As a job-seeker, I do get mad sometimes at the companies who has held back my application for years. There are some minor tips that recruiters really should take into accounts in order to take their employer brand to the next levels.
Confirmation emails upon application receipt
It only takes you only some seconds to send a confirmation to the applicants that you have received his/her application. This will tranquilize the applicants that their applications have reach desired destinations, rather than ending up at no-where. Later on, this would save time as well , when you would not receive several calls per day from the applicant, asking whether you have received their CVs or not. If possible, state estimated time that applicants would hear back from you.
Inform, when someone is not selected
This is a very common mistake and recruiters may not know how irritating it is to wait endlessly for a job that you’d never get. Please, do a favor: reply to applicants to tell them that are not chosen, even it is not a nice thing to say. And please, do that in a approriate period of time. Do not keep the application for months. Some recruiters may defense that there are a huge amount of applications to deal with, and they do not have time to reply one-by-one. Then, contact your IT supporters. 6 years ago when I was working in a head-hunter, I have started to use bulk email service, where you are capable to send thousands emails in a click.
Some other recruiters may say when deadline is approaching near while they have not found the right person, thus cannot yet close the vacancy and cannot send rejection email by then. Admittedly, 90% you would never choose the person once you overpass him/her from the very beginning. So, inform them, maybe after 2 weeks, that they are not a suitable person you are looking for right now. Then, they can move on. Silent game is not working in this situation.
Detach your job description from job sites when the vacancy is fulfilled
Do not let them stay there forever. Even though the job site usually has an option for you when to hide your job ad after a defined expiry date, some recruiters are not looking at this function at all. When an applicant see an available job ads, he/she will feel motivated and jump into action, creating a polished CV and cover letter, which later on will be rejected because the position has been filled! This creates an unprofessional image of the company and more seriously, you might have just lost an potential talent for your company. Receiving and replying application for a filled position is a waste of time as well. Build a good data of where you post your job ad and keep a close look at them. Once a position is filled, take off all relevant job ads out of job sites.
If you have noticed, each of the above actions do not take you more than 5 minutes to complete and basically cost you almost nothing. Spending some more minutes just before lunch time on these will bring an exceptional outcome to your employer brand. Job-seekers would have a feeling that you respect their time and career path!
Duong Doan 