Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Using the basic supply and demand theories can help to understand this.

Hiring companies did treat applicants at customers at one time. Specifically, during the dot-com boom of 1998-2000 in the States.

But recently, they do not have to as there are floods of applicants for each open position. If you treat them badly and some go away, you will still be able to find someone who is good for the position.

The applicant load has been so great that one of the companies I worked for (www.helpUhire.com) was able to build a business model around helping companies deal with the load of applicants.

I think Peter nailed it. When you get 200+ resumes for one job, it's hard to treat everyone with the same level of attention and respect that is given to customers and prospects. However, I think once an applicant has demonstrated that they could potentially be a good fit, the hiring company will take their game to a new level. After all, really good people are hard to find, so once you think you've found one, the courting begins.

I think you could also ask the same question to candidates, too. Most of them do an abysmal job of marketing themselves, and they really show little respect to hiring companies during the application process. And by that I mean that at least 95% of the applications that I see do not even meet the basic stated criteria. I always ask for a cover letter, and if I get an email that says nothing more than "I'm applying for the job. My resume is attached," along with only the resume, I'm more likely to skip over the application altogether.

I also despise boilerplate cover letters that show nothing about the applicant's knowledge of my business or the position.

I know that's not the question you asked, but really, I think applicants need to learn more about treating employers as customers than the other way around.

My $0.02. YMMV.

Paul

There may be another way to look at this. Although I agree with the supply and demand issues raised above, your perception of the market as a whole may be biased since you are probably working with a subset of the market which does a relatively poor job of recruiting and hiring. For example, I would image that a technical company which pays salaries 10% above market rates, pays currennt employees a bonus for referrals, and "treats applicants like customers" rarely uses a recruiting firm.

To me, the key question is, now that you have noticed a problem, how can you turn this to a competitive advantage for yourself? If you provide coaching to your customers, the hiring companies, and teach them to "treat applicants like employees", this will NOT provide a competitive advantage, since they will become better at hiring ALL applicants (not just yours) and since you will shrink the size of your market, since those companies will become better at hiring (and retaining) staff and will therefore have less need for a recruiting firm.

On the other hand, if you provide coaching (and encouragement) to prospective applicants, giving them a checklist to help them succeed in a difficult environment (e.g. make sure each one writes Paul a personalized cover letter), but more importantly, helping them to discerne the "diamonds in the rough" - i.e. those companies who are great companies to work for, but who give a lousy impression to applicants it the hiring process - this may give you a sustainable competitive advantage.

As a side note, I would also observe that the level of business courtesy and ethics in general has declined markedly in recent years.