Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

HR has to learn the application of presentation

by Personnel Today 21 Nov 2000
by Personnel Today 21 Nov 2000

Applications for a senior HR post that broke every rule in the book give one recruiter cause to worry.

My assignment was to recruit a senior HR manager. This ought to have given those who are normally recipients of applications an opportunity to project their own image positively.

The job was an impressive one, as were the number of replies.

Has the HR profession, however, become so blatantly introspective that it cares not a hoot as to how it presents itself?

The responses I received exhibited every single mistake in the "how not to apply for a job" book.

Surely the secret of applying for this, and indeed any, job is to read the advertisement. This not only provides the salient points to hammer home in the short sharp covering letter, but also indicates the seniority of the position.

Also, is it too much to ask that a spell check is applied (not the Americanised variety)? This would surely eliminate the most obvious spelling mistakes.

And, excepting those employers who use graphology in the selection process, our super-sophisticated society no longer welcomes handwritten applications.

Nor will smiling head-and-shoulder photographs beguile the recruiter, even if scanned into e-mails.

Job applicants must leave the decision as to whether to discriminate against the more mature to the potential employer. As most employers possess the basic ability to add, omitting a date of birth displays gross naïvety.

Have any HR managers out there really achieved anything? If so, do you realise how powerful it is to quantify attainment?

Ask yourself if it is wise to ignore the tried and tested CV format, for which outplacement specialists charge megabucks. Have HR professionals become so mesmerised by applications which range through a checklist of "feelgood factor" positive verbs that they throw caution to the wind and reinvent the wheel when gathering their own thoughts together?

Applicants who zoom in on personal objectives which are of no interest to the potential employer are also wasting their time. So are candidates who have got another post since the CV was drafted and tack this information on to their bumper bundle – two pages maximum is another rule.

If the advertisement specifies that a reference should be quoted or salary included, it doesn’t take rocket science to appreciate that the omission of either is frowned upon.

Aside from all these points, perhaps my main concern was a more general one – did any of those potential highflyers take the time to check over the impact made by their submission?

Even some of the photocopying left much to be desired. Is it asking too much to get someone else to objectively overview the submission to eliminate the ungrammatical phraseology or the chronological order that shows gaps?

The bottom line is that it takes time, energy and effort to get any presentation just right.

If the steady procession of poor personnel applicants I met were anything to go by – and from further research I find that my experience is typical – there is a desperate need for the profession to think far more constructively about how they ought to sort out their shop window.

The old proverb about the cobbler’s children not having any shoes can be brought frighteningly up to date with HR professionals who don’t quite know how to apply for a job.

By Alastair McFarlane, a consultant at Professional HR Services

Personnel Today
Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Part-time work not an option for hard working fathers
next post
DTI to act on tribunal time-wasters

You may also like

Barrister wins gender critical belief discrimination claim

27 Jul 2022

‘Patchy’ mental health services failing ethnic minority communities

11 Jul 2022

Global study highlights hypertension treatment failings

8 Jul 2022

NICE sets out new guideline on managing depression

8 Jul 2022

Half of employees struggle to switch off on...

8 Jul 2022

Five steps for organisations across the globe to...

8 Jun 2022

The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls

24 May 2022

Grants scheme set up to support women’s health...

16 May 2022

How music can help to ease anxiety at...

9 May 2022

OH will be key to navigating ‘second pandemic’...

14 Apr 2022
  • 6 reasons why work-based learning is better than traditional training PROMOTED | A recent Fortune/Deloitte survey found that 71% of CEOs are anticipating that this year’s biggest business disrupter...Read more
  • Strengthening Scotland’s public services through virtual recruiting PROMOTED | This website is Scotland's go-to place for job seekers looking to apply for roles in public services...Read more
  • What’s next for L&D? Enter Alchemist… PROMOTED | It’s time to turn off the tedious and get ready for interactive and immersive learning experiences...Read more
  • Simple mistakes are blighting the onboarding experience PROMOTED | The onboarding of new hires is a company’s best chance...Read more
  • Preventing Burnout: How can HR help key workers get the right help? PROMOTED | Workplace wellbeing may seem a distant memory...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+