What do you do when a candidate keeps calling or emailing about a job opportunity? How do you as an HR professional, recruiter or small business owner, deal with that overly persistent job seeker who won’t go away?
Ignoring them – which you probably know by now – isn’t going to work, says Mark Moore, President of Kavaliro, a staffing and recruiting firm.
Don’t avoid their calls or email. Respond to them – and tell them what is going on.
“If someone is not a fit you first need to determine why they are not fit for a specific job you have,” says Moore. “This information should be relayed back to this candidate with the utmost honestly and FINALITY. If you would never hire this person for numerous reasons you need to let them know that and why.”
We know what’s next: If I respond to this person, I have to respond to all. Or, my response could open us up to possible discriminatory or bias lawsuits. So we just ignore them. Those thoughts likely cross the minds of all who hire.
The Society of Human Resources (SHRM.org) put together some advice for HR professionals in this position in an article titled Rejecting Candidates: What should an employer tell a candidate who is not selected for the position?
Be advised – it’s important to work with your executives and even legal counsel to determine the best approach for your organization, says the SHRM. Here are a couple ways to respond – and get the job seeker to stop pestering you, from the SHRM:
- Give a neutral, nonspecific reason. This option entails a standard response such as “Thank you for applying, but we have decided to pursue other applicants,” or some variation thereof. This is a popular option for several reasons: It is easy to be consistent, it does not open itself up to arguments from the applicant, and it stops HR from being a career counselor to a host of applicants. Attorneys often like this approach as well because inadvertent, unlawfully discriminatory statements cannot be made. If an applicant persists in learning the reason for the rejection or becomes angry, HR can simply reiterate the response and end the conversation.
- Give a specific reason/coach the applicant. This response could entail everything from “You were chewing gum and texting during the interview” to “Your responses to several interview questions did not showcase the leadership capabilities we are looking for.” Although this approach can be helpful, especially for younger workers with limited interviewing experience, it can also backfire on the employer when the applicant chooses to debate your reasoning and tries to get you to change your mind. The employer’s intention may be good by trying to help candidates in their next interview, thus imparting an honest and thoughtful image of the employer, but caution is warranted with this approach. Some applicants may be grateful for the honest feedback; however, others may feel they were unfairly denied employment, may start an argument with you or may attempt to use the information provided to file claims or complaints.
But what happens if you break it to this candidate in the most honest way and the persistence still continues? Moore’s response may surprise. He suggests considering re-evaluating the perky and persistent candidate. Maybe you left an opportunity out there and this job seeker has the passion and desire and could be a great fit that was overlooked. But if not…
“Taking action to include a certified letter from your attorney is not out of the question,” says Moore.
While some pushy job seekers just won’t take no for an answer, some of this can be avoided by clearly outlining expectations up front, says Elliot Lasson, SPHR, an HR expert and Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
Setting up an automated email acknowledgement for when a person submits an application would be a good first step in establishing a boundary, says Larson.
There are many variations of a boiler plate messages. Something like, “Thank you for applying for the _________________________ position at ___________________. Due to the number of applications we receive, we cannot follow-up with every applicant individually. Please be assured that if your background matches what we are seeking, and you are selected for an interview, we will contact you.”
“What that does is at least provide a disclaimer which can be reiterated if and when an annoying candidate continues to contact,” says Larson. “That way, the employer does not come across as rude when trying to hold the line later in the process.”
That being said, companies still need to be careful in the content or tone of their email responses to persistent candidates, Larson says. Applicant reactions to the employer might be shared with other potential candidates. It is possible that they could disparage the company privately to others or on social media. One strategy might be to ignore the email and not respond, citing the aforementioned disclaimer as a policy being followed.
To help avoid this many companies use an applicant tracking system to which status updates can be posted by HR. That way, the employer can direct all follow-up inquiries to logging into one’s account. If that is put into place, such a message might be added to the initial acknowledgement of application receipt.
Keep this advice from the SHRM in mind when handling these types of scenarios:
“Generally speaking, employers are not required to respond to all candidates who submit a resume or application in response to a job posting. However, software now permits employers to generate automated responses to all candidates who submit to a job posting. Acknowledging submissions from candidates can help an employer avoid a barrage of e-mails and phone calls from eager and persistent job seekers. This can also be a demonstration of respect and common courtesy to candidates whom the employer may hope to hire at some point in the future. Simply acknowledging that resumes/applications have been received and that submissions will be reviewed against current openings and that only qualified candidates will be contacted for next steps provides candidates with an easy but precise status explanation. This minimal effort can pay dividends down the road in retaining quality candidates and avoiding wasted time for the HR team.”
It’s a tough situation to be in, because no HR professional – or small business owner focusing on running the business – wants to consistently be bothered by a candidate they aren’t going to hire.
“It is important that recruitment or HR develop a policy that is followed consistently,” says Larson. “That way, a company does not have some people who are responding to the candidates and others who are not.”
