Going Green in Recruiting

Welcome! Just a quick introduction, I am Molly, the Director of Employment for Children's Mercy Hospital and Clinics in Kansas City, Missouri. I am responsible for finding amazing people with a variety of talents to ensure the children that come to us for treatment are treated with care, compassion and something extra special.

My team and I have been working hard for the last 2 years to get rid of the "black hole" reputation when you apply to our hospital (or any large organization). Last year alone, we received 20,778 applications and hired 1,177 people. That means, unfortunately, we have to tell a lot of people "no".

Here is what we are doing to "Go Green" in our process:

1) Ensure we respond to every application with an update on status. We will tell you "no" by e-mail or a phone call (if we have brought you in for an interview).

2) Start to GO Green by retaining candidates that were qualified but just didn't get the job this time. Our hope is that we can find them an opportunity that better fits their talents later.

What has your organization done to get rid of the black hole? OR as a job seeker, what do you want back from the employers you apply with?

Hope to hear from you!

Molly

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Comment by Travis@nexusITgroup.com on March 8, 2012 at 11:18am: Hi Molly,

Travis with nexus IT group in Kansas City. Children's Mercy is a great organization here in KC so it's no surprise that you receive a lot of applications. One item that you could implement if you haven't already is to add pre-qualifying questions in the application process. I've seen this do wonders for a company while maintaining a great branding image within the community.

What you'll want to do is pick out a specific number of requirements that an individual must meet or exceed to continue with the application process. Many of my clients use both hard skills and years of experience to rule out unqualified candidates. For example, "Do you have 3+ years of hands on VMWare implementation experience?

Best of luck,

Travis

Comment by Cyndy Trivella on March 8, 2012 at 4:17pm: Molly, with the advent of a lousy economy which has had a negative effect on employment, your efforts to outreach to job seekers is commendable. I am a volunteer in a job seeker group that assists job seekers with tools and information to better navigate through the job seeking maze, so I can tell you if you asked these individuals what they hate most about looking for a job, these two things always make it to the top of the list:

1) The ATS, which they refer to as the black hole

2) Never hearing back from anyone at the hiring company on their status (Maisha is correct. They would rather hear NO than not hear anything at all.)

The personal touch with a call or personalized email will go a long way with the people you have actually interviewed. This is another point that job seekers have mentioned as a sensitive area for them. They feel that if they made the cut to actually have an interview, they expect to have a personalized email or call to inform them if they are not going any further on in the interview process. This is something that I as a hiring manager have always been a proponent of with everyone who took the time to apply online.

Building a talent network is definitely a great way to retain contact and stay in communication with the "silver and bronze medalists" who were not hired at the moment but are still good candidates and good cultural fits for the organization.

These efforts you have put into place will bring you benefits in the present and future by preserving your employment brand and reputation as an employer-of-choice within the Greater Kansas City area.

Just some thoughts. Have you extended these initiatives into a Facebook widget, built a talent network to sit on your careers page and created a LinkedIn group for employees and alum, which is a good source of boomerangs?

Thanks for stepping up and making a difference!

~Cyndy

Comment by Cora Mae Lengeman on March 14, 2012 at 4:59pm: Molly, I love that you respond to every application via email or a telephone call if there was an interview! It is another way to positively market your hospital as a caring facility!

So many companies just fluff it off as "oh, well, there weere so many applicants there is no way we can respond." But the applicants do not know that and they are left hanging. Womnderful that you are setting the standards that more companies -and recruiting firms - should adopt.