When HR Is Bad PR
HR, PR. PR, HR.
Most of the time, PR departments have it pretty easy. Press release here, a photo opportunity there. I understand that there are skills that good PR people bring to the team. But . . .
The latest example of poor PR was the auto executives' flying three separate corporate jets to D.C. to beg for our money.
This is not intended to be a "bash the PR guy rant," but something else is happening in the bowels of your company—this time in HR—that has a similar potential to bite you where the sun doesn't shine.
If you have a company of over 100 people, chances are good that you are getting a LOT of résumés now. Almost all of them are unsolicited . . . so your HR department, having much better things to do, is ignoring them and throwing them away.
Here is the warning I issued to HR people over at wwds yesterday:
"It's like getting on an elevator with someone who greets you with a cheery 'Hello' and you completely ignore them. You wouldn't do that, but many HR people feel it's all right to ignore the person who sent in his or her résumé. Never mind the negative PR for your company. I bet if your CEO knew you ignored these résumés, he'd drive his own hybrid to Washington, D.C., too.
"There are only three reasons why you ignore these vain attempts at contacting you for one of your treasured jobs. The first is unsolvable: You have no heart, no soul, and pretty much dislike everyone. The second is that you don't have some kind of automated way of responding that is simple, easy, and fast for you. The third is you simply do not know what to say."
I answered the last two reasons over there. Sorry for the jump, but my space here is limited. Treat these job seekers better. Please.
G.L. Hoffman is a serial entrepreneur and venture investor/operator/incubator/mentor. Two of his companies have traveled the entire success path from the garage to IPO. Currently, he is chairman of JobDig. His blog can be found at WhatWouldDadSay.com or at JobDig.com.
Tags: careers | small business
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Reader Comments
Unemployed and despondent
I was laid off at the end of August '08 and have spent hours daily applying for jobs online and emailing resumes and cover letters. After a month went by where not a single employer acknowledged receiving my application or resume, I started sending out follow-up emails. One person tersely responded that he had received my resume. Nothing further. In the two months since then I have never received an acknowledgment that my application was received, though two employers kindly and belatedly informed me that the position had been filled.
Being unemployed is depressing enough; the lack of response from employers is heartbreaking.
When HR is bad PR
There's a fourth option, your federal government at work. If a company acknowledges every application if must then track every application and keep records on each. Even if the person is applying for a position is not open. Even if the person doesn't meet the basic qualifications for the job. Even if you aren't hiring at all. The solution to avoid all the administrative time and costs is only to accept applications for positions that are currently open and for which the person meets the basic requirements of the position.
Guidance from the Office of Federal Contract Compliance and Programs (OFCCP)a division of the department of labor, has issued guidance on what is an applicant and suggest only accepting qualified applications for positions which are currently open. Under these guidelines if you respond you have made them an applicant.
HR would love to respond if for no other reason than to stop the follow up phone calls and additional applications from the same people they have to deal with. To avoid the complications caused by the regulations, they do not.
An automated system does nothing to remedy this situation. The problem is in the definition of an applicant as promulgated by the DOL.
Don't take the lack of response personally or as a reflection upon the company. Though callous it is doing business as directed by the federal government.
Automated system would be great!
I am employed, but not happily, and have been job seeking actively for the past 8 months. I am looking to change careers which makes it more difficult, I know. I have applied to countless jobs with very little response. It would be polite for an employer to send any kind of response. It is a lot of work seeking a new job, and I have spent hours and hours searching for jobs, writing cover letters, re-writing my resume, all with having a full-time job and a chronic illness.
Manners seem sadly non-existent in many places these days, and the HR world is one of them. An automated response saying thanks, but no thanks, would at least make me feel as though employers took the opportunity to peruse my resume. I feel as though my resume gets sent, then deleted automatically, it is very discouraging.
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