Can We Fix the Broken External Links - The Black Hole Your Customers See?

Your Corporate Strategy:  It Just Doesn’t Matter?    Part 17

Millions of job seekers, active or passive, tell of the communication problems with a prospective employer, HR or recruiter.   While companies and HR watch every penny and utilize new and helpful technical tools to handle the time, cost and drudgery of regulatory and employment record keeping requirements, they have lost the people signal.   They have also become profit disconnected.  They have become poorer at their originally designed purpose… Companies/HR/Recruiters have become disconnected from entire groups and generations of candidates and employees. 

Jon Hyman writes of this in his “putting the human back in human resources” blog.   He also discusses this idea in detail in his latest book, "The Employer Bill of Rights: A Mangers Guide to Workplace Law" 
http://www.workforce.com/article/20130116/BLOGS07/130119964/putting-the-human-back-in-human-resources-redux

AND

"The Golden Rule of employment relations”.      http://www.ohioemployerlawblog.com/2008/01/golden-rule-of-employment-relations.html

These should be required reading for C-leadership, HR/Talent/People departments and required material for most PHR and/or SPHR certification testing.  Thank you, Jon.

Despite all the slick tools available, few HR departments or recruiters ever set up a warm auto-response thanking the job seeker for applying for a position and thinking of them.  Even LinkedIn members responding to LinkedIn job/search announcements may not be thanked or have their profile viewed. Unfortunately, it is the "Thank You", or any response at all, that is the exception, not the rule.

Many, if not most, employment inquiries come from your own employee referrals, customers, their family or friends.  This non-responsiveness and totally avoidable negativity establishes a company relationship that drives customers away!  What could be worse than ignoring a customer??? 

 

Candidates report a total lack of employer contact or a hiring processes taking 3-6 months or longer! Employers regularly lose key candidates they actually want and need because candidates take another position during, or are totally turned off by, the process length.  Candidates feel if this is the hiring process, what is it like to work there?  This also leads to the perception there are not enough qualified candidates, because candidates won’t apply where their networks say they are mistreated or invisible.

Remember, “After… six weeks of interviews for an entry-level… position [s]he was finally offered the job.  There’s just one catch.  More than two months later… They still haven’t given me my start date.” !!!!!!!!!  Or, recently:  “had an interview with a prospective new employer…. at which point they formally offered me the job….. and I was given a new employee packet….. After I accepted the position we both agreed to start in two weeks in order to work out a two week notice with my current employer. ….About 20 minutes after leaving my now former employer my new employer calls me telling me there is going to be a hold up in when I can start because business is slow, maybe a few weeks at most….”!!!!!!  This person never started with this despicable company.

http://careerhorizons.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/evil-stupid-or-busy-why-dont-employers-respond/#comments

Why aren’t the millions of active and passive applicants treated as a valued customer?  Why aren’t companies rewarding applicants, creating loyalty, repeat business, brand recognition, image and sales when they are already in the door and on your website?  What would be the comparable cost to attract customers to your business, product’s, service’s or store’s site and get their undivided attention for up to ½ hour or longer?  Ask your marketing department.

Next:  What The Black Hole is Costing You! It’s Staggering!