Yes, it is this big scary letter that job seekers are afraid of, the rejection letter. It is the awful letter that the HR or the recruiter needs to communicate back when things don’t go the right way in the recruitment process. Yes the rejection letter! Now what is wrong with what I just stated? Well it is one key word that holds the essence to this article “the recruiter needs to communicate”.. But sadly that is not the case all the time. I personally have known several HR people who do not take the time to send this rejection letter when the right, or wrong, time comes.
Job seekers carry the hope of getting hired along all the recruitment process, they go through it step by step, moving along the ladder in hopes for landing their sought position. It is essential for the recruiter to properly communicate back to this job seeker his/her stance in the recruitment process, and whether he/she is passing to the next phase, or whether he/she was rejected. It only makes sense!
Now why at times the recruiter does not? well not to blame recruiters of being lazy, a recruiter might skip on sending the rejection letter either in the hopes of some changes occurring in the future (in which case he should communicate something different and not keep the job seeker waiting without a clue). At others the decision is really not in the hands of the recruiter, who is waiting for feedback for a long time due to lengthy recruitment process, or delays in decision making by unit heads or other parties involved. Now since I have kept the lazy option aside, it is time to bring it on, as I have known several lazy recruiters who simply do not take the time to send out this letter, and that is just awful; the job seeker will still be wondering what happened to the vacancy, he/she might be holding off on another position in waiting for the response from this one, and the recruitment process is simply not through until either the offer acceptance or the rejection letter are sent out.
So for all these recruiters who do not send out rejection letters, if you are not using an Applicant Tracking System (examples include Taleo, HRsmart,…), then go get one now and manage your recruitment process, and have the system send out these letters on your behalf. No matter how painful this rejection letter is to the job seeker, but waiting for so long for a job he/she will never land .. is worse.
Simply put, the job seeker has the right to know..