Are good manners a lost art?
I have been struck, over the last month, by the incredible outpouring of disinformation and the vehemence of the opposition to the health care reform initiatives. While I do not pretend to be the Miss Manners of my day, it seems to me that the level of discourse is far from the polite, open-minded, sharing of views for which one would hope.
It makes me wonder, are good manners a lost art?
As an executive talent agent, I speak with many executives in transition. It is a regular part of those dialogues to lament the behavior of those on the other side of the table – whether they are hiring managers, human resources professionals or executive recruiters. How many companies post job requisitions online with little or no effective follow-up with those (often highly qualified candidates) they do not select? My guess is that the number is well over 80 percent. One company I am familiar with takes more than five months from the time they open positions until they close them, and automated messages only go out to those who were not selected when the position is closed.
A recent (informal and non-scientific) survey of recruiters by one of my clients showed that their follow-up is no better. My client contacted 40 recruiting firms. Despite having a top-notch track record and following the explicit instructions on each recruiter’s website on how to submit a resume, her efforts resulted in two meetings, four bounceback messages, and approximately 20 automated responses. There was no reply at all from 10 firms and only a very few who provided personalized email/phone call follow-ups. My client previously had been in several positions to hire recruiters to fill executive roles at the companies where she worked, and would be again. As she told me, she will remember which firms treated her with respect and be much more likely to select them when she next has the chance.
Your first reaction might be that doing anything online and unsolicited is a guarantee that you will not get any sort of professional follow-up. And many would argue, myself included, that executive recruiters would prefer not to be contacted through their websites. Yet, wasn’t doing things online supposed to make things easier? We all know there are tools and technologies now to log, direct, respond to, and even categorize every email, phone message, and fax that comes into an office. But most firms have not implemented these options except within their customer service centers.
Most companies don’t seem to make the connection that responding to job applicants is another form of customer service. And it’s just as important, if not more so, to respond politely to potential hires than it is to respond to those who have already purchased the company’s wares. Job applicants are not already “sold” on the company and how they are treated will directly affect how they later respond to purchasing the company’s products or selecting the company’s services when they are in a position to make a buying decision. These applicants can either be a company’s greatest evangelists or their most vocal detractors, and a little common courtesy would go a long way to assure it’s the former, even if they don’t get the job!
While I can do little to convince those on both sides of the health care debate to begin treating each other with respect, I would hope that those of us in a position to impact our company’s actions might share these thoughts with those hiring managers, recruiters and others who serve as the face of their company to prospective hires.
Posted by Denise Brosseau on 25th August, 2009 | Comments
Tags: executive recruiter, hiring manager, manners, job applicants
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