Survey Results: Job Applicants Want Feedback

More than 2,000 respondents to a recent survey concerning whether or not a company responds to a job applicant’s application reveals that applicants want feedback. StartWire, an Internet job search organizer, conducted the survey and has reported that employers who do not respond to job applicants  risk damaging their company’s reputation and employment brand.

77 percent of respondents reported that when they never heard anything from a company after applying they thought less of them. 72 percent reported that they would not be likely to recommend that company’s products or services, and 58 percent were not likely to buy a product from the company. There is a clear message: not responding to candidates and having a poor applicant experience leads to frustration and negativity.

Chris Forman, CEO of StartWire, states, “It is easy to understand job seekers’ frustration when they submit resumes but never get a response. But what most companies don’t realize is that not providing feedback can really hurt their image. Those potential hires may also be customers, and how a company manages job applicants can really travel fast through word-of-mouth.”

Applying for jobs can be frustrating when job applicants never hear anything back from potential employers. 90 percent of survey respondents reported that they would feel better if they would simply get back some sort of feedback after applying for jobs. Research reports that at least 90 percent of job applicants follow up with employers regarding the status of their application, but only 33 percent of Fortune 500 companies actually give feedback.

To help in with this issue, StartWire provides those seeking jobs with automatic job application status updates from over 5,600 employers. StartWire is becoming well-known and has received much praise and write-ups recently from major publications including US News World Report, About.com, AOL Jobs, CNN, and HR Executive Magazine.