Articles - Compliance and Legal

Back in 2006, we covered the topic of applicant rejection letters in a post linking to an article in Assessment Council News (Considerations in Rejecting Applicants, on p.4). Since today’s economy is resulting in more applications — and thus more rejected job applicants — we decided to give the topic another look.

With today’s recession also bringing more employment lawsuits, your company’s applicant rejection letters could be very costly if written in a way that could spark legal action. According to Business Management News’ article Rejection letters under scrutiny:

Employee lawsuits typically spike during recessions, and this one seems to be no exception. A new government report says job discrimination claims filed with the EEOC climbed 26% in the past two years.

So let’s look at a few tips for writing job applicant rejection letters that satisfy important business interests while keeping the company out of hot water.

Applicant Rejection Letters 101: An Opportunity to Build Goodwill

The first good advice about letters to rejected applicants is that you should always send them.

This might seem like common sense, but many businesses try to save money by cutting out this step — and with the tons of resumes being received during the current recession, who could blame them?

However, businesses need the good will of every customer they can get — and if you don’t send a rejection letter to applicants, you may well alienate them and their families, discouraging them from doing business with you or from applying for another position to which they may be better suited.

Imagine people switching to your competitors or disparaging your company for every rejection letter you don’t send and multiply that by the number of resumes you’re receiving in response to each of your job postings, and you can begin to see the possible negative ripple effect that could occur.

Can your business afford to save postage at the expense of so many potential lost sales?

Rejection Letters 102: Dos and Donts

The following rejection letter tips will help you build good will while keeping your company legally safe:

• Don’t promise to keep the rejected applicants’ resumes on file.
  While some experts advise doing so to build good will, disgruntled former applicants may try to make that promise a legally-binding one, especially if you misplace a resume and end up hiring a less-qualified applicant.
• Do personalize rejection letters.
  With today’s technology, mail merge is a piece of cake, so a generic “Dear Applicant” letter just won’t do. Also, you can make the letter short and direct, but try to make it gracious as well. Remember, you may not want these applicants to work for you, but you still want them to think highly of you.
• Don’t be specific about why someone else was hired, and don’t say anything about the specific person who was hired.
  While opinions on this point differ, we advise that doing so could place your company in legal jeopardy. Lawsuits may be prompted by perceptions that the reasons given were inaccurate or dishonest, and/or that the person hired was in fact less qualified.
• Do send rejection letters out quickly after you’ve made your hiring decision — but not too quickly.
  Applicants both want and need to know your decision so they can move on; on the other hand, receiving a rejection letter too soon can lead to more negative feelings — as rejected applicants may feel they were not given meaningful consideration.
• Do Get to the point Quickly.
  We all know that good news comes by the phone; bad news, by letter. However, I for one read through any correspondence from an organization to which I’ve applied just in case. Getting to the point quickly will avoid potential feelings of being led on by your letter.

No one likes to be the sender of bad news, particularly during hard times. Unfortunately, however, you probably can’t afford to hire everyone you actually like for your open positions, let alone everyone who applies. Applying a bit of common sense and legal expertise can help ease your discomfort, the rejected applicants’ stress, and leave a mostly-positive impression of your company with those people you must reject. Sometimes we can’t have a “win-win,” but we can at least create a situation where no one loses quite as much. And as a bonus, you can avoid having your business’s rejection letter appear on this site, which publishes letters that are so badly done they’re (almost) funny.

A Closing Bit of Humor: Rejection Letter Rejected!

In 1998, one potential grad student decided s/he was done accepting rejection letters. While the quality of the letters was high, s/he finally had to narrow the field down to one refusal:

April 29, 1998

Herbert A Millington
Chair – Graduate Studies Committee
Whatsa Matta University
College Hill, MA 01610

Dear Professor Millington,

Thank for your letter of April 16. After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me admission to your department.

This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field of candidates it is impossible for me to accept all refusals.

Despite W.M.U.’s outstanding qualifications and previous experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my needs at this time. Therefore, I will join the ranks of graduate students in your department this September. I look forward to seeing you then.

Best of luck in rejecting future applicants.

Sincerely,

[your name here]

And then there’s this classic sexist 1938 applicant rejection letter from Disney Studios (sex discrimination in employment was perfectly legal back then — and routine).

 

photo credit: sim sandwich via flickr

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