A Friday Rant (and Offer of Assistance)

Knowing what should and should not be asked on an application is common sense, right? You don't ask about all of the EEO protected statuses like race, color, age, disability, ethnicity, sex, religion, and national origin. And shouldn't it be obvious not to ask about other personal information like "Do you plan on having children?" (if you're a woman or a man) or "Are you married?" or what about birth order or the direct question of "How old are you?" Ugh. I have seen it all, and frankly, I am disappointed that some employers do not know any better.

It reminds of my time in HR when I attended a Workers Compensation seminar and someone there actually asked if they really needed to have WC insurance. What?! At least the person was there to learn the proper answer to their question. Absolutely, you should have workers compensation insurance.

In this day in age, I would hope that there would be better compliance with the laws because it is impossible to say you can't find the rules now that there are so many HR blogs and websites and government agencies on the web that provide everything you need to know to do it right.

Anyhow, my point today is that as the summer job recruiting season gets going, please feel free to utilize the group of us at CoolWorks.com to help you determine if you're doing it right. This can be anything from "Is my employment advertisement attractive enough to garner any interest?," to "Is my employment application compliant?," to improving your hiring process and job candidate's experience by using our applicant tracking system called Staffing Center, and more. Plus, I would be willing to bet that if we don't know the answer, we probably have a resource that does. We're here to help.

Charles DeGaulle vs Your Employment Page

Just last week I returned from an 11-day trip to Europe which included 2 mind-numbing visits to the Charles DeGaulle Airport, where my husband and I felt like spinning tops. Now to be fair to CDG they are in the midst of some big renovation projects, but WOW was it ever confusing. We did successfully make it to Munich for Oktoberfest and got a few "prosts" in before we ventured back through CDG on the way home, but, boy did we ever feel exhausted and worn out by the travel experience.

Now think about your recruiting process and particularly your website. Do you do this to your prospective job applicants? Do they feel worn out and drained by simply attempting to find the employment section on your website? What about the application itself? How many unnecessary hoops must they jump through to apply?

In the web recruiting world there are two main things to remember. 1) Clicks are sacred. 2) Applicants should be even more sacred.

You want the best candidates? Who doesn't? To help get them, ponder this list when you design or renovate your recruiting process.

• Make it only one-click to your employment section.
• Get an on-line application.
• Acknowledge new applications quickly - say thanks for applying!
• Communicate constantly.
• Anticipate questions.
• Use the Golden Rule - treat your applicants as you would like to be treated.

Don't wear out your applicants' patience when they are simply trying to learn more about your organization. Frankly, if they have made it to your website, you should treat them like a honored guest. Because honestly, if it was you, and you didn't feel welcome, wouldn't you go find another place to be?