Jon Picoult, recently wrote an article in the New York Times that caught my attention. Not simply based on the fact that a cookie was mentioned, but more so because he spoke of the current discourteous nature of the recruiting industry. It seems that, despite the growing number of unemployed out there, recruiters and human resource departments are, shall we say, less than communicative with applicants. That goes for job finalists who leave an interview feeling they’ve nailed it and then never hear back from the company again, all the way to candidates who are simply rejected and never receive notification of such a decision. The general absence of follow-up calls, status notifications, or even responses to inquiries, seems to be the M.O these days.
In his article, Picoult wrote about a story of a manager from Nabisco who, when at an HR industry conference, shocked the audience by stating that his company responded to each and every resume they received. When a dumbfounded peer asked why on earth the company did this, the manager responded, “Because- everyone eats cookies.”
This response struck a chord. It made me think about CareerPlug and our approach to communicating with candidates. I can happily say that we are no-doubt, a company who recognizes that “everyone eats cookies.” In fact, our specialty is personalization. Everyone wants to feel they’ve been heard, so we make sure that happens; it’s less a rule of business but rather a simple gesture of kindness and human decency. As soon as we know the status of a candidate, they are notified, within moments. This concept of attentive correspondence seems to have slipped through the cracks within the industry.
So, if very few recruiters are doing it these days…does that make us in style? I think it does. Personalization is the new black.