In this issue we look at best practice in online recruitment in responding to candidates. We welcome a new job board partner to whatjobsite. We give you the results of our March online poll. And once again we round up the latest exclusive advertising offers from our partner job sites in the UK and Ireland.

Please feel free to forward this issue to a colleague, and let us know if there are any topics you'd like to see us cover in upcoming issues. We'd love your feedback.

Editor

You have written your ad, posted it on your chosen job board, you've set up your screening questions and, at last, the candidate applications are beginning to come in. Your inbox is filling up with applicants and CVs and, sometime later today, you'll get around to going through them.

But something happens later in the day and you decide you'll have to look at all those applicants tomorrow. Something else happens tomorrow so you say that you'll definitely get around to dealing with them the following day. And the following day. And the following day. And all the while, the candidate is wondering what on earth happened to that application for that really good job.

Sadly, you are not the only employer who doesn't get round to responding to applicants. Research conducted by the UK job board Totaljobs suggests that up to 73% of all job seekers' applications do not receive a response. Such poor service to candidates is often the result of bad internal practices by recruitment agencies and large employers. Indeed, there are a thousand reasons why there might be bad practices. The important point is that you shouldn't let it happen to your potential employees.

Respond to the candidate. And do it quickly. And it's very easy to do. Have a standard email response ready for the purpose. For example,

Dear Applicant

Many thanks for your application for the job of (job name.) We are in the process of reviewing your application. We will contact you (when) to let you know if we wish to proceed to the interview stage.

Best regards,

Your name

That really is it! If you send that initial email response, you will be distinguishing yourself from all those other recruitment agencies and companies that do not do candidates the courtesy of even a response.

When you do eventually get around to reviewing the candidates, tell them promptly whether they have been successful or not. It is not necessary to indicate in the rejection email why you are rejecting them, but it would be advisable to take note of your reasons in case there are any complaints in the future. If you wish to invite a candidate to interview, you can drop them an email. But, in truth, it would be better to give them a call.

The lack of common courtesy some employers show to candidates offers you a real opportunity to shine as a potential employer. It's easy to shine when all those around you are covered in mud. And all the money in the world and all the brand strategy experts you can find will be unable to do more to enhance your recruitment brand than sending that simple email.

We hope this article has been of help to you. For more information on online recruitment and job board advertising visit the whatjobsite Recruitment Advice area.

In March we asked our users to tell us what makes them choose one job board over another. It will come as no surprise that price was a leading consideration for just over 30% of our users. What is also significant is that, in this survey at least, products and services were almost as important as price at just under 30%. Testimonials counted for 16% and customer service counted for just 4%.

Disappointingly, in spite of all our yabbering on about choosing a job board on the basis of the audience it has, only 10% of those surveyed considered audience important when choosing a job board. It seems that we at whatjobsite have a lot more work to do in helping employers choose the right job sites for their vacancies. Expect some more yabbering!

This month we welcome another job board partner to whatjobsite.

• Creativepool.co.uk is a specialist online recruitment resource for the UK’s creative sector. With over 30,000 creative candidates registered, 50,000 unique visitors a month and 2,500 employer users, Creativepool.co.uk enables employers seeking quality creative talent to find the people they need quickly, simply and cost effectively... more

If you are looking to hire creatives be sure to take a look at Creativepool.co.uk

Here's our round up of exclusive offers for whatjobsite users from our job board partners:

• CareersinAudit, the UK's leading specialist audit job board, is offering whatjobsite users an exclusive offer of a 30 day job posting plus a fully branded Corporate profile for just £195 when you quote WJS08. Call them now on 020 7553 6350 or email them at info@careersinaudit.com quoting offer WJS08.
• JobsGroup.net has two great offers this month available across their network of niche jobsites, which includes JustEngineers.net, JustConstruction.net and JustRail.net.
  1. Free 12 Hour Test Drive – Download up to 50 CVs at no cost!
  2. Sign up to any of their award-winning niche jobsites for six months and receive two bonus months.
  Offer available until 25th April 2008 to the first 25 recruiters to respond. Call them now on 0845 050 2000 or email sales@jobsgroup.net quoting "whatjobsite offer."

Visit the whatjobsite Special Offers Page for more offers from job sites.