2.2(b) Preparing for responses

Next, you will need to plan and prepare for the responses that will flow from your advertisements. Just as the selection process starts from the first contact with the applicant, so too does the applicant’s opinion about the organisation begin to form from the advertisement and subsequent response to their enquiries.

This is an important stage in the process and requires planning to ensure that all those involved are aware that the advertisement has been placed and that they then respond to enquiries in a courteous and professional manner. If your advertisement asks applicants to phone a person after a certain date and time, make sure the contact person is available and knows how to deal with the enquiry. All applications should be acknowledged promptly and courteously and a pro-forma may be used for this purpose.

As well as presenting a professional image to potential applicants, good planning at this stage can make the rest of the recruitment process a lot smoother. You need to gain enough information from applicants to enable you to judge who needs to go through to the next stage-usually the interview. Otherwise you will be wasting both your time and theirs. You can do this in a number of ways: