To think employers could at the least have the common courtesy to tell you you’ve not been successful?

[AlternativePerspective]

I’ve lost count of the number of jobs I’ve applied (and interviewed) for where I’ve just never heard from them again.

In fact on indeed there is often an update which states how long it will likely be before you hear back, and I’ve seen one or two which state “based on our experience, you’re unlikely to ever hear from this employer again.”

TBH, if we were in the days of paper applications I could see how writing a letter to each applicant could be problematic especially if you have several of them.

But given everything is now done electronically, and there are generallly systems in place to acknowledge your application/invite to interview/confirm the interview time etc, I fail to see why there can’t also be something in place which generates a rejection email when the applicant is rejected on the system.

It would save a lot more angst when people are applying for jobs and just hoping that they will hear back about one of them, only for it to appear that their application has disappeared somewhere.

i interviewed for a job recently and have assumed I wasn’t successful. But it would at least be nice to have been told so I could ask for feedback.

Why would a company recruiting staff not maintain an easily accessible list of names/contact details of applicants?

Oh, I wonder.

@fashionablefennel

You don't keep a list of applicants e-mail addresses for each vacancy?

why would they?!?

Before you jump on me, I happen to have a very good system to manage applications, but why should a business who recruits once a year at most need one?

It’s a list of emails not the genome sequence. If they recruit so infrequently it’s even less of an overhead.

but what's the point of it?
They won't be able to use the details for their next recruitment anyway.

@UrAWizHarry

Why would a company recruiting staff not maintain an easily accessible list of names/contact details of applicants?

Oh, I wonder.

what's the point of creating a list of unsuitable applicants? People being bored and trying to find something to do with their day maybe? 😂

@fashionablefennel

If ten seconds per vacancy to send a "no thanks" email to all rejected applicants is too much bother - that's an employer I wouldn't want to work for.

I wouldn't work for a company who recruits direct for a start, but that's just me.

Realistically though, if they ARE recruiting people it's because they don't have enough staff in the first place!

it's not 10 seconds to send an email to all rejected candidates, is it..

Why wouldn’t you work for a company who recruits directly?

I’m the opposite - I won’t apply for agency vacancies anymore. I like to know which company I’m applying to, so I can research it and tailor my application accordingly. I also like to keep track of my applications..

I’ve had several bad experiences when doing temp work through agencies. I’ve been sent to the wrong address, on the wrong day, at the wrong time, or when I wasn’t needed at all. The employer and the agency usually blamed each other for the crossed wires, but it was always my time and travel expenses that were wasted. No more games of Chinese Whispers for me!

@fashionablefennel

but what's the point of it? They won't be able to use the details for their next recruitment anyway.

.... so they can easily drop them an email saying thanks but no thanks....? So they can keep notes on people without having to go into individual CVS over and over...?

This isn't hard to grasp.

No wonder so many companies and especially recruitment agencies are so shit at this.

Well, I have written to the company I interviewed for and asked for feedback “in order to help me improve my future application prospects.

So we’ll see if they can be arsed to write back. I haven’t said that I assume I wasn’t successful, (although I clearly wasn’t,) but actually I believe that legally interview candidates are entitled to feedback, so I’m bloody well going to ask for it.

I think not hearing back from an interview is appalling, very bad practice.

However if I don’t hear back after an application then I know I have not been successful. When I have had an email telling me this, it has never made me feel good. I would rather have not heard.

UrAWizHarry

but you cannot compare businesses recruiting direct and recruitment agencies. Completely different scenario.

Cattenberg

Why wouldn’t you work for a company who recruits directly?

because unless they have a specific in-house recruiter, I am very wary of businesses trying to save a few £ instead of employing someone who does a better job.

Not that all recruitment agencies are decent, like everything else, there are some shockers around.

Ive had some terrible experiences with Indeed. Mainly good experiences with NHS jobs. Im always very wary of Indeed and if a job is listed on there that I like the look of, i'll try and see if its also listed on NHS jobs and apply through there instead.

We anonymise our applications prior to shortlisting so they each have a reference number rather than storing them by name/contact details. Information kept must be the minimum necessary, and if people have already been told that they will be contacted or not by x date there's no further need.

@fashionablefennel

Cattenberg

Why wouldn’t you work for a company who recruits directly?

because unless they have a specific in-house recruiter, I am very wary of businesses trying to save a few £ instead of employing someone who does a better job.

Not that all recruitment agencies are decent, like everything else, there are some shockers around.

The idea that recruitment agencies do a better job than dedicated inhouse recruitment is hilarious.

Recruitment agencies are nothing more than machines to spam jobhunters and employees alike in the desperate attempt to get finders fees.

@fashionablefennel

DynamoKev

how long is a piece of string? It's a stupid question, it depends on so many things, I can't give you one generic answer.

I did say that I make sure that people who do attend an interview ARE contacted because for me it's basic manners. I also said that in the real world, it's not as straightforward as people seem to think.

