Don't Bother Me

Until I Need You
By Gord Simmons

Canadian workers are enjoying one of the highest rates of employment in several years. The best example is Alberta where the unemployment rate is 3%, which is almost full employment. As always, the workforce shifts to where the jobs are located, causing problems for other areas of the country. The low unemployment rate, the aging of the working population, the decline of people going into the skilled trades and the pending retirement of many people in management positions should be giving employers some hint that they must review their recruitment, development and retention policies.

A recent study indicated that only 18% of all organizations have an active human resources planning process in place despite the fact that in the next three to five years almost 70% of the people occupying middle to senior management positions will be eligible for retirement. Even fewer have an aggressive Human Resources Management System in place.

Job seekers are now in a position to seek out and negotiate with companies on their terms, which leaves companies in a situation of trying to sell their organization as a great place to work. Some organizations however, have taken the stance that they don’t have time to deal with job seekers, telling job applicants through their ads in the newspapers papers that, “Only those considered for an interview will be contacted“. 

It shouldn’t be surprising that this perceived rudeness and lack of courtesy by organizations places them in the category of “an undesirable place to work”.  This is what happens when an organization indicates to a job seeker that he or she is just not important enough to receive the courtesy of a reply.

Too many times people applying for employment are given the impression that they are bothering the company by initially applying. When they attempt to call the company to follow up, their calls are often ignored and hardly ever returned. The most commonly heard excuse, for not having the courtesy or foresight to contact those people who have taken the time to apply for employment with the company, is that the human resources staff are too busy and that they can’t possibly keep up with the paperwork.

What if you turned the recruitment of staff to your organization into a combined marketing/personnel function?

If you really want to set your organization apart and build up an inventory of people for those future or current vacancies, give some thought as to how you would feel if you had applied for a job and the organization responded by sending you a letter in response to your application which;

• Thanked you for taking the time to respond to the ad
• Explained that there are unfortunately no positions at present that match your qualifications and assured you that your application would be held and considered for other vacancies that occur in the future
• Verified that the company feels really privileged that you have chosen it as a potential place to be employed
• Enclosed a discount coupon for one of its products or a small gift with the company logo, thanking you for taking the time to apply.

Some people reading this article will think this approach sounds hokey, time consuming, inappropriate, labour intensive, etc. If you are in this group I would strongly suggest that you take a few minutes to review your current situation and decide if it is innovative enough to respond to changes to the availability of and competition for qualified employees.

ITo those of you interested in making the most out of innovative and practical methods of successfully recruiting and marketing for your company I suggest the following:

• Remember we are in a new technological age where the storage of massive amounts of information is possible and enhances your ability to create an energetic Human Resources Management System.
• When you hire a person, don’t throw away or disregard the information on the resume, record it and store it for future use (you could set up the same system for applicants who are potential new hires as well.)
• Try to keep your Human Resources information bank separate from other data bases such as pay rates, job descriptions etc. Keeping it separate enables you to create the kind of system you will need to really become flexible in your approach
• Get everyone involved in the human resources planning process. This is not just a personnel issue it is a management issue.
• If necessary consider where other resources in your organization can be utilized to assist with the processing of job applications. For example - can Marketing use the opportunity of people contacting the company into turning those people into customers?
• Organize a discussion session on Human Resources with an imaginative consultant who does not just specialize in personnel issues but can look at it from a management and marketing perspective as well.

In order to give your organization the opportunity to become a “desired workplace location”, besides thinking “outside of the box”, get out of the box completely, then rebuild it. The best advice I can give to any organization is to:

• Start getting serious about putting an aggressive Human Resource Management System in place, as it will to be your lifeline to the future.
• Change your attitude from being bothered by job applicants to being flattered that they chose you and your company. Keep in mind that you are or will be in a competition to recruit the “best of the best” and to simply maintain the status quo puts you and your organization at a disadvantage.
• Make each contact with the public into a marketing opportunity to sell your company and your product or service. Remember each job applicant is not only a potential employee but also a potential customer.

Human Resources Planning and Management are critical to the future of any organization whether it is public, private or not for profit. In essence, if you are planning, you are planning to still be a viable entity for years to come. 

As Peter Drucker said, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”