Lost Talent: Job Candidates Reject Job Offers

Friday, June, 29 2012

The leading sentence from a recent CareerBuilder survey read “Despite high unemployment rates, more than half (56 percent) of employers who recruited new employees in the last year reported that a candidate rejected their job offer.” While there are a number of reasons why any given candidate would reject an offer, it does beg the question as to how the hiring organization got to the point of making an offer without an understanding if the candidate would accept or reject the offer. The organization must have felt confident that the candidate processed the necessary skills if they were ready to extend an offer. The survey went on to dispel a number of myths including that the outcomes of candidate recruitment has no impact outside of the recruitment process. Consider that a candidate is in fact a “consumer”, and as a consumer their “experience” will be shared with other similar consumers, both good and bad. Their experience will influence whether or not others, with similar skills will seek employment with an employer. Yes, we are still in the middle of high unemployment, and job candidates should be lining up at your front door willing to take any job, at any salary, and under any conditions with no questions asked. However, apparently a number of candidates did not get that message.

We have seen these headlines for several years now. “A Sea of Job-Seekers, but Some Companies Aren’t Getting Any Bites”, “HR Staffs, Recruiters Overlook Qualified Job Seekers”, and “Jobs for skilled workers are going unfilled”. The story is the same for hundreds of employers who simply cannot find qualified job candidates with the necessary skills. And while it is true that many candidates are willing be to be trained, most employers are not set up to train a person who lacks the basic skills required.

It is easy to look to our school systems as not providing the basic skills required in today’s work place. However, many individuals recognize that they are missing, math, computer, communications, and other skills and take action to correct those deficiencies through self-development on their own. It is easy for most job candidates to expect employers to provide training and skills development. However, the truth is that for most jobs employers expect and require candidates to arrive on the job with basic and job skills in place. Even though most businesses have been using at least word processor and spreadsheet software since the late 1980’s, employers are still seeing candidates who cannot setup basic business letters or simple spreadsheets.

The real issue is that many candidates who go from application to application and who have the skills required are being overlooked or are turning down job offers. Candidates who have had bad experiences during the application process reach a negative conclusion about the employer long before an offer is extended. Organizations that look at candidates as a commodity with the expectation that they can treat candidates as such may find themselves with fewer applicants and lost opportunities to acquire the talent needed.