Communication - It's not rocket science - is it ?

We have all seen the older couple in a restaurant having a lovely 3 course meal that does not come cheap. The total communication between them is the odd comment on the dish they are eating and the odd comment on the weather. We all look at them and say " that will never happen to us" . But then we go back to our daily lives and we forget how to communicate with people.

Where am I going with this - Well let's look at the current situation here in the UK and being mirrored around the world - The economy is starting to recover and unemployment seems to be slowing down a little . However we all know that unemployment rises for about 18 months after the official end of a recession so there are lots of people looking for work. However recruitment never stopped even in the darkest days of the banking crisis there were still open vacancies that needed to be filled. Remember the news coverage of recruitment consultants meeting people as they left the London office of Lehman brothers with contracts ready to go.

Now lets look at how applicants are treated at the moment. The simple answer is not very well at all by a majority of corporate recruiters or staffing agencies. If some one a[plies for a job the least you can do is give them some kind of response. This can take the form of an automated e mail response saying that the next steps will take place in a certain timescale. If you make a promised KEEP it.

Alternatively you can invest some money in an Applicant Tracking Solution. These will enable you to manage the response you get to you open and speculative applications. Take candidates down a pre defined route and communicate all with the click of a mouse.

So here's the deal - Communicate with applicants. People just want to know where they stand it's not rocket science after all.