Many Australian employers are not doing enough to
give a good impression of their business to potential
employees, a new report has claimed.
A recent study found that a massive 85 per cent
of Australian jobseekers felt it was important for
businesses to impress candidates as well as vice versa.
A good workplace environment had persuaded 43 per
cent of jobseekers to take a lower-paid role than
before, while 42 per cent were swayed by the challenge
of their new position.
One in three said that they took on a job because they
felt their new boss was someone they would like to work
for.
However, the survey found that many employers seemed to
be under-selling their firms during interviews, driving
away potentially valuable recruits.
Candidates’ top complaints were:
- Being left hanging around in reception areas,
meeting and boardrooms for hours.
- Bad preparation, such as turning up to find an
interview room hasn’t been booked or the interviewer
isn’t there.
- Poor presentation – scruffy interviewers and
offices were a big turn-off to applicants.
- The interviewer having to leave the interview
unexpectedly or early, or another person coming in
to take over, only start the interview again.
- The employer rambling or being off the point.
- The employer having a vague outline of the role.
- Running down opposition companies
- Unread CVs.
- Inappropriate flirting – being chatted up and
sexual innuendoes didn’t go down well with
respondents.
- Smoking, taking calls or eating while conducting
the interview.
The report writer also said that one interviewer
didn’t know a candidate’s name for the entire interview,
while other complaints included conducting the interview
wearing sunglasses while sending text on a mobile,
taking calls, chewing gum and smoking, while one
jobseeker was asked if she “still had an active womb.”
The importance of attracting quality staff has been
heightened by the chronic lack of skills in the
Australian workforce, leaving many employers unable to
fill vacancies with good candidates.
A survey of top 100 Australian Company HR Manager’s
found that with unemployment hitting a thirty year low,
demand for skilled workers and talented staff is now at
a high.
One of our survey respondents commented that “People
looking for a new job are prepared to commit a great
deal of time and resources in a company, they need to
believe that they will get as much out of a job as they
are about to put it.”
“You wouldn’t buy a car from a showroom where you were
kept waiting, the staff did not treat you with respect
or that looked like it had been hit by a bomb.”
“A job may not be for a life but it is far more
important than buying a car or anything else,” he said. |