It isn't a "stupid question" at all. You contend it would take too much time, but you say it's impossible to evaluate how much time it would take. You cannot make a contention of this sort unless you are prepared to have it subject to even a cursory examination. You cannot expect people to believe you if your answer about the detail is "it cannot be known".

90% of people in the poll and the vast majority of people on the thread think it's only decent to let everyone who applied know how they got on even if its just a short "no".

Some posters with experience have demonstrated that they actually do this - and I salute them - it shows it is perfectly possible.

Anything else is a choice based on the perceived importance of people applying.

My mum runs her own business. She often has over 50 people applying for one job. She does not have the time to respond to all of them.

@XenoBitch

My mum runs her own business. She often has over 50 people applying for one job. She does not have the time to respond to all of them.

She could make the time, but chooses not to - it's not the same thing. How long would it take to send a single email to 49 people? Or does she have very high staff turnover?

Its rude and unprofessional to not reply to your applicants, a basic generic 'thankyou for your application, unfortunately you were unsuccessful this time' email BCCed into unsuccessful candidates does not take long. If you think it does it concerns me about your organisation and efficiency. And tbh it gives a piss poor impression of your company.

Its not just potential customers you are losing, its what could be future good employees. If someone was treated poorly when they applied to your grad scheme they arent going to want to work for you when they are a specialist in their role. It doesn't take much for companies to get a reputation

UrAWizHarry
The idea that recruitment agencies do a better job than dedicated inhouse recruitment is hilarious.

You should actually read my post when you reply to me.
I literally wrote UNLESS SPECIFIC IN-HOUSE RECRUITMENT
but feel free to twist it to fit your angry narrative .

If recruitment agencies didn't have a place and a use, companies wouldn't spend any money employing them, would they... In-house or not, a recruiter is a recruiter, sorry to disappoint you!

A decent recruitment agency saves businesses an awful lot of money and time, and find candidates they wouldn't find otherwise. Otherwise it wouldn't be a very profitable business...

@XenoBitch

My mum runs her own business. She often has over 50 people applying for one job. She does not have the time to respond to all of them.

she would save time with an auto-reply thanking them for their application and telling them they'd hear from her if they are successful.

Saves her from "clever" phone calls checking if the application has been received and so on.

Well as others have said, in charity to the no-reply-at-shortlisting people, if you are running a basic/inefficient sort of system where people just email in or even give you a hard copy of their CV, it will take a bit of time to open their document, find their email address, copy it in to your outlook, copy and paste your polite rejection message and send it off. I still think that isn't beyond the realms of possibility (it would take maybe 2 mins per rejected candidate and I can guarantee it would have taken them more than 2 mins to put their CV together, write a cover letter etc even if they weren't putting much effort in so doesn't seem totally unreasonable to expect a response back) but I guess it's forgivable if it's a small outfit.

My real gripe is with companies that clearly have modern recruitment software where as a candidate you have to create an account and log in to a portal, which I know for a fact makes tracking candidates and sending automatic generic rejection emails very very easy (it can easily be managed within an anonymous shortlisting system as when you go through the applications you just tick 'yes shortlist' or 'no-reject' and you can set it up so it auto-replies to the rejected ones, no need to know someone's name or email address), and they still don't do it, sometimes even after interview stage.

These companies are prime offenders as well for making it a real PITA to apply for a job, as well as registering on their portal you usually can't simply upload a CV/cover letter, they usually want you to painstakingly c+p all your details into their template/application form boxes, sometimes these are stupidly set up so you have to type e.g. your employer name, then address (why?), they start date of employment, then end date of employment into individual boxes (and of course they stipulate a full 10 years + employment history with no gaps). Then often they want you to reply to tailored application questions on their 'values' (250 words each, using the STAR model of course!), do aptitude and situational judgement tests, psychometrics etc etc etc - all of which takes bloody ages to do. Then when you get into interview often as not it's an 'assessment day' and you have to do a presentation and a written exercise or similar, so you have to take all day off work and hours of prep etc. All this is sold by HR people are being best practice (I know, I am one!) so I can't really complain but it does really boil my piss when they can't then even be bothered to set up the auto-reply on their fancy software to let me know I've not been successful and not to call them about it!

@XenoBitch

My mum runs her own business. She often has over 50 people applying for one job. She does not have the time to respond to all of them.

Your mum must have a fair number of employees if she regular gets over 50 people applying. Particularly if she is running a small business she should be wary of the impression she's sending out, it does not take long to send a generic sorry you were unsuccessful to 50 people.

Your mum must have a fair number of employees if she regular gets over 50 people applying.

You can have a 2 person business and still get 300 applications when you post an add!

Maybe I should become a consultant and charge a modest fee to smaller organisations showing people how easy it is to do a 5 min email merge which will send personalised emails to all applicants, whether it's 50 applicants or 500.

I think that there's an argument that if the company is looking for loads of people they might say "send in your CV and if we're interested we will be in touch" and that's fine. But if they're asking you to spend 30 minutes to a day on a cover letter and / or interview, then they have moral obligation to spend 60 seconds writing you a brief email letting you down. IMHO.