My friends over at ItzBig have tackled the 9th amendment in the Candidate Bill of Rights. This week’s topic “communication.â€
Communication – Every inquiry regarding the status of candidacy or application is worthy of a response.
Boy I wish I had a dollar for every time that a hiring official didn’t return a phone call or email message in a reasonable length of time when it was time to get feedback for a candidate that was going through the interview process. I have to say that it is probably the number one reason for us to ‘fire’ companies that we work with. I can only imagine how it feels to be a candidate, waiting and hoping that the interview for which you so carefully prepared was the home run that you thought it was. Well it isn’t that I can only imagine, heck I was in that spot myself. If you read my post So how do you think I became a recruiter then you will see that it wasn’t that long ago that I was a candidate myself. I had interviews with lots of high tech firms (I was trying to land a cushy 6 figure job telling other folks what software applications to develop) and almost without exception feedback was almost non-existent.
In fact feedback from interviews and answers to candidate’s questions are one of the biggest areas for improvement in the hiring process. I would go so far as to say that 
the process is ‘broken’ at most companies. I think the reason for the break in the process is twofold. One, hiring authorities don’t like to say “no.†[Here is a nice simple article that tells in simple steps the right way to turn a candidate down.] Two, I don’t think that most companies’ HR units do a good job of emphasizing how candidates should be treated in the hiring process. I don’t think that enough focus is put on the fact that these folks should be treated well so that they don’t develop a bad taste for the company because they were mistreated.
Since we work in the restaurant industry, you would think that our hiring authorities would easily realize that the folks interviewing for restaurant jobs and executive restaurant jobs with them are likely customers. Not a single one of the people who are involved in the hiring process would even dream of treating customers in their restaurants poorly. If a guest asked a question or asked to see a manager, it would happen immediately and without hesitation. Why these same folks let ‘other issues’ take more importance than providing a pleasant and professional experience to the job seeker is beyond me. Millions of dollars is spent on training the front line troops to cater to the needs of the guest, but precious little is spent on training people in the hiring process. Companies that do a great job of hiring, including providing feedback to candidates during the hiring process are protecting their brand image and customer base. Those that don’t are going to lose market share.