to wonder why it seems to be so hard for most organisations to send an email to tell a candidate they haven't got the job?

[IrianofWay]

Just a quick 'Dear candidate, sorry but you were unsuccessful this time'. Hell. even a text message would do.

Thing is dh works for a company that isn't actively recruiting. It's a small company of less than 40 employees. At the busy time they can be getting 5-10 applications per day, 99% of which have see absolutely no idea what the job entails and are nothing like what they will employ.
That 1% will get a response, either a thank you, not interested at the moment but may be at a different time. Or a telephone interview, about 3/4 at the telephone interview show they have absolutely no knowledge of something they have claimed to be experienced in.

And those who are saying it takes no time to do an email database. Well yesterday I was setting up a group of a subset of contacts in outlook to sent group emails out. Even though all the emails were already on the computer, it still took me about two hours to get them all grouped. That's a significant chunk out of the day.

OP, second interview, great news well done.

Don't ever work for charities, worst of the whole bunch - worked for big and small ones for close on 16 years. Foul to their staff, don't have unions, behave like shits.

That sort of info is of interest and relevant to HR Wannabe but only if

a) the right people are reviewing in (our front line recruitment team, who decide whether applications are any good or not, don't see any of that stuff because the CMS holds it separately)
b) they then use the data to make improvements to the organisation.

Asking for asking sake or because everyone else is doing it is pointless. If once the data is reviewed you see that (this is a real example) despite being based in an area where 30% of the population are ethnically from the Indian sub-continent, the demographic of your candidates is only 5% from that group. This then prompts recognition of a diversity problem and more usefully, action taken to resolve that problem.

A lot of recruitment is done in a fairly mindless way. It irks me because I only work with the best and I do an excellent job.

That's a great example of poor system making your life harder Witchend. If the right system had been used and set up correctly in the first place that job should have taken seconds.

The thing with recruitment is that you're not already managing stuff that is already there - so no rooting around or managing the constraints of others' work. You are asking people to input an application so you can control the manner and system you use before you start getting applications in. It may be that after each app is reviewed it is immediately allocated to a new group Yes or No. Then a mass mail can go to each group advising of the next steps.

It doesn't need to be difficult if the preparation is robust.

Penny I'm afraid I agree. 8 years of working for charities and Ive been shat on more time than I can remember! If you didn't suck up to the CEO enough you were out.

Badly organised! Terrible recruitment practices with very little knowledge behind them. The last interview I went to for a charity I got a phone call 7 days later to tell me I hadn't got the job (surprise, surprise). It was a message as I couldn't get to the phone. I was actually told not to phone back they would try me again. I believed them! Heard nothing since. This was 4 weeks ago. I've called back twice but never got through.

This is not the first time.

Interview process for professional companies is an absolute pleasure in comparison.

that is crap, I can kind of understand if you have eleventy million applicants not sending a response to all although an automated e mail or even a disclaimer saying if you haven't heard by xx date assume you were unsuccessful is not too difficult. However having just recruited 2 recent posts if someone is actually invited to interview and isn't offered the job we ring them to tell them and give feedback on why.

A lot of places don't even bother when you go for an interview. I went to some this summer and would say only about 30% even bother after interview.

I've just had a look and it's about £2500 a month (or similar to the gross cost of employing someone with a basic salary of about £25k pa) for an SME to buy an off the shelf HR information and management system. That would include a CMS system for tracking recruitment as well as payroll and employee opinion surveys.

Plus these things are always negotiable.

I can see that a dedicated email to each candidate who applied for the job may overwhelm a small business but why not put 'if you have not heard from us by x date, please assume you have not been successful on this occasion' so people are not left dangling.

However I can see no excuse for not emailing candidates who have been selected and attended an interview at considerable expense and inconvenience that they've been unsuccessful. It is a lazy and shitty way of treating people.

Why do you need specialist software to send a rejection letter or email to a handful of interviewed candidates? I reckon I could draft a short letter and email it to (say) five email addresses in about 15 minutes flat.

It's basic politeness and it reflects very badly on HR if they don't do it.

It's bloody infuriating. The whole job searching/applying scenario.

I'm 46 and whilst I'm not unrealistic and expecting a "job for life" set up, the amount of chasing up I've had to do recently is ridiculous. Agencies are the worst.

Case in point- Applied for a job via the jobcentre site, redirected to apply through an agency. Hear nothing. I know my credentials and skill set suit. Ring agency, leave message. No response for two days. Receive phone call, yes, they're meeting with the client on Thursday, will ring me on Friday. I've heard NOTHING. That was 2 weeks ago.

And don't get me started on the jobseeker's allowance and the interviews I've had with my "case worker". Patronising isn't in it.

YANBU. These days they can't claim that the stamps/paper to send rejection letters would be too much. Even just a standard email would be polite.

