Respond to Your Applicants

That is all.

Okay, a little more. ; )

In the seasonal world, the turn of the calendar from December to January acts as the green light of a NASCAR race. Everyone truly interested in working summer jobs in great places gets on-line and starts applying. As employers, it's both a wonderful time and a stressful time as your in-box just tripled in size. I say embrace it and work the applications to the best of your ability.

I've written about this before, several times actually, and my hope is always the same.

All applicants that take the time to fill out your application get the respect they deserve. They get thanked for their time and their interest and they get a response.

If you need a better way to manage your incoming job applications, ask me or anyone on the Cool Works team about our seasonal focused applicant tracking system called Staffing Center. We've been helping employers get control of their seasonal hiring process since 2001.

Comment by Saleem Qureshi on January 12, 2010 at 7:05am: Good observation Kari,
I would like to add to this by suggesting why not set a dead line for the applicants or start filtering applications all year round? This way by the time summer arrives you would have your ideal applicants short listed and ready for interview. Whereas the other candidates would have enough time to seek other options.

Comment by Kari Quaas on January 12, 2010 at 11:53am: Hi Saleem,

A small percentage of the employers who use our website set deadlines and publicly display them on their profiles. Most may have some internal deadlines, but do not share them with the job seekers. I would say most keep their applications open all year, but do most of their true review of applications between November and May. Those that have year-round or winter operations, in addition to the busy summer season, utilize their current teams to fill jobs, or as you say above they have their "ideal applicants short listed." It's a wild thing to watch. From no employees or very few to thousands in a week or two come season start. Nice work if you can get it. : )

Thanks Saleem,
Kari