With job applications at  an all time high, it takes a little longer to get in touch with every applicant to say a polite ’thank you but no thank you’. A little more time, that’s it, but that extra amount of time could make a huge difference to your company image. As well as job applications being high, job opportunities are now increasing again. Despite the political, economic and pandemic conditions, candidates will still chose who they work for and rightly so. It’s a two way street and employers and the jobs they advertise must appear attractive. Unfortunately employers are falling at the first hurdle by not having the common decency to even acknowledge a job application. It’s not as though applicants expect a personally written letter posted out to them but, thanks to Autocorrects, you can quickly send a ‘thank you but no thank you’ letter in seconds. I appreciate a large number of applicants are far from suitable for the role and have not made any effort in their application but there are those who have taken the time to tailor their CV and covering letter specifically for the role, maybe even had their CV professionally written. They’ve read the job description thoroughly to make sure they have the skills required, checked the distance to ensure it is viable for them to travel to the location, sent their application and crossed their fingers. A day goes by, they hear nothing to say the CV has even been received, another day goes by, another and another until two weeks have gone by and still nothing. What impression of the company will the applicant have now? Not a very positive one and no doubt they will mention it to a number of their friends. Worse still, is if an applicant has been offered an interview, they research the company, take time off work, dress in their best suits, practice their interview questions and do everything they are supposed to do. They have a great interview then…nothing. That is completely unacceptable. Having been in recruitment for over a decade, it is only in the last few years that I have heard people complain of sending 20, 30, 40 applications and only hearing back from one or two but more concerning, more applicants complain of not hearing back after attending an interview at all! What’s changed? Where has common courtesy gone? When recruiting, employers must schedule enough time to deal with the influx of CVs they will inevitably receive and to respond to each and every one of them, because it’s polite. At Blue Orchid Recruitment, we make sure to do just that and sometimes, we receive a very high volume of applications per role. I am always surprised to receive an email saying ‘Thank you for getting back to me’. I thought it was commonplace but apparently not!

Rob Griffiths, Director of Blue Orchid Recruitment Ltd