Roller Coaster enthusiasts are usually bummed by the extremely short track, wishing there were more ups, downs, and mega insane twists. While we can’t blame a thrill seeker for wanting a longer ride, maybe roller coasters are just meant to be short and to the point, and not drawn out, exhausting, and detrimental to those around it.

The NHL, it’s players, league officials, and fans of the game have just reached the end of their own long roller coaster ride.  While the lockout officially started in September, fans of the game wondered all summer if ice would be frozen for the usual October start.  Sadly, NHL ice rinks are just now getting ready to welcome back fans and players as the lockout reached an exhausting 113 days.

A Reoccurring Nightmare & Angry Fans

The worst part is that many are now associating lockouts with the NHL brand.  This is now the third lockout since the 1994-95 season and NHL fans have not held back expressing anger and disgust as shown in this example of over 23,000 people “liking” the Just Drop It Facebook Page.  The page was built to organize a group boycott of the season, asking fans to boycott one game for each game lost by the lockout.

Players’ Frustrations Reach Twitter

While fans are expected to be a tad rowdy in their tweets about the lockout, a number of players also used Twitter to fire back at the owners and the league publicly. Here are a couple examples:

https://twitter.com/BrandonPrust8/status/276904629030252545
https://twitter.com/Jeremy_Roenick/status/247123332422569984

Ongoing Feelings of Resentment

Even as players prepare for the start of the shortened 2012-13 season, there are still plenty of negative feelings to go around.  Chicago Blackhawks Captain, Jonathan Toews said, “There’s definitely some resentment just from the fact there wasn’t a whole lot of trust; there wasn’t a whole lot of give and take these past couple of months.”

Just as diehard hockey fans have wondered, Toews also questions the length of the process.  “The realistic thing that kind of sets in, did it really have to go this far? Did we really have to miss over three months? ”

A Lesson on Employment Branding & Candidate Experience

The emergence of social media brought an entirely new feel to the most current NHL lockout.  Negative tweets from players reached millions of hockey fans instantly, encouraging them to think the worst about the NHL and its brand.

If fans decided to abandon the NHL, could you blame them?  When a league goes through two lockouts within 8 years, and players publicly bash the league, it’s no surprise that some fans will be looking for a new ice surface.

When a company hiring process is terribly long and communication is poor, it’s fair to say that candidates won’t hold back in expressing their frustration with the organization (think Glassdoor).  This creates a negative employment brand, which spreads quick, causing the company to lose interest from their own fans (candidates).

When Human Resources professionals build out the tracks of their hiring process, make sure the roller coasters’ ups and downs are brief. Don’t drag it out, or your lines will be empty, possibly like a few NHL arenas this season.

Read original post at: http://www.asyncinterview.com/what-human-resources-can-learn-from-t...