem as merely an HR issue is to take a very blinkered approach. Prospective employees are often also consumers of products and even potential shareholders of the companies where they seek employment. They will form an opinion based on many things, not just high-profile advertisements and expensive marketing campaigns. A simple thing like the lack of a rejection letter can make the difference between someone having a high opinion of a company and utter contempt. So communication with job
seekers should be an integral part of the public relations of any organisation - in the same way that existing employees are informed of what’s going on.

Fortunately our electronic age means it’s far easier to solve the nightmare of sackfuls of unsolicited mail. For companies that find themselves weighed down by traditional recruitment methods, Internet-enabled systems provide a real alternative. What’s more, job seekers are increasingly turning to the Internet to access employment information and to post their CVs. The whole process can be incorporated into one seamless and semi-automated electronic operation where the benefits accrue not only to the organisation doing the recruiting but to the job seeker as well.

The most vital element of an electronic recruitment strategy is the adoption of online application as the preferred method. This means that all enquirers are encouraged to visit the company web site where details can be submitted online. Such a strategy immediately removes one large but essential administrative task - that of data entry. What’s more, it is to be hoped - although not assumed - that typographical errors are less likely when the applicant themselves is inputting the information.

Far more useable information can be collected from each applicant using multi-page application forms and information volunteered in this way is a great deal easier to manage; there is no opportunity online to scribble in the margin. Drop-down menus that only allow pre-determined answers, and multi-choice tick box options mean that the resultant data can be searched and sorted efficiently and accurately. Of course there are still opportunities for applicants to include self-penned paragraphs of their own.


The use of online ’killer-questions’ is also an extremely effective way to pre-sift candidates and deal with time-wasters. For instance, if a position requires the possession of a full driving licence, anyone responding ’no’ to the question Do you have a full driving licence? can be eliminated early in the process. An auto-responding email can be sent to the applicant informing them kindly that they are, unfortunately, unsuitable for the position. This use of personalised auto-responders ensures that applicants are informed of the progress of their application at all times. The essential message that the applicant gets is that the company cares, that it appreciates the application. It is this element of an electronic process that can bring about a revolution in the HR department and more widely where line-managers get involved in the selection process.

So the benefits of such systems are not only kinder to applicants but can save vast amounts of time and resources for HR departments. An online system integrated with a recruitment software package will enable management of the entire process with the minimum of staff and resources and is likely to bring significant cost savings. Where applications are made online it can be assumed that communication can be predominantly by email. And where email is used in place of printed letters, the costs and time taken in administration shrink by significant degrees.

Even if the job seeker is unsuccessful, their opinion of the organisation is likely to be unchanged at the least, and probably enhanced. For companies with really ’joined-up thinking’, where it is appropriate, there are all sorts of additional opportunities, such as, sending marketing messages with emails, special offers or opt-in newsletter offers. Today’s job seeker may be tomorrow’s customer. Being overloaded with applications is no longer bad news. It can be turned into a positive and extremely advantageous opportunity to maintain good relations and build a reputation worth having.