Are you currently looking for a job? Or are you managing job applications for your company? Job candidates feel that employers are not following up with them, and employers complain of not having enough time to respond to all the candidates who they decided to reject. It happened to me the other day, too – we posted a job for a marketing assistant and I received so many applications I thought I was not going to be able to deal with them all.

None of us likes getting rejected. Communicating with candidates is a vital step in the recruitment process, and the way you communicate with them affects your company’s reputation. So how can you manage job applications without taking a chunk of time out of your work day?

I think we can help you. GraphicMail offers an email marketing solution that allows you to automate your communication emails, to personalize your mailers and to keep a close eye on the communication flow with its free reports and analytics tool.
It worked for me. I posted our job advert online and added a subscription form on which I captured all the vital data in advance, such as email address, name, surname, educational degree and area of expertise. This information was automatically sent to my GraphicMail account where it was added to my mailing list, with all the additional data I had collected. The candidates instantly received a thank-you note which I had scheduled as a trigger mail beforehand.

Next, I screened the information according to educational degree and area of expertise. I set up an mail campaign for those who we considered, and one for those who we had to reject. In the email to the suitable candidates, I asked them to submit their CVs to us (much easier than receiving CVs from all the applicants and having to sieve through the attachments!). Then I sent an email of rejection to the rest of the candidates. In order to show respect and to keep the campaign personal in spite of the automated process, I added personalization to my mailers. I also made sure the email would come from my personal email address, as there are always subscribers who simply hit reply instead of filling in the reply or comment form in the HTML newsletter.

Why you should consider using email marketing

Reputation – Not only are today’s candidates selling themselves to you, you’re also selling yourself to them. Your company image is in the limelight. You never know if those who you reject today will become future employees, and even if they don’t, reputation is at stake. In today’s world where everything can be published at an instant and by anyone – just look at the ever growing social networks and blogger sites – and in a time where consumers heavily rely on other consumers’ testimonials and recommendations, you need to communicate timeously and in a professional manner.

Time constraints – The screening of applications itself can be very time consuming, let alone the actual interviewing process. Save time by managing your communication smartly. Why deal with tons of calls or emails from irate candidates who haven’t heard back from you? Why put yourself and them through the agony? For a little email marketing effort, you can get a big return.