Hear Nothing Back !

White Now has witnessed a trend over the past 15 years with regard to job applicants and the interview process.  With the growth of the internet and on line job applications and the subsequent ability for ANYONE to lodge an application for ANY role at ANY time, we have seen a growth in application number for all jobs ! This has brought with it some interesting challenges……..

In the old days (geesh – I sound like my 81 year old mother !), it used to take a fair bit of effort to apply for a job.  You’d have to type the covering letter and print it out.  Go to the library to get your resume photocopied and then get it bound at another place.  Buy a large envelope and suitable stamps and THEN go to either the Post Office or Post Box.  You’d then wait for it to arrive at the employer/recruiters doorstep 4 days later.  The cost of this exercise could have been up to $10 per application.  After it was posted, it would then be another week  or two (if at all) that you receive a letter back in the mail saying that the documents had arrived.

These days (sounding like my mother again – sorry) a job application can take some people as little as 2 minutes to send off without a cent being spent. 

They copy their cover letter or change the address and contact name (that’s a debate for a whole other blog post), attach their resume and just press send on the email.  The effort in applying has been lessened so considerably therefore the seriousness and commitment of all applicants in applying for the job can sometimes be an issue. 

The team at White Now can reel off so many examples of when they have contacted an applicant in relation to a job that they applied for (maybe to organise an interview) and the person cannot even remember applying for that role, or even who the role was with.  They have probably applied for 90 jobs that week and kept no record of whom or what they applied for.  I think it is called the splatter gun approach.  They don’t have a specific target, they just keep shooting and maybe one will hit the bulls-eye.

With this behaviour being so prevalent in today’s job market, there are a few outcomes that have surfaced from this trend that you should be aware of.

Often an employer now can receive hundreds of applications for the one advertised job.  If this is a larger employer (150 plus employees), they may be recruiting for 5-10 different positions at any one time.  This may mean in any given time, an employer may receive 1000 applications for 10 positions.  Many employers now put the courtesy of replying to these applicants on the back burner and the applicant simply does not get a response at all, whether that be to say that their resume was received or that they were unsuccessful.  This creates a snowball effect in itself.  These applicants who do not receive a reply then cannot narrow their application to a smaller target.  They apply for absolutely everything as they have no idea where they stand with any job. Alas, the cycle of lots and lots of applicants for jobs and employers not offering a courteous reply will continue. 

We are all so pleased with the growth, speed and automation of internet technology but think about how this has affected the process of applying for a job.  Basic courtesy has gone out the window !

As you know, on our White Now website, many of the positions advertised are ads placed by the Club/Venue/Supplier and they receive the applications directly (White Now don’t see them at all).  It is up to them to respond to the applicants as they see fit.    We place at the base of each ad the following sentence “Please Note: Only short listed candidates will be contacted.  We thank you for your understanding with this decision”.  Now there’s something that you would not have seen on a job ad 15 years ago but now, it is a fact of life for all the reasons I have discussed above.

The good news is that White Now have actually retained the ‘old style values’ when it comes to recruitment.  If we are secured by a client to undertake the full recruitment for a club or client, then we guarantee that EVERY person who applies will receive email notification from us to let them know of their status.  We are still honoured and chuffed by the comments that we receive from candidates about our high level candidate care – it seems to stand us apart from the rest !  We wish that all those who advertised with us would contact all of the applicants but as you can see, this is where the world has taken us !