'Dear Job Applicant: Thanks Anyway, But No Thanks'

Liz Ryan 

Dear Liz,
What’s the best way to tell a job applicant, “No thanks”? I’ve just started a new job as the Recruiting Manager in a 300-person firm. Right now they aren’t doing anything to tell job-seekers when they aren’t going to be hired. The applicant just has to assume they didn’t get the job when they don’t hear from us for weeks after a job interview.
After a job-seeker interviews for a job here, they won’t hear from us unless they are invited back for a second interview.
If someone else is selected for the job, even the folks who have had two interviews won’t hear from us again. I want to change that right away! Is there a polite and professional way to let people know through an email message that someone else has been selected? Thanks in advance for your advice!
Yours,
Gretchen

 Dear Gretchen,

Congratulations on your new job! There is a polite way to tell a job-seeker that he or she is not a great fit for a particular job. You can do that via email if you’ve received someone’s resume and you don’t have a job for them right now. You can send them this message:

Dear Paul,

 Thanks for sending over your resume. It’s great to know that you’re interested in Angry Chocolates. We don’t have a job that matches your background right now but I hope you will join the Angry Talent Community at this link (http://etc.). That way you’ll hear about every new job opening we’ve got. Thanks again Paul and have a great day -

Yours,

 Gretchen Smith
Recruiting Manager, Angry Chocolates

Here are a few items to note about the no-thank-you letter above. You’ll use mail merge to make sure everybody gets a personalized version of this note.

You’ll launch a Talent Community — perhaps a LinkedIn group, a Facebook page or your own variation on an online community where fans and followers of your company can get company news, coupons, your latest job openings and job-search advice that will help them whether they end up working for your company or not.

Every company needs a Talent Community now. Otherwise, you’re wasting resources posting job ads and responding to applicants who reply to your ads, only to see them drift off into the mist! You need to stay in touch with them. That’s how you’ll build a recruiting pipeline.

We all know how important CRM is in our customer relationships. In the talent market, CRM is critical, too!

You want the people who know and like your company to come and work for you or send you their friends to join your team. An online Talent Community makes it easy to stay in touch and keep building relationship “glue” with the members of your talent pool.

Your no-thanks message will be signed by you, a person with a name — not “The Angry Chocolates Recruiting Team” or worse, “The Management.” Some of the folks who get “no thanks” letters will reach out to you one-on-one.

That’s not a bad thing. It takes pluck and persistence that most people don’t have to get hold of a Recruiting Manager, so if someone does that, give them a minute of your time.

You won’t send a ”no thanks” note after a person has been in for an interview. At that stage, they need a phone call from you or the department manager. If that seems like too much trouble, you’re interviewing too many people!

Jerry: Jerry Garcia!

You: Hi Jerry, this is Gretchen Smith from Angry Chocolates. How are you?

Jerry: That depends on what you have to tell me, Gretchen, ha ha!

You: I wanted to thank you for coming in last week to meet me and Allan Parsons from our IT team. I’m sorry to tell you that we are going to hire another candidate for that job, but life is long and I hope we can stay in touch.

Jerry: How do we stay in touch?

You: We have a Talent Community. I’m going to send you the URL. Sign up at the link I send you and you’ll see all of our new job openings, plus you’ll get coupons and job search advice and a lot of good stuff.

Jerry: Well, that’s better than a punch in the eye, right?

You: For sure! There’s a coupon for a four-pack of Angry Choco-Mints in the Talent Community, way better than a punch in the eye. I hope you’ll sign up. We will be hiring at least one more person in IT this year.

Jerry: I really appreciate the call, Gretchen. I knew your company was a class act the minute I sent in my resume. Everything I got from you folks was very polite and professional. I’m close to another offer so I don’t know if I’ll be available if you have another opening, but  like you said, life is long.

You: Indeed it is! All the best to you, Jerry.

It’s a new day. Relationships are everything — especially for people like you!

All the best,

Liz

Liz Ryan is the CEO and founder of Human Workplace. Follow her on Twitterand read the rest of her Forbes.com columns here.

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