What your company can do

Gallup asked the 72% of job seekers who shared the most frustrating aspect of their job search a follow-up question to gauge the impact it had on their opinion of the organization. Half of these prospective employees said the frustrations they mentioned made them question whether they wanted to work for the company. Thus, the frustrations of applicants are making it more difficult for companies to hire the talent they need.

Applicants' relationships with prospective employers don't stop once the interview process is complete or after they receive a note indicating that the company has already filled the position. An organization's poor treatment of its job applicants is akin to failed customer service, and it can have a negative impact on the likelihood of a prospective employee -- hired or not -- to recommend the company as a place to try to work.

So, what steps can companies, including your own, take to ensure these customers, the job applicants, will still hold the organization in high regard?

Start by caring about prospective employees as much as you do about your customers and current associates. One applicant said he or she had "interviews where the interviewer put down the things I was proud of, treated them as if they were unimportant, and belittled my accomplishments."

Never in the application process should someone from the hiring company put down an applicant or make the job seeker feel in any way that the organization does not care about them, regardless of whether they are a good fit. It takes effort and a certain amount of faith to apply for a position, and companies should not treat their applicants disrespectfully or thoughtlessly. This should not be any different from the levels of respect companies show their customers.

Value applicants' questions and concerns. Some organizations would say that because of the sheer volume of applicants and the resources needed for the process, there is simply not enough time to answer the inquiries they receive from prospective employees. But what if those organizations treated their customers the same way?

If companies failed to respond to individuals' concerns or questions about their brand or products, they would face detrimental consequences such as lost sales and a negative reputation in terms of customer service. So, if an organization doesn't give applicants similar levels of time and respect as compared with customers and existing employees, what is the company losing in terms of talent?

Make specific process changes to your hiring practices to convey respect and care for potential employees. Applicants crave communication from potential employers about the status of their job search, and organizations could eliminate much of job seekers' frustrations by increasing the amount of real-time feedback they receive about their applications.

Even if they don't get the job, job seekers' survey responses indicate they would appreciate honest feedback telling them exactly where they are in the application process, whether that means contacting applicants every two weeks or after every step in the process to let them know the status of their search.

Organizations can also craft clearer communications with their potential employees. Companies can train hiring managers and recruiters to interview applicants in ways that make them feel the company respects their opinions and questions, while demonstrating and explaining the positive aspects of working for their organization. Applicants select the company at which they want to work just as companies look for the best applicants to fill their positions.

And just as companies study their customer service behaviors and patterns, so too should they invest time and resources into measuring applicants' experiences during the job search process. This research can provide detailed feedback with which companies can improve their application and interviewing processes.

For example, numerous applicants said the entire job search process takes too much time. Using detailed research, companies can figure out what steps in the process they can expedite. Speeding up the hiring process will not only fill the company's positions faster, but also provide more timely feedback to prospective employees regarding where they stand in the hiring process -- a win-win situation. Another way of improving through measurement is to determine which hiring managers are turning applicants away or frustrating them, then training these managers to apply better interview techniques.

Avoiding a negative reputation

Showing job seekers a general level of respect and spending time to answer their questions doesn't mean prospective employees will always give glowing reviews of the hiring organization. Applicants who don't receive job offers are often bitter toward the companies that don't hire them, and there is a chance that these feelings will subsist regardless of how much effort the employer puts into the hiring process. (Although, according to the research, those seekers who received job offers were as likely as those who didn't to cite frustrations with the process.)

However, companies can avoid negative reputations and losing applicants' positive opinions and recommendations about the company's service by creating a positive applicant experience that values prospective employees in much the same way as current or prospective customers. In a job market where recommendations and referrals help fill so many positions, companies would be well suited to take the steps necessary to ensure positive experiences from specialized customers, such as job applicants, regardless of whether they get the job.

Copyright Ó 2008 The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ.  All rights reserved.  Reprinted with permission.  Visit The Gallup Management Journal at http://gmj.gallup.com/

Article from The Gallup Management Journal