Classified Ads (Blind Ads)

Rockie · May 2001

Have any of you ever run across the situation where you are instructed to run a blind ad for employment to either potentially replace an employee who is not working out or if you are thinking about restructuring an area and just want to see what talent is available out there.

We had a situation where we are looking at restructuring our Finance Area and ran a blind ad for employment. Of course, some of our employees in that area were curious if we were the employer running the blind ad. They asked questions, but, of course were not given any information.

One employee called the Classifield Department of the newspaper to try to get information, which I thought was pretty nervy. Another employee (the Controller) in fact, kept on calling the classifieds and finally "bullied" someone into sending her a copy of the blind ad. Of course,she got upset because,potentially, this could end up being a replacement for her.

I guess my question is: how do most of you handle blind ads and especially if you get questions from employees about the ad, i.e., "are we looking for_____".

Any "words of wisdom" you could give me on how you handle these type of ads would be appreciated.

jbnunzio · May 2001

In the past when it has been necessary to post a blind ad, I have used a post office box. I would have all responses mailed to the box. I also avoid stating any specifics about the company itself, so as to avoid peaking our employees' interest. I would recommend using a format that differs from those that are used when you are running with your company name. I have never had employees suspect a thing this way.

Rockie · May 2001

Thanks for your help. This was something we had not experienced before and it was a very bad situaiton.

Sharon · May 2001

We have done this several times but are careful to keep it generic and have never run into this problem although we have received resumes from our current employees. We set this up through our advertising company so the newspaper does not even know who the company is.

Liberty · May 2001

One of the benefits of using an ad agency is for situations like you are currently experiencing. By using the ad agency, the responses are sent directly to the agency. Most ad agency personnel will not be "bullied" into disclosing information, as they are acutely aware of the confidentiality aspects.

Classified Ads (Blind Ads)

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