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Turndown letter/postcard to unsolicited applicants

PattyPatty 8 Posts
in HR & Employment Law Vote Up0Vote Down
What, if any, is the risk in sending a "turndown" postcard or letter to applicants that we do not have a position for? The position being applied for is entry level production/assembly. The applicant may have been interviewed or left an unsolicited application. (When we get inundated with unsolicted applicants and do not have openings, we post a sign at the entrance doors that we are not hiring.) We have a high "minority" pool of applicants, primarily hispanic, that leave applications and then call continually to see if we have openings. These calls can be very time consuming and frustrating. I suggested that we send a postcard with the message in both English and Spanish, thanking them for their interest in employment with our company, but at the present time we have no openings, or no openings that match their education and/or work experience. Our mgmt is concerned that someone may come back to us with a a claim that we did not hire them because of their ethnic origin, even though we have no way of knowing it other than possibly a visual observation. We do keep the applications on file for a year and I have had occasion to go through them and call some in for interviews.
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Comments

  • 4 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • TheKnowItAllTheKnowItAll 2 Posts
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    Perhaps you could establish a job line. Callers could be directed to a recorded message that lists current openings or simply indicates that no positions are presently available but applications are kept for a certain period of time and reviewed in the event of an opening.
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  • GillianGillian 885 Posts
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    As long as you send the postcard to everyone, there is no problem. The postcards probably won't end all the calls though.
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  • RockieRockie 2,136 Posts
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    We do not accept unsolicited resumes. If we did, we would spend all our time logging in and storing these resumes. When we advertise, we specify that we only accept resumes for posted positions. I have found that most unsolicited resumes are from people who read the paper and send out resumes for "any position you have available." Most are not qualified for any positions in the organization.

    When we get applications or resumes in for posted positions, we have a postcard that we send out stating that we did receive the resume and if we will contact if they are selected for an interview. This cuts down tremendously on people calling to check to see if we received their resume or what the status of their resume is.
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  • SharonSharon 16 Posts
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    The Job Line is a good idea and does help alot. My concern is that you state you retain these "unsolicited" applications. We only take applications for current advertised openings. We also have a dry erase board in HR that we update as often as necessary with current openings so someone walking in can see what we are accepting applications for. As someone who has gone through several OFCCP audits I know if you are retaining applications/resume and even interviewing some of them they are an applicant and do have to be logged in your applicant pool/log and have to show why you did not hire this person.(Of course, this is if you are required to keep an AAP) Our policy is that any unsolicited resume received in the mail is shredded-without being considered and without an interview.
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