We’ve all been there. We’ve spent time researching a company, perfecting our CV, painstakingly writing a cover letter, and then finally submitting the application… only to be met with radio silence. A couple of days go by and we put it down to how busy the company is. A couple of weeks go by and we start to think, maybe they never even received the application? For whatever reason, we’ve all experienced that disappointing and self-doubting feeling of not getting a timely reply from a company, or maybe not getting a reply at all. Ultimately, companies don’t always respond to applicants for a variety of reasons.
From a company perspective, it’s completely understandable how traditional methods of recruitment led to this problem. Your inbox is flooded with CVs and it’s nearly impossible to respond to each and every applicant.
From a Talent perspective, it has become accepted that not all companies will reply. Recent studies show that 75% of candidates don’t hear back after an interview. While some candidates might brush this off, sometimes a bad application experience can lead to a bad perception of the company.
CareerBuilder found that an overwhelming majority of candidates – 60% in fact – outlined a bad interview experience as “the Employer never bothered to let me know the decision after the interview”. This has negative knock-on effects with 42% of applicants never seeking employment at the company again, and 22% even dissuading others from applying there too.
We know it can be difficult saying ‘no’ to candidates. There are lots of reasons why an applicant hasn’t made it to the next step, and sometimes it can be beyond your control. There can also be so many applicants to a role that it is simply time-consuming to respond to each one. Understandably, many talent acquisition specialists or in-house recruiters take the approach of saying nothing and hope that this is enough to convey that the answer is ‘no’.
The problem with doing this, however, is that the Talent receives no closure and as a company, you miss out on the opportunity to leave a positive impression on not just a potential candidate – but a potential customer too. When it comes to recruitment, silence isn’t golden!
So, how can you turn a negative outcome into a positive experience for a candidate?
Always Respond to Applicants
At the very least, make sure to get back to your applicants. On Jobbio, you can do this by using our autoreply feature which allows you to respond to Talent en masse. This enables you to make sure that everyone gets the response they deserve.
Inject your Company Culture
For instance, a brewery on Jobbio offered candidates that they didn’t accept a beer on the house. This is a great way of not only getting back to candidates, but also offering something that feels personal and distinct for that specific brand.
Although it’s not required to go as far as this example, this gives you an idea of how creative you can get when responding to Talent. Ultimately, you can tailor your response to match your company’s tone of voice and culture, and you can be as creative as you like.
Keep them in your Talent Pool
A “no” for one job might not necessarily mean “no” for everything. Even though that person may not have been the top choice for that role, it doesn’t mean they’re not a great Talent and worth keeping in contact with. Rather than keeping them “on file” with an outdated CV, you can build a live Talent pool on Jobbio. So, when a relevant role arises in the future, you will have their most up-to-date details and can contact them right away.
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Tailor your autoreplies and build your own Talent pool on Jobbio. Here’s how Jobbio works for Companies:
