Poor recruitment practices are losing customers as well as potential employees for thousands of firms, according to research.
Recruitment provider Capital Consulting found that one in four jobseekers felt they had been treated badly when they applied for a job.
It also discovered that more than half of jobseekers stop buying goods or services from companies that treat them poorly.
And disgruntled applicants spread their message far and wide, with 55% telling more than three others of their bad experience.
Marisa Kacary, marketing director at Capital Consulting, said: “With the war for talent raging more fiercely than ever, a good employer brand is increasingly critical to an organisation’s commercial success.
“As our research shows, if you treat people poorly during the recruitment process, you could lose them as customers, and they would be only too happy to tell others about their bad experience with your organisation, too.”
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Jobseekers’ main gripes about the recruitment process involved a lack of communication. One in two were aggrieved that no reason was given for not being offered the job, and roughly the same proportion said the lack of feedback following an interview was their main irritation.
However, more than one-third said they were asked irrelevant or stupid questions at interview; and 30% were asked to do irrelevant tests.