I've had a few interviews over the years that I've not heard back from. Earlier this year I went for a job internally. I had an interview and followed it up with a small amount of work that they asked me to do. I never heard back - just saw the announcement of who was joining in that role. I found it excruciating because obviously I keep seeing the two people who interviewed me around the building. Yesterday, though, I saw they're advertising the same position again. I won't be applying!

Exactly Missti. How hard can it be to type a generic email and bcc in the small number of candidates who attended an interview? Something along the lines of:

Dear applicant,

Thank you for attending a recent interview at x company. We regret to inform you that your application has not been successful.

We would like to offer you the best of luck with future applications

YANBU it's interviews not applications. It's demoralising enough not to get a response from applications but when you've made the effort (and perhaps spent money) going to interviews it's horrid. I remember going to an entire assessment day (driving to outside my area) and never heard a peep back. It's horrid. Good luck to your ds. He needs to hang on in there.

BTW I work in IT and it would be really simple to set up a basic database and generate auto-emails to all candidates

I'm crap at IT but even I managed how to work out on my database how to send a generic 'thank you I have your CV' message!

I can't believe candidates aren't being contacted after an interview though! That is shocking!

(ps I'm a recruitment consultant!)

It's basic politeness and it reflects very badly on HR if they don't do it

I agree - If a candidate goes on an interview that I have arranged then I would always call them to give them feedback and let them know how they did. Damn it's common courtesy!

Hate all these recruiters that give the rest of us a bad name

It's very hard to manage recruitment when you recruit direct, not everybody has a dedicated HR department, each job add gets 100s of replies, and sometimes you really do have other things to do. Some bosses are not too keen on HR handling their recruitment.

I have applied for jobs myself, I really do understand, but there are so many phone calls I can take to say "yes, I do have your applications, thanks, I'll let you know". Calling me won't give anyone any bonus point.

If the bosses take forever to make a decision at least at the first stage, it would be really embarrassing to contact someone 2 months later, saying "thanks for your application, but no thanks". Sometimes it does take that long!

The easiest and least painful way is the standard "thank you, if you don't hear from us within xxx days, you have been unsuccessful".

You might also not be considered for a first round of interview, but if the candidates met face to face end up being awful, you might be contacted later on. Having rejected your application immediately would block that.

Once someone has been interviewed, it is really rude not to update them however. Giving you the exact reasons is impossible, it's such a legal minefield that it is safer to keep quiet. At the end of the day, you do have to get on with the people you work. If you don't like somebody's face, you won't tell him, but you won't employ him/her either. Would you?

This is very irritating! After leaving school I applied for a barrage of jobs and only one as far as I remember even acknowledged my application (and turned me down but kept me on file and ended up getting a job with them a while later as it turns out)

I always include an email address on my cv and it would take second to just send me one quickly saying I haven't got the job, I really don't think there's an excuse for not doing it.

Mistigri,
We have around 1-200 applications per job and about 5 jobs per month. Therefore you might need to email about 1000 people as well as organise chasing references, start dates etc for the ones who did get the job, and placing the next 5 job adverts- you need to write them. And interviewing. And giving feedback after interviews. And entering the new starters by payroll close. And drawing up contracts. And dealing with sales calls from recruitment agencies, sometimes they just "pop in" for a chat! Don't forget to collate the diversity statistics!

Our HR department is based in another country so applications come directly to my team. We had over 600 applications once for one role. We had a team of three. We're also a fairly large organisation. We never get in touch with anyone who doesn't get to the interview stage.

Not contacting people is rude. It also makes applicants think less of the company.

shakey - the jobcentre is a whole other heap of misery! He applied for jobseekers allowance about 3 months ago. Was told he'd get Universal credit. Went for various interviews with a 'work coach' and eventually told to sign a contract agreeing to do some work experience at a factory. If he didn't sign he wouldn't get any money - later found out that the factory was 10 miles away, too far to walk or cycle and as his 12 hour shifts started at 6am there was no public transport. When he told his 'work coach' this they told him that he just had to get there or he'd lose his money - they suggested a car share. Who with? So H and I took turns last week to get up at 5am and take him. He spent his day waiting around while they tried to find him something to do and then throwing waste food in a big skip. God knows he better get this apprenticeship ! I can't face another week of 5 am starts!!

Why do you need specialist software to send a rejection letter or email to a handful of interviewed candidates?

Who said you did? Not me. In fact I suggested a paper list could be used as a low tech option for contacting interviewed candidates. I also suggested some more high tech options and a full solution for dealing with large volumes/HRI needs that would automate pretty much everything Tiredbutfine mentions.

This stuff doesn't need to be hard. It just needs a bit of thought but poor planning and organisation are often to blame. Plus sometimes an element of cba-ness because it is rude.

Don't even get me started on the utter nonsense that is the JobCentre

Agreed. It isn't hard but job candidates aren't worth the effort it seems.