Rude awakening: treating job applicants courteously will have to become standard operating procedure for employers as the labor market tightens

HR Magazine, Sept, 2004 by Gene J. Koprowski

Susan Ross recalls sitting in a comfortable chair in front of the hiring manager's desk, waiting for the job interview to begin in earnest. But it never did. The manager never quite turned his attention away from the TV--and its broadcast of the World Series--to fully focus on Ross or the interview that was supposed to be taking place.

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"And it wasn't even a job in sports," Ross recalls.

Likewise, Tim O'Brien remembers interviewing at a major advertising agency--with an interviewer who ate pizza throughout their meeting.

"The person interviewing me was more interested in capturing all that cheese than in my responses to her questions," says O'Brien, who today is an executive in Pittsburgh.

Were these interviewers rude? Absolutely. Were they successful? No. Neither Ross nor O'Brien--both of whom are senior marketing professionals--accepted the job offers that later came their way from these employers.

Worst of all, these examples are far from unique. Although the experiences of Ross and O'Brien may fall on the extreme end of poor recruiting practices, they indicate a larger and potentially disastrous trend of providing poor customer service to job applicants--a trend that is sure to come back to haunt employers as the economy improves and the competition for talent heats up.

Uncertain Times, Neglected Manners

In the middle and late 1990s, when many employers were embracing the idea of the New Economy, job applicants generally were treated as potentially valuable assets. But after the stock market bubble burst and the economy stumbled, many companies started treating job applicants as something of a nuisance.

"They figured that they had their pick of talent, with the dot-com era over and the jitters after Sept. 11, that they didn't have to woo employees ... that people were desperate for a job and they could have their pick of whomever they wanted, whenever they wanted," says Richard Cronin, founder of Hedge-Cronin & Associates Inc., an executive placement firm in Des Plaines, Ill., and past president of the Chicago Chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management.

Adds Carol Kinsey Goman, president of Kinsey Consulting Services in Berkeley, Calif.: "When the dot-com bubble burst, some employers threw out everything that they learned about engaging talent. They threw out the baby with the bathwater. They were snotty to a lot of people."

Although the treatment of applicants has often been less than ideal, says Jim Huling, CEO of Matrix Resources, a staffing firm in Atlanta, the causes are more complex than recruiter indifference in a buyer's market. "In economic times in which there are more opportunities than there are great people to fill them, human beings in this industry have a good record of treating people as a resource," says Huling. But when "there are more people than great opportunities, we become overwhelmed by the volume."

Huling adds: "We are also overwhelmed by [applicants'] emotional needs. Being out of work is an emotional experience. For a single opening, there may have been 800 applicants, and 600 of them out of work, fearful of losing their homes. The intensity can be overwhelming."

To avoid drowning in applicants and their emotional needs, some HR professionals and hiring managers "commoditize" the hiring process, hoping to desensitize themselves to it. "It is a great danger--looking at an overabundance of job seekers as a problem," says Huling. "In the worst cases, HR people simply wish the job seekers would go away."

The Cost of Sour Impressions

Whatever the reasons for recruiters' cold-shoulder attitude, it can lead to a less-than-caring response at a time when applicants are most vulnerable--and most likely to remember and tell others about the unsympathetic treatment they have received.

"When people have a great experience, they tell a few people," says Huling. "But when they have a bad experience, they tell 10. If you create a very bad experience at a very emotional time for people, the magnitude of that experience is magnified by 10. They will never forget."

As the economy bounces back and job applicants once again have multiple employment options to choose from, bad recruiting practices will come back to bite employers, who may find their applicant pools dwindling, say experts. Whether on the street or via Internet chat rooms and bulletin boards, word can spread quickly that certain companies don't treat applicants--and, by implication, employees--with respect.

In other words, the hiring practices of some employers will have created a negative employment brand in the labor market.

"Companies spend millions of dollars on public relations and marketing and advertising to build their brands--but the way you treat an interviewee is public relations, too," says Huling. "Every time you don't return a call from an applicant, or treat someone carelessly, it creates a negative image with that person. They are not only job applicants; they are also potential customers for your brand. Or potential competitors in the future."