The unemployed face new challenges in today's corporate world. They don't get feedback. Why? Well I have a few observations, not sure they will help anyone, but if you are a job seeker, you may want to approach your search differently knowing some of these facts exist.
I want to state that I'm not a researcher, scientist or big wig. I'm a recruiter writing about the market.
Why Corporations do not give feedback when hiring.
The Lack of Resources Problem:
Resource Problems are when Resumes go into the Black Hole Caused by Lack of :Systems: there are alot of unemployed applicants and not all companies have automated tracking systems, or databases, or websites that streamline the information
Process: Some companies don't have a strong process or have manually dependent process that can't scale for large labor forces.
Volume and Time: Companies aren't smart enough to hire enough people for the recruitment process or don't have professional staffing pros that can handle volume responses in timely manner. They are also not equipped for the thousands of resumes they receive from around the Globe.
People: Not enough resources monitoring the applicant pool, or not professionally trained recruiters that understand or care about the Candidate experience. Also managers that institute No Feedback Policies in fear
The Factor about Philosophy Problem:Many Companies of Today are more concerned about Legal then about Business, or they use it as an excuse. This is known as the
DO NOT Tell Policy-- Don't risk saying the wrong thing or responding because of legal OR We Don't Care we only want the people we want.
Philosophy: Many Corporations subscribe to Don't spend time on the rejection side, or the tracking of resumes responses we don't Care philosophy. Others have philosophy that feedback is not their responsibility, and that only Candidates of interest count.
There are also companies out there that have a policy (although not in print)-- that they
do not hire the unemployed. This can be a structural policy (Applicants don't get past HR that don't have a current fulltime job-- the unstated but definitely adhered too policy) or an infrastructural policy (Where Hiring Managers filter the resumes out individually). Many hiring managers will reject resumes of the unemployed or the filter the resumes that have what they refer to as Jumps in the recent pass (Who doesn't have a few jumps in this economy?)
The People Problem.The People problem can be broken down to
actual people with preconceived notions of what makes a good employee. This area I believe borders on Discrimination -- but politically correct firms would classify it as Fit. Good Recruiters speak out when this occurs, or report it when a pattern emerges. Bad recruiters tow the corporate line and continue in their box supporting hiring decisions if they are not so great. In the end the candidate, applicant won't get feedback because the risk is too high.
The second People Problem is that Staffing isn't a priority in most companies that are strapped in this recession. The money they spend to train, or create a recruitment process is last in budget crises or non-existent.
Thirdly, Recruitment Folks come in all different styles. Great recruitment professionals are highly paid, and are usually the first to go in a recession so the Skilled Talent just isn't there to present feedback of Value. In some situations, hiring managers are the ones doing the review, calls and hiring, and it isn't their expertise, they don't understand a Candidate today could be a Customer tomorrow. Others just don't have the time, energy or awareness -- otherwise known as common courtesy to respond. Still others are overburdened with responsibility and stress working in roles that probably have gotten bigger in economic downturns, and don't have the capacity to respond.
Labor Perception or Value Problem.
The Valued or Perceived Value of American's Labor's Worth based on Corporate Perception vs. Actual Production is a different problem. This is widespread and mandates a No Feedback Policy-- it is usually strategic and spoken of at Executive level under the headline Performance Review.
This is a shift from the days of industrialization where productivity was the end all and be all, and Labor Unions had to fight for basic Workers Rights. Now a Value of someone's employability is often based on not experience, productivity or education but of
perceived Value. This creates an environment of confidentiality and do not share any info. Often it looks like Collusion, however, hard to track. This problem can present itself in resume sourcing externally where the Perceived value is around a
geographical resume review perception i.e.) He is from Detroit-- that will be manufacturing, She is from India that is software She will be a better employee. OR Hip perception Google is cooler than IBM--therefore the applicant there has cutting edge technology and the IBM recruit doesn't.
Most Hurtful to both Labor and Corporate profitability it can be
Politically based. This is where Labor and Supply are rigged. When companies change internal arrangements (job cuts) under the statement of cost cutting, but reward hierarchical employees (Executive management or Sales) with the difference, then on the Applicant side replace workers with either political hires, or lower cost employment. The list works for the haves, and the have not’s suffer with a higher influx of have not’s increasing unemployment or under employment, increase of employed worker stress, and decrease job creation.
There is also a new trend that reminds us of the "Red list" Days. This practice is what I would classify as the new "red list" or MacArthur meets Capitalism. Where a corporation, person, or group lists or outcasts an applicant or group of applicants based on political arrangements -- think Anti-trust but instead of monopoly of product the vertical alignment or partnerships are with bodies of talent.
This is a Sea Change from Previous Decades of Recession or Depression where products and services declined so jobs declined, but where Profitability was the end goal. This is where Profits aren't talked about (sometimes they are there and could be soaring) but job cuts keep coming, because other companies are cutting and image needs to be with the industry. Many companies still post jobs while they are cutting loose from employees out the front doors. We see this here in Mass regularly---interviews happen at the back door and layoffs go out the front. Some of our neighboring Banks and some large corporations are granting Raises and bonuses in the name of retention to management but hourly paid workers get a decrease in bonus and increase in work hours. This instills a fear of the employed to do anything they have to keep the jobs, and disappointment to those that are unemployed. The lack of feedback no matter what the reason hurts everyone.
The unemployed go aimlessly from application to application, the employed sit and wait, the strategist base numbers and predictions on falsehood, and all of this can slow down job creation, but most importantly it skews the Job View Environment. When feedback isn't honest or isn't given it increases the frustration of the unemployed, or underemployed, as well as adds burden to those worker bees at the ground level holding onto their jobs.
I'm not sure the cause-- it might be a combination of society value change, or the new industrialization of class economics, but it is there. My concern is that it is creating false employment statistics, and an overall Anti-work Culture. This is deeply rooted in organization, hiring teams, and recruitment. It reveals itself in Hiring Practices that are based on How it looks to our Brand instead of Honest Need, and in the rise of the Unemployed, Underemployed, and Jobless.
My suggestion: Let’s Get people back to work, stop playing with the Labor Market as if it was a supply chain product-- and treat Workers, and Hiring Teams with respect. Give Feedback and Be honest!
