Employer Brands That Suck

A client of mine just had an employment offer rescinded. He was upfront from the beginning about an accommodation that he needed for employment and was told by Human Resources it would not be a problem. The company’s legal department thought differently which led to the offer being rescinded. After dozens of interviews and weeks of his time discussing a “we need to fill this job by yesterday” position, he no longer has an offer in hand. So why is it that a policy that seemed so black and white to general counsel was not even on the radar of the head of Human Resources? Isn’t HR the keeper of all the rules and policies? What does this lack of knowledge and communication say about this company’s employment brand?

Companies don’t only have a product brand;  they also have an employer brand which is just as important. People talk about bad interview experiences with just as much gusto as they discuss bad customer service experiences. Glassdoor is a great example of this in action.

Here are some tell-tale signs of a bad employer brand. I have seen all of them and not just in small companies but Fortune 500s in finance, health care, consumer goods, and pharmaceuticals. Some of the country’s most beloved company brands have lousy employer brands.

1. A company career site that forces you to go through a ridiculously laborious process to apply for an open position. Hint: Passive job seekers (those that are currently employed, but seeking other options) won’t spend the time muddling through the company’s arduous online form. And active job seekers probably won’t do it more than once or twice. Can you imagine a company trying to engage potential customers by asking them to fill out endless forms? Of course not.
2. A company employment application that asks you to list your social security number. Hint: This application was probably created before the Internet and phishing scams and never updated. There is absolutely no reason for an employer to know your social security number before you have an employment offer. Does anyone freely give out their social security number to companies they are considering doing business with?
3. A company that never responds to your resume submission, claiming they can only respond to candidates they are interested in. Hint: It doesn’t take much manpower to set up an auto-responder acknowledging that the resume was received and it doesn’t take that much more effort to send an  email explaining why the person isn’t right for the open position.
4. A company that attends a job fair and staffs it with a representative that tells everyone they meet to go to the company website to apply for jobs online. This is usually a company that is at the job fair to create some positive PR, not one that has any intention of hiring on the spot or even conducting first round interviews.

I truly understand that it is an employer’s market, that companies are stretched, that miscommunication happens, and that sometimes things fall through the cracks. But when a company’s reputation is on the line, A-list companies do everything in their power to keep their promise of value intact and keep customers happy. Job seekers are customers too. Shouldn’t companies be concerned with creating a positive interview experience for them?