HR should treat job applicants better

Twenty years ago or more, if you applied for a job and were turned down, the man in personnel would send you a courteous letter on headed notepaper and signed in ink.

Nowadays, if you apply for a job and are unsuccessful, you never hear from the woman in the HR department. Is this change in level of respect and courtesy a result of the change in job title or the change in gender?

Friends in Teesside have recently applied for jobs with a range of employers across the public and private sectors. Three, four, five months on they have heard nothing back and just have to assume they haven’t got the job. Modern management philosophy supposedly says that ‘people are our number-one asset’.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

Email(Required)

OptOut

From time to time, we will send you emails about selected products, events and services from Personnel Today and OHW+ - but you can choose to opt-out at any time. If you do not wish to receive these emails, please tick this box.

Phone

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Δ

Perhaps the HR departments of these companies could reflect the spirit of that ideal.

Mark Lee, details supplied