Dear Editor,
The continuing and increasing incidence of human resource management practitioners including at the bottom of their vacancy advertisements statements like, “only short-listed applicants will be acknowledged” or words to that effect, risk undermining the very purpose of advertising vacancies. The prime objective of public announcements of vacancies is to attract the widest possible pool of potentially suitable candidates from among whom to make a competitive choice.
Carefully worded ads (‘market-oriented’ as opposed to some which merely copy extracts from the job description/specification) will reduce the chances of too many ‘unsuitable’ applicants and by the same token increase the chances of a wide, competitive field from which effective selection can be made. The ad is an invitation to a select group of people as described therein; if this invitation projects an ‘exclusivity’, the criteria for which only those who do the shortlisting are privy, then the chances increase that many potentially competent people might not apply because they prefer to avoid the ‘insult’ of being rejected without even knowing if their application was received.
And the organization risks unwittingly rejecting a good candidate.
The formal acknowledgement of applications is at least courteous and valuable PR. It used to be done routinely in my early days as an Human Resources Manager (HRM) practitioner when the labour and material costs of doing so were relatively higher than in these days of cheap, easy electronic communication. There is no doubt in my mind that organizations lose much more than they gain by refusing to acknowledge applications and then adding insult to injury by advertising their discourtesy in not doing so. Nevertheless, I am prepared to be proven wrong if HRM colleagues who indulge in this malpractice can publicize their rationale for not acknowledging applications.
Yours faithfully,
Nowrang Persaud
