I have received a lot of feedback on my post about recruiting mistakes personally and on Recruitingblogs .com. so why not continue the thought!

Reputation is HUGE, especially now with social networking and immediate feedback. People talk, especially when they feel like they have been treated unfairly.

Your reputation is a consideration at every level of your business. Here are some areas you may not have thought of:
How you advertise your positions. Are you targeting the right people or using the “dirty bomb” method? Post it everywhere and hope the right person sees it. I can not stress the importance of posting the right job in the right place. Too many advertisements can = desperate.
Your selection process. Do you take the time to send a “thanks, but no thanks” letter? Here is what I know – over 70% of applicants in our industry receive a response to their online application 60% of the time or LESS. Too busy to respond? You should make time because 36% of those people you didn’t respond to WON’T re-apply! Talk about shrinking your candidate pool. You think finding good people is hard now – keep finding reasons not to respond to their application and you will find it very hard!
Your hiring process. Don’t make the candidates wait. In today’s world of instant feedback and information, making candidates wait for interviews and feedback can kill your reputation too. Here are some more scary stats and remember these are Execs & Mgrs. 42% of candidates think the interview process should be a maximum of 5 business days. Another 41% think the max should be 10 business days. Yep, take longer than 5 days and you have not met the expectations of 42% of your applicants – that’s 2 in 5. That number jumps to 4 in 5 if you go past 10 business days. Here is the worst news, take to long and 70% of these people will never re-apply again! No “thanks, but no thanks” and you lose 36% of your candidate pool. Then take to long to interview the people you actually liked and lose another 70% of your candidate pool. Ouch!
Your retention policy. Do you know what really keeps your managers working for you? Do you want to know? Here it is – 62% want the training, coaching and mentoring they need to get promoted to the next level of their career. The 2nd most important reason an employee stays with you is… input and collaboration which came in at a whopping 16%. To put this in perspective salary and bonus came in at 3.6% and 3.1% respectively.

People talk, that’s a fact. And more importantly they talk more when they feel undervalued or disrespected. The ol’ “if you don’t like it, there’s the door” mentality doesn’t work anymore (I don’t know if it ever did). You need to recognize and meet the needs of your most important asset or an equal side of your triangle or the topic of your vision statement or whatever! The fact of the matter is – good people are hard to find. As the market recovers their stock will rise and finding good people will be challenging. Now is the time to address any concerns – fix your reputation and get ready for the future.